In 1933, 80 years ago almost to the day, a bill cutting work week to 30 hours was introduced. On April 6th, the Black-Connery Bill had passed in the United States Senate by a wide margin. The bill fixed the official American work week at five days and 30 hours, with severe penalties for overtime work. The bill originally had broad support as a means of increasing employment during the recession and maintaining full employment in the future.
“We stand unflinchingly for the six-hour day and the five-day week in industry,” AFL president William Green told a labor meeting in San Francisco.
Franklin Roosevelt and Labor Secretary Frances Perkins also initially endorsed the idea, but the president buckled under opposition from the National Association of Manufacturers and dropped his support for the bill, which was then defeated in the House of Representatives.
Nonetheless, some American companies did go to a 30-hour workweek during the depression, most prominently, the Kellogg Cereal Company, which established five-day, six-hour, shifts in December, 1930. Kellogg’s and the workers split the pay loss resulting from the cut in hours; Kellogg’s initially paid his workers for seven hours a day, but upped that to the amount they had previously received for eight-hours work two years later, when he saw that hourly productivity had soared. Kellogg’s abandoned the six-hour shifts in favor of eight hours, largely because increasing benefit packages made it cheaper to hire few workers and keep them on the job longer. But the end of the six-hour shifts didn’t come until 1985, when the last six-hour workers were told that if they didn’t accept the longer work days, Kellogg’s would re-locate.
Farewell, good friend, oh six hours!
Tis sad, but true,
Now you’re gone and we’re all so blue
Get out your vitamins, give the doctor a call
Cause old eight hours has got us all
In 1910 the then US president Taft said that everyone should have three months vacation. Taft, a conservative Republican, argued that all workers needed two or three months of holiday time each year to improve health, family connections and productivity. Yet, more than a hundred years later, Americans average two weeks of paid vacation and a quarter get none at all. The United States is one of only a handful of countries with no law requiring paid vacations. In fact, 40 million Americans don’t even get paid sick leave!
There is no reason why a nation like the US where the median worker has seen almost no pay increases since the 1970s despite a doubling of worker productivity, the unions should not be demanding reduced working hours, more vacation-time without any pay cuts
Taken from here
“We stand unflinchingly for the six-hour day and the five-day week in industry,” AFL president William Green told a labor meeting in San Francisco.
Franklin Roosevelt and Labor Secretary Frances Perkins also initially endorsed the idea, but the president buckled under opposition from the National Association of Manufacturers and dropped his support for the bill, which was then defeated in the House of Representatives.
Nonetheless, some American companies did go to a 30-hour workweek during the depression, most prominently, the Kellogg Cereal Company, which established five-day, six-hour, shifts in December, 1930. Kellogg’s and the workers split the pay loss resulting from the cut in hours; Kellogg’s initially paid his workers for seven hours a day, but upped that to the amount they had previously received for eight-hours work two years later, when he saw that hourly productivity had soared. Kellogg’s abandoned the six-hour shifts in favor of eight hours, largely because increasing benefit packages made it cheaper to hire few workers and keep them on the job longer. But the end of the six-hour shifts didn’t come until 1985, when the last six-hour workers were told that if they didn’t accept the longer work days, Kellogg’s would re-locate.
Farewell, good friend, oh six hours!
Tis sad, but true,
Now you’re gone and we’re all so blue
Get out your vitamins, give the doctor a call
Cause old eight hours has got us all
In 1910 the then US president Taft said that everyone should have three months vacation. Taft, a conservative Republican, argued that all workers needed two or three months of holiday time each year to improve health, family connections and productivity. Yet, more than a hundred years later, Americans average two weeks of paid vacation and a quarter get none at all. The United States is one of only a handful of countries with no law requiring paid vacations. In fact, 40 million Americans don’t even get paid sick leave!
There is no reason why a nation like the US where the median worker has seen almost no pay increases since the 1970s despite a doubling of worker productivity, the unions should not be demanding reduced working hours, more vacation-time without any pay cuts
Taken from here
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