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Beaten down, worked up : the past, present, and future of American labor / Steven Greenhouse

Author
Greenhouse, Steven
Published
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2019.
Copyright Date
©2019
Edition
First edition.
Physical Description
xv, 397 pages ; 25 cm

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Contents
Introduction -- State of the Union -- Labor raises its voice -- Hard times for labor -- Labor, today and tomorrow. and Introduction -- Part One. State of the Union: Losing Our Voice - A Worker's Struggle Never Ends - Helping Workers Hit the Jackpot - Part Two. Labor Raises its Voice: The Uprising of the Twenty Thousand - Out of These Ashes - Standing Up by Sitting Down - Walter Reuther, Builder of the Middle Class - I AM a Man - Part Three. Hard Times for Labor: Mighty Labor Strikes Out - Labor's Slide Picks Up Speed - Corporations Turn up the Heat - Labor's Self-Inflicted Wounds - The Assault on Public-Sector Unions - Big Labor Gets Less Big in Politics - Part Four. Labor, Today and Tomorrow: The Sharing-The Scraps-Economy - The Fight for $15 - For Farmworkers, from Worst to Best - How Los Angeles Became Pro-Labor - Best Foot Forward - Teachers Catch #RedforEd Fever - How Workers Can Regain Their Power
Summary
From the longtime New York Times labor correspondent comes an in-depth look at working men and women in America, the challenges they face, and how they can be re-empowered.
Wage stagnation, low-wage work, and blighted blue-collar communities have become an all-too-common part of modern-day America. Behind these trends is a little-discussed problem: the decades-long decline in worker power. Greenhouse rebuts the often-stated view that labor unions are outmoded or harmful, by recounting some of labor's victories, and the efforts of several of today's most innovative and successful worker groups. He also proposes concrete, feasible ways in which workers' collective power can be rekindled and reimagined in the twenty-first century. -- adapted from jacket and Amazon.com info
"In an era when corporate profits have soared while wages have flatlined, millions of Americans are searching for ways to improve their lives, and they’re often turning to labor unions and worker action, whether #RedforEd teachers’ strikes or the Fight for $15. Wage stagnation, low-wage work, and blighted blue-collar communities have become an all-too-common part of modern-day America, and behind these trends is a little-discussed problem: the decades-long decline in worker power. Steven Greenhouse sees this decline reflected in some of the most pressing problems facing our nation today, including income inequality, declining social mobility, the gender pay gap, and the concentration of political power in the hands of the wealthy. He rebuts the often-stated view that labor unions are outmoded–or even harmful–by recounting some of labor’s victories, and the efforts of several of today’s most innovative and successful worker groups. He shows us the modern labor landscape through the stories of dozens of American workers, from G.M. workers to Uber drivers, and we see how unions historically have empowered–and lifted–the most marginalized, including young women garment workers in New York in 1909, black sanitation workers in Memphis in 1968, and hotel housekeepers today. Greenhouse proposes concrete, feasible ways in which workers’ collective power can be–and is being–rekindled and reimagined in the twenty-first century." -- Publisher's website
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Genre(s)
ISBN
9781101874431 hardcover
1101874430 hardcover
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages [341]-380) and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 27694480