Life for the Yates family was a difficult one, as it was for most working people. Yates' father worked in a large glass factory several miles away. The first Yates home did not have hot running water or an indoor toilet, and was owned by the mining company. When Michael was one year old, his parents moved the family to an old house on the farm of a family friend. There was now hot water but still no indoor plumbing. A few years later, the family moved again, to a newly built house closer to the glass factory. Nearly every relative, neighbor and friend Yates knew, from the mining village to the factory town, was in the working class. He describes in this way in his book, "Can the Working Class Change the World?"