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Jaz Brisack

Union Organizer, Known for Leading Unionizing Efforts at Starbucks

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Jaz Brisack Biography

Jazlyn Brisack is an American labor organizer known for leading unionizing efforts at Starbucks, namely at a Buffalo, New York store.

Brisack was homeschooled in Alcoa, Tennessee, where she grew up. Her family were conservative Democrats, and she became interested in activism early in her life. At 16, she worked as a dishwasher at Panera Bread where she became familiar with her coworkers’ struggles as low-paid frontline employees in harsh working conditions. She first developed an interest in labor unions there.

She attended the University of Mississippi until 2019, majoring in Public Policy, Journalism, and English. Here she received a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, and was the first woman at the university to be awarded with a Rhodes Scholarship. She was also a student of the university's honors program, the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Brisack finished her typically two-year scholarship at the University of Oxford in one year. She was previously an op-ed writer for The Daily Mississippian, a student newspaper.

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

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

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] 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. The Elmwood store counted its votes on December 9, 2021. On December 17, 2021, the National Labor Relations Board certified its union. 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".

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

Brisack told the press, "We’ve said from Day One that all we had to do was win one store," and said she 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. The campaign garnered the support of the Democratic Socialists of America, Senator Bernie Sanders, House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and a member of Seattle, Washington's city council, where Starbucks is headquartered, Kshama Sawant. As of January 14, 2022, 15 stores had filed for union elections, and by May 11, 2022, that number reached at least 170.

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FAQs
  • How do I book Jaz Brisack to speak at my event?

    Our experienced booking agents have successfully helped clients around the world secure speakers like Jaz Brisack for speaking engagements, personal appearances, product endorsements, or corporate entertainment since 2002. Click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page to check availability for Jaz Brisack, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to discuss your upcoming event. One of our experienced agents will be happy to help you get speaking fee information and check availability for Jaz Brisack or any other speaker of your choice.
  • What are the speaker fees for Jaz Brisack

    Speaking fees for Jaz Brisack, or any other speakers and celebrities, are determined based on a number of factors and may change without notice. The estimated fees to book Jaz Brisack are available upon request for live events and available upon request for virtual events. For the most current speaking fee to hire Jaz Brisack, click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to speak directly with an experienced booking agent.
  • What topics does Jaz Brisack speak about?

    Jaz Brisack is a keynote speaker and industry expert whose speaking topics include Business, Human Resources.
  • Where does Jaz Brisack travel from?

    Jaz Brisack generally travels from Buffalo, NY, USA, but can be booked for private corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. For more details, please contact an AAE Booking agent.
  • Who is Jaz Brisack’s agent?

    AAE Speakers Bureau has successfully booked keynote speakers like Jaz Brisack for clients worldwide since 2002. As a full-service speaker booking agency, we have access to virtually any speaker or celebrity in the world. Our agents are happy and able to submit an offer to the speaker or celebrity of your choice, letting you benefit from our reputation and long-standing relationships in the industry. Please click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page including the details of your event, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536, and one of our agents will assist you to book Jaz Brisack for your next private or corporate function.
  • What is a full-service speaker booking agency?

    AAE Speakers Bureau is a full-service speaker booking agency, meaning we can completely manage the speaker’s or celebrity’s engagement with your organization from the time of booking your speaker through the event’s completion. We provide all of the services you need to host Jaz Brisack or any other speaker of your choice, including offer negotiation, contractual assistance, accounting and billing, and event speaker travel and logistics services. When you book a speaker with us, we manage the process of hosting a speaker for you as an extension of your team. Our goal is to give our clients peace of mind and a best-in-class service experience when booking a speaker with us.
  • Why is AAE Speakers Bureau different from other booking agencies?

    If you’re looking for the best, unbiased speaker recommendations, paired with a top-notch customer service experience, you’re in the right place. At AAE Speakers Bureau, we exclusively represent the interests of our clients - professional organizations, companies, universities, and associations. We intentionally do not represent the speakers we feature or book. That is so we can present our clients with the broadest and best performing set of speaker options in the market today, and we can make these recommendations without any obligation to promote a specific speaker over another. This is why when our agents suggest a speaker for your event, you can be assured that they are of the highest quality with a history of proven success with our other clients.
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This website is a resource for event professionals and strives to provide the most comprehensive catalog of thought leaders and industry experts to consider for speaking engagements. A listing or profile on this website does not imply an agency affiliation or endorsement by the talent.

All American Entertainment (AAE) exclusively represents the interests of talent buyers, and does not claim to be the agency or management for any speaker or artist on this site. AAE is a talent booking agency for paid events only. We do not handle requests for donation of time or media requests for interviews, and cannot provide celebrity contact information.

If you are the talent and wish to request a profile update or removal from our online directory, please submit a profile request form.

Union Organizer, Known for Leading Unionizing Efforts at Starbucks

Travels From:
Buffalo, NY, USA
Speaking Fee:
Categories:

Jaz Brisack Biography

Jazlyn Brisack is an American labor organizer known for leading unionizing efforts at Starbucks, namely at a Buffalo, New York store.

Brisack was homeschooled in Alcoa, Tennessee, where she grew up. Her family were conservative Democrats, and she became interested in activism early in her life. At 16, she worked as a dishwasher at Panera Bread where she became familiar with her coworkers’ struggles as low-paid frontline employees in harsh working conditions. She first developed an interest in labor unions there.

