Steve greenhouse, thank you so much for coming in to talk about your new book, beaten down, worked up. It was a real pleasure to read it and i look forward to having time to talk to you about it. Guest thank you for your kind words, congressman. Great to speak with you. Host when i think about this book i think of it as having three major parts. After you introduce the situation now you do a really good job, i think, of talking about, through stories about how workers struggled, really they themselves built the middle class in this country to a great extent by organizing, by striking, by bargaining and through diversity and by demanding policy changes and then you go through a lot of the hard times of what i call the reagan era which i think we are still in where companies and starting with the president of the United States really have attacked workers all hot and their unions and then you tell hopeful stories about different creative and innovative ways that workers have been organiz
Where companies, starting with the president of the United States really attacked workers and their unions. And then you tell hopeful stories about different creative and innovative ways that workers have been organizing in unions and other forms. And make policy recommendations. One of the things i have to say, a lot of books like this are criticized because they come up short on the policy recommendations but i hope we get into that because you really made quite a few, i thought, interesting suggestions on what might be done to restore the voice and power of workers in this country. Why dont you start by laying out where you see things right now . What is the status ofworking people in this country and their ability to shape their own lives at work . Sure. I covered it at the New York Times for 18 years. One of my concerns and interviewing people all over our nation is so many people have no idea what unions are and what unions do and how they help bring us the 40 hour work week and
Beaten, worked up. Guest thanks for the kind words, congressman. Great to speak with you. Host when i think about this book, i think about it as having three major parts after you sort of introduced the situation now, you do a really good job of talking about three stories about how workers struggle and built the middle class by organizing and bargaining through a lot of adversity and demanding policy changes. And then you go through a lot of thhard times is what i call the reagan era that we are still in where companies and starting with the president of the United States who attacked workers a lot in their unions and then you telling the hopeful stories about different creative and innovative ways and make some policy recommendations. A lot of books like this are criticized because they come up short on the policy recommendations i hope we get into that because you paid quite a few interesting suggestions on what might be done to restore the voice of power and workers in this country
So would i think about this book i see it is really having three major parts. After started you introduce the situation now, you do a really good job icing i think of talking about your stories about how workers struggle, really they themselves let the middle class from this country to a great extent by organizing and by striking and bargaining, for a lot of adversity in my demanding policy changes. And then you go through a lot of the hard times what i call the reagan era which i think we are still in. Where companies and starting with the president of the United States, really attacked or theres a lot in their unions. And then you tell a lot of hopeful stories about different creative and innovative ways that workers have been organizing in unions and other forms. And make some policy recommendations. One of the things i had to say is a lot of folks like this are criticized because they come up short on the policy recommendations but i hope we really get into that because you really
Time to talk to about it. Thank you for the kind words it is great to speak with you. When i think of this book i see three major parts per go after you introduce the situation now, you do a really good job of talking about through stories how workers struggle and how they themselves have built the middle class to a great extent by organizin organizing, striking, bargaininh adversity and to demand policy changes. And then you go through the hard times of what i call the reagan era that i think were still in that companies starting with the president of the United States attacked workers a lot and they are unions and to tell a lot of hopeful stories about the creative and innovative ways workers have been organizing and make policy recommendations. A lot of books like this are criticized because they come up short on the policy recommendations because you have made a quite a few interesting suggestions of what could be done to restore the most powerful workers in this country. So lay ou