Stephen Lerner

Who is Stephen Lerner?

Stephen Lerner is a labor and community organizer who has spent more than three decades organizing hundreds of thousands of janitors, farm workers, garment workers, and other low-wage workers into unions, resulting in increased wages, first-time health benefits, paid sick days, and other improvements.

Lerner is a critic of Wall Street bankers and the increased financialization of the US economy. He argues that the power of investments banks and other financial entities have led to income inequality and served as the driving force behind the creation of overwhelming debt obligations seen at the state and local level.

The result, Lerner says, is a consolidation of economic and political power in the hands of a small number of banking and finance executives. Lerner advocates the use of non-violent civil disobedience as a tactic to challenge the influence of Wall Street and corporations.

Lerner is a contributor on national television and radio programs and has published articles charting a path for a 21st-century labor movement focused on growth and meeting the challenges of a global economy.