Michael Pollan has encouraged millions to think critically about food, and helped redefine the concept of “sustainability.” He emphasizes the impact of big farm production on our bodies and on the Earth, and extols restaurants committed to using organic food. But an enormous slice of the food ecosystem is missing from the prevailing sustainability analysis — the plight of people who work in restaurants.

In Behind the Kitchen Door, Saru Jayaraman finally reveals what many of the ten million people who work in the rapidly growing US restaurant industry face daily while cooking and serving food. She reframes the meaning of sustainability to include justice for these workers. Jayaraman tells stories of her eleven years as a union organizer in New York and leader of the Restaurant Opportunities Center, and the workers and organizers she’s met and marched with along the way.

The stories are sad. Chefs hurl insults at immigrant servers and bussers (“You stupid Mexican! You don’t know how to work. You don’t know how to do your fucking job”). Managers refuse to follow through on raises even after promotions. Supervisors suppress workers’ potential: One manager told Daniel, a Latino worker, “You don’t know how to communicate with our clients. You’ll always be a runner.” Bartenders and servers are denied paid sick time off, forcing some to work until serious injury disables them.