On the Line

A Story of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women's Epic Fight to Build a Union

By: Daisy Pitkin

Narrated by: Daisy Pitkin

Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

“Riveting and intimate. It is hard to imagine a more humanizing portrait of the American labor movement. A remarkable debut.”—Francisco Cantú, New York Times bestselling author of The Line Becomes a River

On the Line takes listeners inside a bold five-year campaign to bring a union to the dangerous industrial laundry factories of Phoenix, Arizona. Workers here wash hospital, hotel, and restaurant linens and face harsh conditions: routine exposure to biohazardous waste, injuries from surgical tools left in hospital sheets, and burns from overheated machinery. Broken U.S. labor law makes it nearly impossible for them to fight back.

The drive to unionize is led by two women: author Daisy Pitkin, a young labor organizer, who addresses this exhilarating narrative to Alma Gomez García, a second-shift immigrant worker, who risks her livelihood to join the struggle and convinces her fellow workers to take a stand.

Forged in the flames of a grueling legal battle and the company’s vicious anti-union crusade, including the retaliatory firing of Alma, the relationships that grow between Daisy, Alma, and the rest of the factory workers show how a union, at its best, can reach beyond the workplace and form a solidarity so powerful that it can transcend friendship and transform communities. But when political strife divides the union, and her friendship with Alma along with it, Daisy must reflect on her own position of privilege and the complicated nature of union hierarchies and top-down organizing.

Daisy Pitkin looks back to uncover the forgotten roles immigrant women have played in the U.S. labor movement and points the way forward. As we experience one of the largest labor upheavals in decades, On the Line shows how difficult it is to bring about social change, and why we can’t afford to stop trying.

©2022 Daisy Pitkin (P)2022 Algonquin Books

Critic reviews

“I started reading and couldn’t stop. In an age of unchecked corporate power, On the Line is a timely and lyrical story of resistance, a behind-the-scenes portrait of labor organizing with all its hope and heartache. Candid, clear-eyed and utterly engrossing, Pitkin’s writing couldn’t come at a better—or more necessary—time.”—Jessica Bruder, New York Times bestselling author of Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

“Part memoir and part rallying cry, this is a gripping tale of the birth of a union today . . . Poetic, stirring . . . A heartfelt and persuasive argument for organized labor now more than ever.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Captivating . . . Remarkable . . . Beautifully written . . . An intimate look at the volatile work of union organizing.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

Powerful story

At times repetitive..perhaps more obvious in audio where skimming is difficult. that said, it is a powerful tale of the reasons why unions are necessary, of how the 1% make it to the top on the backs of there workers who make $9 to the management $9 million. What is wrong with this economy! I highly recommend it to people who believe low wage earners deserve what they get.

Beautiful, life changing book

I am union worker and organizer and this is a beautiful, amazing book. What a gift!

Outstanding, passionate, honest and necessary

I just finished listening to this book. It has been a long time since I have been so moved and hopeful while still holding on to the pain and toll of the journey. This is a book for every current or future union organizer or any organizer who joins the long-haul struggle for justice and solidarity.

Daisy Pitkin tells the unvarnished personal and public truth about the struggle to organize with workers to form a union. I can't thank her enough for writing this book. It's heartbreaking, hopeful, truthful, complicated, and beautiful.