International Workers Day
(May Day), the counterpart to our September Labor Day, was inspired by an 1886 event
here in Chicago. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor obtained a city
permit for a May rally/demonstration in the Haymarket area (now a trendy
restaurant spot). Late in the evening
someone at the rally threw dynamite. Police began to fire wildly into the
dwindling crowd. Soon seven officers and four workers were dead.
Eight
workers were quickly rounded up, including a lay minister, a printer and
others. Seven were found guilty by August. Two got life sentences (one of whom
was killed in jail); one was given 15 years. The remaining four were hanged in
November.
A couple
years after the Chicago event European countries designated May 1st
as Labor Day to honor the Haymarket Workers. For that reason, May 1st
became the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
And what
was the issue that brought the workers to the Haymarket rally? Shorter work
hours.
This was
hardly the first effort in our country to reduce the working day. The 1830s saw
an Eight-Hour Day Movement, details Mike Konczal in Freedom from the Market (The New Press, 2021). As part of that
movement, Boston Trade Unions issued the “Ten-Hour Circular.” (Presumably they
thought eight was unachievable.) This statement prompted six months of rotating
strikes and protests across Boston. It was used in Philadelphia to start a
general strike. There was a big parade after which the city passed a ten=hour
workday law. In Baltimore the city mechanics, drawing on the same statement,
won a ten-hour day. “Demands for time could unify workers facing different working
circumstances,” writes Konczal.
By 1868
Pennsylvania had “set an eight-hour workday as the default” suggestion. When it
came to enforcing this suggestion or any other work-related law was overcoming
the prevailing attitude that contracts are “a foundational form of freedom and
government should never interfere with markets,” says Konczal. The contract
need not be a written document. The worker knew the score when she or he took
the job. The freedom of contract
assumption, then and now, is a fallacy because “government and courts
intervened in important ways,” but not in the interest of workers. Laws and
court decisions were intended “to boost the power of bosses and owners while
limiting and stymieing the actions of workers.”
The
notion of an eight-hour day gained traction during the Great Depression. In
1930 W. K. Kellogg (1860-1951) changed the work schedule at his cereal company.
Production went to three shifts per day, six hours each. An employee normally
clocked 30 hours per week. Wages were increased by 12.5%. “This will give work
and paychecks to the heads of 300 more families in Battle Creek,” Kellogg said.
The
union at Kellogg proudly issued progress reports, documenting improved
efficiency, decreased unit cost and dramatic reduction in injuries. Other
well-known companies (Remember Hudson Motor Car?) joined the experiment.
However, after World War II workers and their unions wanted to participate in
the consumer boom. They pushed for more hours in order to get more pay,
including overtime. Kellogg gradually phased out the 30-hour week and
completely eliminated it by 1985, writes Benjamin Hunnicutt in Kellogg’s Six Hour Day (Temple
University Press, 1996).
Covid-19
presents an opportunity to experiment with remote work, flex time and other
work arrangements. The topic of shorter hours is also in the mix because our
Covid-19 economy has meant a shortage of competent workers in some key sectors.
Thus, some business executives see reduced hours as a tool for recruitment and
retention.
To be continued…
Droel is associated with
National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629).
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