She attended the University of Mississippi until 2019, majoring in Public Policy, Journalism, and English. Here she received a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, and was the first woman at the university to be awarded with a Rhodes Scholarship. She was also a student of the university's honors program, the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Brisack finished her typically two-year scholarship at the University of Oxford in one year. She was previously an op-ed writer for The Daily Mississippian, a student newspaper.

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

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

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] 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. The Elmwood store counted its votes on December 9, 2021. On December 17, 2021, the National Labor Relations Board certified its union. 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".

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

Brisack told the press, "We’ve said from Day One that all we had to do was win one store," and said she 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. The campaign garnered the support of the Democratic Socialists of America, Senator Bernie Sanders, House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and a member of Seattle, Washington's city council, where Starbucks is headquartered, Kshama Sawant. As of January 14, 2022, 15 stores had filed for union elections, and by May 11, 2022, that number reached at least 170.

Jaz Brisack Videos

  • Barista Jaz Brisack Took on Starbucks—and Ignited a Labor
  • 200 Starbucks & Counting: Barista Jaz Brisack Says Union Busting
  • Gen U: Generation Union (feat. Jaz Brisack & Casey Moore)

FAQs on booking Jaz Brisack

  • How do I book Jaz Brisack to speak at my event?

    Our experienced booking agents have successfully helped clients around the world secure speakers like Jaz Brisack for speaking engagements, personal appearances, product endorsements, or corporate entertainment since 2002. Click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page to check availability for Jaz Brisack, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to discuss your upcoming event. One of our experienced agents will be happy to help you get speaking fee information and check availability for Jaz Brisack or any other speaker of your choice.
  • What are the speaker fees for Jaz Brisack

    Speaking fees for Jaz Brisack, or any other speakers and celebrities, are determined based on a number of factors and may change without notice. The estimated fees to book Jaz Brisack are available upon request for live events and available upon request for virtual events. For the most current speaking fee to hire Jaz Brisack, click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to speak directly with an experienced booking agent.
  • What topics does Jaz Brisack speak about?

    Jaz Brisack is a keynote speaker and industry expert whose speaking topics include Business, Human Resources.
  • Where does Jaz Brisack travel from?

    Jaz Brisack generally travels from Buffalo, NY, USA, but can be booked for private corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. For more details, please contact an AAE Booking agent.
  • Who is Jaz Brisack’s agent?

    AAE Speakers Bureau has successfully booked keynote speakers like Jaz Brisack for clients worldwide since 2002. As a full-service speaker booking agency, we have access to virtually any speaker or celebrity in the world. Our agents are happy and able to submit an offer to the speaker or celebrity of your choice, letting you benefit from our reputation and long-standing relationships in the industry. Please click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page including the details of your event, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536, and one of our agents will assist you to book Jaz Brisack for your next private or corporate function.
  • What is a full-service speaker booking agency?

    AAE Speakers Bureau is a full-service speaker booking agency, meaning we can completely manage the speaker’s or celebrity’s engagement with your organization from the time of booking your speaker through the event’s completion. We provide all of the services you need to host Jaz Brisack or any other speaker of your choice, including offer negotiation, contractual assistance, accounting and billing, and event speaker travel and logistics services. When you book a speaker with us, we manage the process of hosting a speaker for you as an extension of your team. Our goal is to give our clients peace of mind and a best-in-class service experience when booking a speaker with us.
  • Why is AAE Speakers Bureau different from other booking agencies?

    If you’re looking for the best, unbiased speaker recommendations, paired with a top-notch customer service experience, you’re in the right place. At AAE Speakers Bureau, we exclusively represent the interests of our clients - professional organizations, companies, universities, and associations. We intentionally do not represent the speakers we feature or book. That is so we can present our clients with the broadest and best performing set of speaker options in the market today, and we can make these recommendations without any obligation to promote a specific speaker over another. This is why when our agents suggest a speaker for your event, you can be assured that they are of the highest quality with a history of proven success with our other clients.

Jaz Brisack is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics . The estimated speaking fee range to book Jaz Brisack for your event is available upon request. Jaz Brisack generally travels from Buffalo, NY, USA and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Dr. Kimberly Harden, Katrina Jones, Kris Boesch, Jess Kutch and Kaleem Clarkson. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Jaz Brisack for an upcoming live or virtual event.

Jaz Brisack Speaker Videos

  • Barista Jaz Brisack Took on Starbucks—and Ignited a Labor
    200 Starbucks & Counting: Barista Jaz Brisack Says Union Busting
  • Gen U: Generation Union (feat. Jaz Brisack & Casey Moore)

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Speakers Similar to Jaz Brisack

This website is a resource for event professionals and strives to provide the most comprehensive catalog of thought leaders and industry experts to consider for speaking engagements. A listing or profile on this website does not imply an agency affiliation or endorsement by the talent.

All American Entertainment (AAE) exclusively represents the interests of talent buyers, and does not claim to be the agency or management for any speaker or artist on this site. AAE is a talent booking agency for paid events only. We do not handle requests for donation of time or media requests for interviews, and cannot provide celebrity contact information.

If you are the talent and wish to request a profile update or removal from our online directory, please submit a profile request form.

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