It’s Labor Day.
Originally, Labor Day was celebrated on May 1, which is still recognized as International Labor Day. And it was intimately intertwined with organized labor’s struggle to reduce working hours and achieve an 8-hour day.
That’s why I was so irritated by Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s recent trumpeting of his plan for a regular 12-hour work day as some kind of breakthrough in working conditions for the city’s emergency medical personnel.
“Twelve hours is less than a 16-hour day, so it’s a good thing,” the mayor seemed to be arguing.
But it seems to me city workers took a big step backwards with this adoption of a standard 12-hour work day as the city’s solution to the real problem, chronic underfunding of an essential public service.
Here’s an entry from the Encyclopedia of Chicago History:
When the Chicago labor movement emerged in 1864, the eight-hour day quickly became its central demand. Exhausted by 12 to 14 hours a day of work, six days a week, workers throughout the city and state organized to secure a law limiting the workday to eight hours. In 1867, the Illinois legislature passed such a law but allowed a huge loophole that permitted employers to contract with their employees for longer hours. Trying to eliminate that option, Chicago labor called for a citywide strike that began on May 1, 1867, and practically shut down the city’s economy for a week. When the strike collapsed, the law collapsed with it and workers were left unprotected.
In the 1880s, the issue resurfaced and became the key demand of a movement that shook the city and the nation. In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions—predecessor of the American Federation of Labor—urged American workers to observe an eight-hour day beginning May 1, 1886. Implying direct rather than legislative action, the eight-hour movement united skilled and unskilled workers of all nationalities. Chicago anarchists, trade unionists, and the Knights of Labor, despite the coolness of their national organizations, actively promoted and profited from the movement, and made Chicago its national center.
According to Wikipedia:
Labor Day was promoted by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor, who organized the first parade in New York City. After the Haymarket Massacre, which occurred in Chicago on May 4, 1886, U.S. President Grover Cleveland feared that commemorating Labor Day on May 1 could become an opportunity to commemorate the affair. Thus, in 1887, it was established as an official holiday in September to support the Labor Day that the Knights favored.
So this official Labor Day holiday was adopted to try to diminish the influence of the more radical wing of the labor movement, it seems.
From there, though, it took decades longer for American workers to win an 8-hour day.
The United Mine Workers won an eight-hour day in 1898.
The Building Trades Council (BTC) of San Francisco, under the leadership of P.H. McCarthy, won the eight-hour day in 1900 when the BTC unilaterally declared that its members would work only eight hours a day for $3 a day. When the mill resisted, the BTC began organizing mill workers; the employers responded by locking out 8,000 employees throughout the Bay Area. The BTC, in return, established a union planing mill from which construction employers could obtain supplies — or face boycotts and sympathy strikes if they did not. The mill owners went to arbitration, where the union won the eight-hour day, a closed shop for all skilled workers, and an arbitration panel to resolve future disputes. In return, the union agreed to refuse to work with material produced by non-union planing mills or those that paid less than the Bay Area employers.
By 1905, the eight-hour day was widely installed in the printing trades – see International Typographical Union (section) – but the vast majority of Americans worked 12-14 hour days.
On January 5, 1914, the Ford Motor Company took the radical step of doubling pay to $5 a day and cut shifts from nine hours to eight, moves that were not popular with rival companies, although seeing the increase in Ford’s productivity, and a significant increase in profit margin (from $30 million to $60 million in two years), most soon followed suit.[11][12][13][14]
In the summer of 1915, amid increased labor demand for World War I, a series of strikes demanding the eight-hour day began in Bridgeport, Connecticut. They were so successful that they spread throughout the Northeast.[15]
The United States Adamson Act in 1916 established an eight-hour day, with additional pay for overtime, for railroad workers. This was the first federal law that regulated the hours of workers in private companies. The United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Act in Wilson v. New, 243 U.S. 332 (1917).
The eight-hour day might have been realized for many working people in the U.S. in 1937, when what became the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S. