Get Together: The Big Squeeze

SQUEEZED

by the Economy?

Feeling Alone? It's Time to Get Together!

The state of the economy and the impact on the American worker are at the forefront of most people's minds. Almost everyone is experiencing this personally or, at the very least, knows someone who is feeling the economic squeeze. UUSC's inaugural Get Together on March 28 connected 34 communities — gathered in church basements and living rooms in 23 states — to talk about economic justice and the plight of the American worker. 

With the belief that workers' rights are human rights, UUSC is committed to defending and supporting workers' right to organize, especially for marginalized laborers who are most often exploited. As part of UUSC's economic-justice work, we asked Steven Greenhouse, the business and economics reporter for the New York Times and author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker, to talk about the most vulnerable of American workers and how we are all affected by the "big squeeze."

Why, in the world's most affluent nation, are so many corporations squeezing their employees dry? While there is much inequality among workers in the United States, The Big Squeeze demonstrates that the vast majority of American workers are equally susceptible to the deterioration of the social contract. In what ways can different segments of the workforce join together to alleviate this squeeze on the American worker? The Big Squeeze examines the effects of this economic crush from a historical as well as individual perspective, and Greenhouse offers us an alternative vision for the American worker. 

“Steven Greenhouse’s brilliant and vividly reported exposé shows how employers have been squeezing the life out of American workers, through means both legal and illegal.”
– Barbara Ehrenreich

Order the book now!

UUSC is a Powell's Partner which means if you order through them, we receive 7.5% of the sale.

A free PDF discussion guide from Interfaith Worker Justice is also available.