Jaz Brisack

Jaz Brisack
Jaz Brisack
Born	August 11, 1997 (age 26)
Education	University of Mississippi (BA); Wadham College, Oxford (MS)
Honors thesis	The Wise Women of Oxford (May 2019)
Employer(s)	Starbucks ; Service Employees International Union
Known for	Workers' rights activism; Unionizing Starbucks Buffalo, New York

Last updated March 10, 2024

Jaz Brisack^[1] (born 1997 or 1998) is an American barista. They're also known for leading unionizing efforts at Starbucks, namely at a Buffalo, New York store.

Early life and education

Brisack was born in Texas in 1997.^[2] They were homeschooled in Alcoa, Tennessee, where they grew up.^[3] Their family were conservative Democrats, and they became interested in activism early in their life.^[4] At 16, they worked as a dishwasher at Panera Bread where they became familiar with their coworkers’ struggles as low-paid frontline employees in harsh working conditions.^[5]^[6] They first developed an interest in labor unions there.^[4]

They attended the University of Mississippi until 2019, majoring in Public Policy, Journalism, and English.^[1]^[6] Here they received a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, and were the first non-male at the university to be awarded with a Rhodes Scholarship.^[3]^[7] They were also a student of the university's honors program, the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College.^[8] Brisack finished their typically two-year scholarship at the Wadham College, Oxford in one year with a Master of Science in intellectual history.^[3] They were previously an op-ed writer for The Daily Mississippian , a student newspaper.^[9]

Career and activism

2016 to 2019

Brisack started their career in 2016 working as a teacher-advisor for the Sunflower Freedom Project,^[10] and in 2017 working part-time in a campaign with United Auto Workers ^[10] to unionize a Nissan factory in Canton, Mississippi.^[3]^[5] Nissan was criticized for one of the "nastiest" union busting efforts in history. The union push was unsuccessful.^[3]^[11] They also worked to help defend Jackson Women's Health Organization.^[10] They say their work is inspired by Eugene V. Debs and Mary Harris Jones.^[3]^[4]

In 2018, one of Brisack's papers, Organizing Unions as Social Policy, was published in the Global Encyclopedia of Public Policy and Public Administration.^[12]^[8] They also won an award at the Southern Literary Festival in Mississippi.^[13] In 2019, Brisack relocated to Buffalo, New York, following Richard Bensinger, whom they had worked with on Nissan unionizing, to start a union organizing campaign at SPoT Coffee.^[3]^[14] The campaign at SPoT was ultimately successful.^[15]

Starbucks (2020–22)

In 2020, Brisack joined the Elmwood Avenue Starbucks as a barista. Eight months into working there, in July 2021, Starbucks faced a labor shortage amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Brisack recalled thinking it was "now or never," and launched a then-secret campaign with Bensinger and Workers United to unionize Starbucks.^[16]^[3] Workers United paid Brisack $68,884 in 2021 and $67,485 in 2022, which they earned in addition to their Starbuck's income.^[17]

In late August 2021, Brisack and 48 other baristas in the Buffalo area wrote a letter to Kevin Johnson, Starbucks chief executive officer, informing the company of their intent to form a union.^[3] The Elmwood store counted its votes on December 9, 2021^[18] and on December 17, 2021, the National Labor Relations Board certified its union,^[19] making it the first unionised Starbucks branch in the USA.^[20] Three weeks later, Brisack and the other Elmwood baristas organized a strike after a bargaining meeting regarding protections for workers from the COVID-19 Omicron variant had been unsuccessful. Cassie Fleischer, another organizer and union member at the Elmwood store, told The Washington Post that all of the union's requests were denied, including that the company pay "out-of-pocket costs on coronavirus tests".^[3]

When asked by their coworkers if they had joined the store with purpose of starting a union, Brisack clarified that there wasn't a "grand scheme", and that they would try to start a union anywhere they worked.^[3] Brisack was also employed by Service Employees International Union at the time.^[5]

Brisack told the press, "We’ve said from Day One that all we had to do was win one store," and said they recognized that to organize a "great" contract with Starbucks, they would need to unionize additional Starbucks stores around the country, and started a grassroots organizing campaign using social media.^[3] The campaign garnered the support of the Democratic Socialists of America,^[21] Senator Bernie Sanders, House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,^[3] and a member of Seattle, Washington's city council, where Starbucks is headquartered, Kshama Sawant.^[22] As of January 14, 2022, 15 stores had filed for union elections;^[23] by May 11, 2022, that number reached at least 170;^[2] and by March 2023 over 250 Starbucks cafes had unionised.^[20]

