Team Building

Ben Gwin, author of Clean Time, takes readers inside the 2019 campaign he helped lead to organize the contract workers at Google's Pittsburgh offices. Because he was part of that effort from the inside, the book follows the workers' push for stronger benefits and schedules that could bend around their lives.

The book also examines the state of labor organizing in America today, including the forces that work to set workers against one another so that existing arrangements hold. Running alongside this is a personal thread. While Gwin is busy with the union, his teenage daughter's mother dies of a drug overdose, and he suddenly has to raise her alone. Balancing the bargaining table with single parenthood, he paints a close portrait of ordinary life in America, where getting through each day can feel like a steep climb.

The book is carefully organized and shows how the conditions people face at work carry over into their homes and private lives. Its outlook is honest but hopeful, centered on the value of building solid foundations with the people who matter most.