Steve Early has been active as a labor journalist, lawyer, organizer, or union representative since 1972. For 27 years, Early was a Boston-based staff member of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), where he assisted in organizing, bargaining, and striking at Verizon, AT&T, and other firms in the northeast.

His writing on politics, labor issues, municipal reform efforts, and veterans affairs has been published by American Prospect, Washington Monthly, The Progressive, Jacobin, CounterPunch, Convergence, and The Nation. He most recently authored Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of An American City (Beacon Press, 2018) and Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs (Duke University Press, 2022).