The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker [Paperback]

Why, in the world's most affluent nation, are so many corporations squeezing their employees dry? In this fresh, carefully researched book, New York Times reporter Steven Greenhouse explores the economic, political, and social trends that are transforming America's workplaces, including the decline of the social contract that created the world's largest middle class and guaranteed job security and good pensions. We meet all kinds of workers—white-collar and blue-collar, high-tech and low-tech, middle-class and low-income—as we see shocking examples of injustice, including employees who are locked in during a hurricane or fired after suffering debilitating, on-the-job injuries.

 

With pragmatic recommendations on what government, business and labor should do to alleviate the economic crunch, The Big Squeeze is a balanced, consistently revealing look at a major American crisis.

Preface to the Anchor Books Edition
Introduction

Chapter One Worked Over and Overworked
Chapter Two Workplace Hell
Chapter Three The Vise Tightens
Chapter Four Downright Dickensian
Chapter Five The Rise and Fall of the Social Contract
Chapter Six Leaner and Meaner
Chapter Seven Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Chapter Eight Wal-Mart, the Low-Wage Colossus
Chapter Nine Taking the High Road
Chapter Ten Overstressed and Overstretched
Chapter Eleven Outsourced and Out of Luck
Chapter Twelve The Lowest Rung
Chapter Thirteen The State of the Unions
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