Nonfiction
Book
Availability
Details
PUBLISHED
©2026
EDITION
DESCRIPTION
viii, 286 pages ; 25 cm
ISBN/ISSN
LANGUAGE
NOTES
Prologue : jobs -- Early days -- Enemies of the state -- A personal introduction to labor -- The art of competition -- The sound of bullets -- The art of promotion -- Weaponized incompetence -- Dark times in Connecticut -- Back home to what? -- Covid -- Walkout -- A movement begins -- The congress of essential workers -- Trouble in Bessemer -- Union busting -- Victory -- No one to trust -- When the revolution comes
"In the early days of the Covid pandemic, warehouse worker Chris Smalls and his colleagues continued showing up as the rest of the world was shutting down. A dedicated and experienced Amazon employee, increasingly frustrated by the inner workings of the retail giant, Smalls had already felt himself reaching a breaking point. So, when coworkers around him began falling ill, and with no transparency or assurances of safety coming from those in charge, he made the only choice left available to him. He staged a walkout with friend Derrick Palmer, eventually finding himself on the picket line without a job. But what began as a demand to keep essential employees safe in a crisis would grow into a movement devoted to achieving dignity and security for the American wage worker, sparking a groundswell of organizers at the most notable companies across the nation-including Starbucks, Trader Joe's, and Apple-and leading to lasting change for labor... This epic David-and-Goliath tale traces Smalls' dramatic story, from a childhood spent navigating his dad's stints in and out of prison to his early pursuits of a career in music; from his years of sacrifice and economic uncertainty as a father of three, fighting a miasma of warehouse managerial politics in an effort to make ends meet, to his ascension as the leader of a new generation's labor movement."--