easy_payments t1_je180b8 wrote
Reply to comment by OopsNotAgain in Hundreds of thousands to continue strikes and protests in France | France by bnh1978
People died to get an 8 hour work day and weekends. We used to have unions everywhere to protect and fight for those rights. Those are heroes that defended our freedoms that nobody talks about any more. Meanwhile, we're rolling back child labor laws. imo we should be rioting too, regardless of what the merchant class has to say about it. That being said I'm pessimistic about that.
ArbitraryMeritocracy t1_je1hvx3 wrote
Man, I love talking about history. A town that I'm close by, there's signs everywhere that tell the story of how this was a boomtown during the Industrial Revolution. Due to the location on the river, it became a major producer of lumber from the sawmills. It gets even crazier, when they were fighting for worker rights, most of the politicians were sawmill owners.
> They faced many hazards like injury and death without compensation, as there were no workmen’s compensation or death benefits available.
> Several months previously the men who controlled the lumber trade had formed the Lumbermen’s Exchange, a cartel set up to control and monopolize lumber affairs with one voice. The Lumbermen’s Exchange answered this threat to their power by refusing to negotiate with the workmen but instead, started retaliating against them.
They eventually got a 10 hour day.
We owe so much for the few labor rights we do have today, that Republicans are constantly trying to repeal.
easy_payments t1_je25g5u wrote
Love talking history too! Thanks for the historical tidbit. Democrats aren't exactly pro labor either. All of that got tossed out when the country needed to ideologically 'unify' for the World War efforts.
ArbitraryMeritocracy t1_je2715w wrote
> Democrats aren't exactly pro labor either.
I did further reading and I learned that my state is really against unions.
Here's some other stuff:
>In early 1866 William Harding, who was then president of the Coachmakers' International Union, met with William H. Sylvis, president of the Ironmoulders' International Union and Jonathan Fincher, head of the Machinists and Blacksmiths Union. At that meeting they called for a formal meeting to be held August 20-24, 1866, in Baltimore, Maryland. On the first day of that meeting the National Labor Union was born. Also, on that first day various committees were created to study different issues—one of which was focused on the 8-hour system.
>On the third day the committee on "eight-hours in all its respects" met and made their recommendation. In the Union’s final list of resolutions made on August 20 of 1866, was their resolution calling for an 8-hour work day, the first such national call. While this call went unheeded at the time, and the organization folded in 1873, this was only the beginning of the campaign for an 8-hour work day.
>Over the ensuing decades, this idea would wend its way through the country and by 1912 it made its way into the progressive campaign of Theodore Roosevelt. The slogan for the movement became "Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest and eight hours for what you will." In 1916 William C. Adamson introduced the Adamson Act. While this act was specifically aimed at railroad workers, it gave the 8-hour campaign a real boost when it was passed in September 1916. Railroads immediately protested, but in 1917 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law in Wilson v. New (243 U.S. 332).
>The increasing power of unions along with state governments legislating working hour limits and the federal government’s expansion of the use and enforcement of the 8-hour work day, meant that the 8-hour work day become even more wide-spread. But it didn't end there. The passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act (sometimes known as the Wages and Hours bill) gave even more protections, setting the maximum workweek at 40 hours for other industries and provided that employees working beyond 40 hours a week would receive additional overtime bonus salaries.
Emphasis my own. I thought the cobbler's union was the first.
easy_payments t1_je2a61y wrote
Thanks for this. Yes - the norms we take for granted today were 'radical' yesterday!
Molwar t1_je1c5ko wrote
I think part of the problem is that people have been too impoverished to be able to protest. Sure you can fight for your right, but then you and your family might starve to death.
And with unions being busted all over the place there is no recourse for it.
angrysquirrel777 t1_je1puvp wrote
People are not nearly as impoverished now as they were in the late 19th century when they were striking for an 8 hour day.
easy_payments t1_je253n3 wrote
sorry for the deleted comment - was replying to Molwar
[deleted] t1_je2pzi8 wrote
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[deleted] t1_je24per wrote
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easy_payments t1_je24ymy wrote
Oh absolutely. Part of the reason we're not is because so many Americans hold multiple jobs to support themselves and family. With no social safety nets and increasing atomization of society it's difficult to educate people about these sorts of things. Sad state of affairs all around.
Bovronius t1_je2arb8 wrote
The merchant class has brainwashed half the working class into taking up arms to protect their control though.
easy_payments t1_je55heg wrote
Like I said - totally pessimistic about that happening the above being just one of the many reasons why. 😭
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