Meet Our Collective

The IOS is made up of experienced and dedicated organizers from across the labor movement. Meet some of our team and trainers below

  • Jaz (they/them) simultaneously worked as a Starbucks barista and the organizing director of Workers United in Upstate New York. They were formerly a Rhodes Scholar, Truman Scholar, and volunteer defender at Mississippi’s last abortion clinic.

  • Casey (she/her) worked as an “inside organizer” at a Starbucks store in Buffalo, NY. With victories in Buffalo, Casey then led field operations to expand the Starbucks campaign nationally. She ran communications for the campaign, heading up the union’s social media pages. She is now back to her organizing roots and continues to lead organizing drives.

  • Atulya (she/her) got a job at Chipotle and was part of the organizing committee for the first-ever unionized Chipotle store. Now she and her coworkers, alongside Teamster local 243, are bargaining for a contract at Chipotle. She is interested in how democracy can be used to find the smartest decision in any given situation by accumulating different worker perspectives.

  • Tanya Ferguson (she/her) is a Regional Organizer at the Public Service Alliance of Canada. Tanya has spent over fifteen years working for three different national unions; as an Organizing Coordinator at Workers United Canada and a Union Rep supporting nursing home workers at SEIU. Tanya has also been involved in volunteer work with Justice for Migrant Workers and is a past Judith C. Jones Fellow at Training for Change. Tanya was recently involved in the campaigns to organize workers at Wilfrid Laurier University, Casino Woodbine and GoodLife Fitness chains in Canada.

  • Adam (he/him) as been a union organizer for about 12 years and has been involved in organizing large retail chains like Zara, Guitar Center, independent bookstores, and more recently REI, and the fight to organize workers at Amazon.

  • Over the last half century, Richard (he/him) has been a tireless fighter for workers and the right to organize, first as a salt in garment factories and then as the organizing director and leader of the Rocky Mountain Joint Board. He is the former organizing director of the AFL-CIO, as well as of the UAW, founded the Organizing Institute, and was the only external organizer in Buffalo during the Starbucks campaign

  • Chris (he/him) is a 45-year union member and leader. He was most recently the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) International Union Organizing Director. Previously he was an International Representative and Political Action Director for the United Electrical Workers Union (UE), and he has held local positions in both the SEIU and UFCW.

  • Ginny (she/her) is currently the President of the Northern Virginia Labor Federation. She began her work in the labor movement as an organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in southwest Virginia. She went to law school at the University of Virginia and served as Chair of the Workers’ Compensation Commission for six years. She also worked as a labor lawyer representing immigrant workers who were victims of wage theft.