Bernie Sanders: It's Time For A Four Day Work Week

[TTL News 308]

Quote

 

It’s time for a change — real change. As more Americans are giving up on government and democracy, the time is long overdue for Congress to stand up for the hard-pressed working families of our country. And an important step in that direction would be implementing a 32-hour work week with no loss in pay.

As far back as 1866, one of the central planks of the trade union movement in America was to establish an eight-hour workday with a simple and straightforward demand: “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest and eight hours for what you will.”

Americans of that era were sick and tired of working 12-hour days for six or seven days a week with very little time for rest, relaxation or quality time with their families. They went out on strike, they organized, they petitioned the government and business leaders, and they achieved real results after decades of struggle.

Finally, in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation into law to establish an eight-hour workday for railroad workers. Ten years later, the Ford Motor Company became one of the first major employers in America to establish a five-day work week for autoworkers.

By 1933, the US Senate had overwhelmingly passed legislation to establish a 30-hour work week. And, just a few years later, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into law and the standard 40-hour work week was created. That is the good news.

The bad news is that despite massive growth in technology and skyrocketing worker productivity, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages. In fact, nearly 40% of employees in the United States are working at least 50 hours a week, and 18% are working at least 60 hours.

 

Read the rest here.

What do you think?

[MsKreed 1,186]

Sounds fine for the Upper and Middle Classes that follow a “standard” 5-day, 40hr schedule.

But workers with the luxury of working under that model are minority. Most are in the Proletariat Class, service and labor jobs that are part-time, irregular shifts and/or commonly have OT. 

Seems like Bernie is being pretty Bourgeoisie by throwing all those ‘deplorables’ under a bus.

[Chris 2,180]

I feel like I should keep my mouth shut, considering my own work schedule. 😉

[Ann 264]

Your schedule is based on the needs of those you provide services for.  Not all businesses can accommodate this kind of work hours.  I guess if you’ve been a professional politician all your adult life you don’t understand what running a business is like.