Steven Greenhouse of The New York Times dedicates his new book, The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker, to his parents: union members who fought to help those on the bottom.

There are 140 million workers in the U.S. That’s a lot of stories to tell. Real wages have declined steadily since the 1970s. Union membership has suffered and the triumph of free trade and globalization has made it difficult to fight back. But not impossible. In Houston, one of the most anti-union states, janitors and the SEIU successfully organized for a wage increase of 60%, full time work, and health insurance.

In this interview Greenhouse, one of the few reporters who still covers workplace issues for the mainstream press and whose new book, The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker, was a recent Progressive Book Club selection discusses why American style capitalism is out of control and what can be done to create a fair and equitable system for workers.


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