Subject: Re: LaborTalk: Love the 12-Hr. Workday!
From: pmargin-AT-xchange.apana.org.au (Profit Margin)
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 96 20:03:33 AEDT


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Subject: LaborTalk: Love the 12-Hr. Workday!
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Date: 15 Jun 1996 08:23:12 GMT
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/** headlines: 146.0 **/
** Topic: LaborTalk: Love the 12-Hr. Workday! **
** Written  9:17 AM  Jun 13, 1996 by newsdesk in cdp:headlines **
/* Written 10:04 PM  Jun 10, 1996 by hkelber in igc:labr.newsline */
/* ---------- "LaborTalk:Love the 12-Hr. Workday!" ---------- */
LaborTalk: Love the 12-Hr. Workday!
By Harry Kelber

	One of the prime legacies that trade unionists of past 
generations  left us was their determined battle over some eight 
decades to finally win the eight-hour workday. History has only 
partially recorded the militant strikes,  huge demonstrations, 
persistent lobbying and incredible sacrifices that were required to 
achieve the American Dream of working people during those years: 
eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep  and eight hours for 
leisure, which workers could use for their own enjoyment and self-
development.
	Until the Wages and Hours Act was passed, in June 1938,
millions of workers were toiling a standard 10 and 12 hours a 
day, six days a week, with no overtime pay.  The advent of the 
eight-hour day, 40-hour week was probably the most important 
factor in developing a middle class in the United States  and 
raising the living standards of the American family.
	Now, in the year 1996, Corporate America is taking it away 
>from us.  More and more factories are instituting the 12-hour 
workday on the pretext that they need it to operate on an around-
the-clock basis, seven days a week. (They haven't considered the 
idea of three eight-hour shifts with premium pay for weekends.)
	In a survey of 800 companies that employ 1.000 or more 
workers in all types of businesses, a New York management 
consulting firm found that 34 percent used "compressed" work 
schedules for some of their work force and that 14 percent were 
considering adopting such schedules. 
	It is worth remembering that the issue that forced the 
lockout at A. E. Staley Manufacturing Co. in Decatur was the 
union's refusal, by a 96 percent margin, to go along with the 
company's work schedule of three 12-hour workdays on  and three 
days off. In addition, after 30 days, workers would rotate from a 
6 a.m.-6 p.m. day shift to 6 p.m.-6 a.m. night shift, with work 
on Saturdays and Sundays at straight time.
	The media usually can single out some workers who say they 
love the 12-hour workday because it gives them three days off, 
but no one dares to deny what that kind of shift does to the body 
and mind of a worker and the disruption of the lives of their 
families. Under this system, a worker's time is not his own; he can 
be ordered to work whenever the company requires his or her 
services, and that includes Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. 
Workers in that environment lose their dignity; they become the 
disposable property of the company.
	By getting their employees to work long hours, companies are 
able to maintain their production quotas even while eliminating 
jobs.  With all of the automation and technological advances that 
industry has made in recent years to expand productivity 
enormously, our economy should be in a position to go forward to a 
six-hour workday instead of backward to 12-hour shifts. A shorter 
workday would mean many more  jobs for those  now unemployed.

WHAT ARE UNIONS DOING ABOUT THIS GROWING TREND?

	The  AFL-CIO has clearly not made the 12-hour workday a
 major issue,  either on its political agenda or in its organizing 
activities.  At the big  General Motors Saturn auto plant in Tennesee, 
which is cited by the United Auto Workers and others as a model in 
labor-management relations, the 12-hour workday is in effect.  
Bridgestone/Firestone, which defeated a long strike by the former 
United Rubber Workers, operates on a 12-hour work schedule, as do 
other tire companies. Ar AT&T's Lucent factory in Orlando, Fla., 
Local 2000 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 
negotiated a contract calling for a 12-hour workday. There is no 
evidence that the AFL-CIO intends to fight vigorously against this 
dehumanizing trend.
	What have we done to  safeguard and carry forward the 
contributions to our well-being from  trade union activists of the 
past? And  what will our legacy be to our children and future 
generations who will have to earn their livelihood  in the 21st 
century? Will it be the 12-hour workday?
	 

	
** End of text from cdp:headlines **

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