Labor@Wayne is hosting the annual Dave Miller Memorial Lecture on Thursday, April 2nd at St. Andrew's Hall, Wayne State University’s historic, on-campus church (918 Ludington Mall, Detroit, MI 48202). The Dave Miller Memorial Lecture coincides with Labor@Wayne’s 80th Anniversary and is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served when the event begins at 3:00PM. This year’s Dave Miller Lecturer is Steven Greenhouse. Steven Greenhouse is an award-winning writer and journalist who covered labor, union, and workplace issues for The New York Times from 1983 to 2014. His talk is titled “Labor is Under Heavy Attack.”

He is the author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker (2009), which won the Hillman Prize for Journalism and Social Justice. In 2010, Greenhouse was awarded the “Deadline Club Award” by the Society of Professional Journalists for “A World of Hurt,” a breakout series by him and N.R. Kleinfield, reporting on the failures of America’s workplace injury procedures. Greenhouse and Kleinfield were also given the New York Press Club’s Award for Outstanding Enter-prise or Investigative Reporting that same year, also for their work on "A World of Hurt."

In 2014, Greenhouse was again recognized for his work when he was given the Gerald Loeb Award for Breaking News for his work on "Bangladesh." In “Bangladesh,” Greenhouse covered a 2013 factory collapse in Bangladesh, which brought hazardous conditions in the country’s garment industry into public focus and helped put greater pressure on Western clothing brands to improve safety in overseas operations. While Greenhouse retired from The New York Times in 2014, he continues to write op-eds for the paper and on labor issues, generally. His most recent book, Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor (2019), recounts the victories and defeats in American labor history, while at the same time offering strategies for the movement’s revitalization.

Born in Dundee, Scotland, Dave Miller was a child laborer in a textile mill before becoming a leader of the textile workers union in Scotland and England and a war resister. After World War I, he immigrated to the United States and found work at the Ford Highland Park and River Rouge plants in the 1920s. His efforts to improve social conditions at Ford led him to organize the Auto Workers Union (AWU) and later the United Auto Workers. Along with Walter Reuther, Dave Miller co-founded the Amalgamated UAW Local 174, which represented auto workers on Detroit's West Side. He also saw action in UAW organizing campaigns including the Flint Sit-Down Strike and the Battle of the Overpass. Later in his career, Miller led UAW Cadillac Local 22. After retirement, Miller became head of the UAW Retired Workers Council and a founding member of the National Council of Senior Citizens. Miller's legacy lies in his commitment to improving workers' lives, both in the workplace and in retirement.