Brisack has accused Starbucks of union busting, and pointed to its firing of seven unionizing workers in Memphis, Tennessee as proof, saying "They can’t do this and be the company they say they are."^[3] On 1 March 2023, Starbucks was found to have violated labour-laws on hundreds of counts by an administrative judge at the National Labour Relations Board.^[20] The company was at the time expected to appeal that decision^[20] and has denied the allegations that it is union busting,^[24] and claims that the firings were for violations of its security rules.^[3] Starbucks has said "Claims of union busting are categorically false. We want our partners to be informed and make the best decisions for themselves".^[5]

Tesla (2022–)

Brisack left Starbucks in September 2022, claiming to have been forced out. They then assisted an organizing committee of workers at a Tesla factory in Buffalo where, as of March 2023, they were also reported to be organising workers.^[20]

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References

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1 2 Vesoulis, Abby (May 11, 2022). "Barista Jaz Brisack Took on Starbucks—and Won". Time . Retrieved May 28, 2022.
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1 2 3 Alsup, Blake (November 28, 2018). "Student activist named first UM female Rhodes Scholar". The Daily Mississippian . Retrieved May 28, 2022.
1 2 3 4 Gibson, Kate (April 9, 2022). "Meet the barista and Rhodes Scholar helping lead the fight to unionize Starbucks". CBS News . Retrieved April 20, 2022.
1 2 Mullan, Dillon (November 30, 2018). "Mississippi Rhodes Scholar Jaz Brisack shares passion for labor organizing in the South". Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal . Retrieved May 28, 2022.
↑ "Ole Miss student wins top scholarship for public policy work". WREG-TV . The Associated Press. April 16, 2018. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
1 2 Smith, Edwin B. (April 13, 2018). "Jaz Brisack Named UM's 15th Truman Scholar". Ole Miss News. University of Mississippi . Retrieved May 28, 2022.
↑ Morgan, Thomas (October 7, 2019). "The Supreme Court has a duty to protect local queer rights". The Daily Mississippian . Retrieved May 28, 2022. Jaz Brisack, a former op-ed writer for the DM...
1 2 3 "Brisack Makes History as UM's First Female Rhodes Scholar". Ole Miss News. November 20, 2018. Archived from the original on February 15, 2022. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
↑ Elk, Mike (August 1, 2017). "Nissan attacked for one of 'nastiest anti-union campaigns' in modern US history". The Guardian . Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
↑ Global Encyclopedia of Public Policy and Public Administration. Ali Farazmand. New York: Springer. 2018. ISBN 978-3-319-20929-6. OCLC 1048675068. Archived from the original on February 24, 2022. Retrieved February 15, 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
↑ Smith, Edwin B. (April 13, 2018). "Jaz Brisack Named UM's 15th Truman Scholar". Ole Miss News. Archived from the original on February 15, 2022. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
↑ Zremski, Jerry (September 2, 2019). "AFL-CIO chief sees Spot Coffee unionization as part of a trend". The Buffalo News . Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
↑ Durbin, Dee-Ann; Thompson, Carolyn (November 9, 2019). "Rare Starbucks union vote set to begin in Buffalo". The Associated Press . Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
↑ Jamieson, Dave (December 7, 2021). "Starbucks Workers Hope To Form The Chain's First U.S. Union In Buffalo". HuffPost . Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
↑ Labor Union News (April 25, 2023). "Analysis: Workers United paid nearly $2.5 million to organizers, "salts" and activists at Starbucks". LaborUnionNews.com. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
↑ Selyukh, Alina (December 9, 2021). "Starbucks workers form their 1st union in the U.S. in a big win for labor". NPR . Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
↑ Thompson, Carolyn (December 17, 2021). "Labor board certifies first union at a US Starbucks store". ABC News . Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
1 2 3 4 5 'Weekend profile: Jaz Brisack, the 25-year-old taking on Starbucks', The Economist (4 March 2023).
↑ Chun, Max (February 12, 2022). "Union City: With two Santa Cruz Starbucks locations moving to unionize and more on the way, why are we an epicenter of organizing?". Lookout Local Santa Cruz. Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
↑ Taylor, Sarah Grace (February 8, 2022). "Seattle City Council spars over, passes Starbucks union resolution". The Seattle Times . Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
↑ Scheiber, Noam (January 14, 2022). "Taking On Starbucks, Inspired by Bernie Sanders". The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 14, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
↑ Zomorodi, Manoush (February 4, 2022). "TED Radio hour: Jess Kutch: Can unions address the changing needs of workers today?". NPR . Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.