Summary of Steven Greenhouse's Beaten Down, Worked Up

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Some workers, like Jorge Porras, were not paid for the hours they worked. When they complained, their employer fired them.

#2 Laura Fox, an elementary school music teacher in Phoenix, Arizona, was having a hard time making ends meet. She took a twenty-hour-a-week job at McDonald’s.

#3 Something is fundamentally wrong in the way many American employers treat their workers. Too often, they fail to show workers basic respect, and they fail to heed workers’ most fundamental concerns.

#4 American workers have been frustrated with their stagnant wages and shuttered factories, and this was a major reason behind Trump’s victory in the 2016 election. Trump has continued to undermine labor unions and workers’ rights.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822521230

IRB Media

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Insights on Steven Greenhouse's Beaten Down, Worked Up

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Some workers, like Jorge Porras, were not paid for the hours they worked. When they complained, their employer fired them.

#2

Laura Fox, an elementary school music teacher in Phoenix, Arizona, was having a hard time making ends meet. She took a twenty-hour-a-week job at McDonald’s.

#3

Something is fundamentally wrong in the way many American employers treat their workers. Too often, they fail to show workers basic respect, and they fail to heed workers’ most fundamental concerns.

#4

American workers have been frustrated with their stagnant wages and shuttered factories, and this was a major reason behind Trump’s victory in the 2016 election. Trump has continued to undermine labor unions and workers’ rights.

#5

The lack of worker voice is also behind the many bad things that are happening to American workers. As workers’ power has waned, many corporations have adopted practices that were far less common decades ago, such as hiring unpaid interns, treating many workers as independent contractors rather than employees, and requiring employees to work excessive hours.

#6

Unions have helped reduce inequality by helping push for higher pay for typical workers, more generous Social Security benefits, higher taxes on the rich, and greater restraints on executive pay.

#7

Unions have done more to bring together Americans of different races, religions, and nationalities than any other institution. But they have been weakened by globalization, outsourcing, and the preoccupation of corporate America with profits and stock prices.

#8

The rise in automation and robots has led to a decrease in worker power, which has led to many unfortunate trends for workers: their pay has decreased, they have been invited to speak at conferences about the future of work but not one worker has ever been invited, and so on.

#9

Even as unions have declined in size and power, corporate America and its conservative allies have stepped up efforts to hasten the demise of organized labor. This has been done by pushing anti-union-fee laws, which allow workers to opt out of paying any fees to the unions that negotiate their contracts.

#10

The lack of a union has led to many companies ignoring the concerns of their employees, which has led to a decrease in leverage for workers.

#11

America’s elected leaders have increasingly turned their backs on workers’ concerns, a far cry from the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and even Richard Nixon, a Republican who signed the landmark Occupational Safety and Health Act.

#12

Unions are still important today, as they help protect workers from being underpaid. Many companies have begun to feel the pressure of unions, as they help with wages and working conditions.

#13

Even as the union movement has been hobbled, many innovative efforts have emerged to