On September 9, 2019, the Economic Policy Institute welcomed longtime New York Times journalist Steven Greenhouse for a talk and discussion about his new book, Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor.

Greenhouse chronicles the rise of unions in the United States, including all the progress they have managed to secure for workers over American history. He also examines how the decline of unions and worker power more broadly fueled wage stagnation, increased income inequality, and skewed our system so that corporate America has gained far too much sway over our politics and policymaking.

The author explores models for rebuilding worker power, including the #RedforEd teachers strikes, the Fight for $15, and bargaining for the common good.

“In no other industrial nation do employers fight so hard to defeat, indeed quash, labor unions,” Greenhouse writes. He argues that we need a strong workers’ movement “to serve as a countervailing force to corporate power.”

Heidi Shierholz, EPI’s director of policy, introduced Greenhouse and moderated the discussion that followed, which included time for questions from the audience.

What: Book talk on Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor

Who: Steven Greenhouse, former reporter with The New York Times
Heidi Shierholz, director of policy, Economic Policy Institute

When: Monday, September 9
12:30 p.m.–2 p.m. Eastern

Where: Economic Policy Institute
1225 Eye St. NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20005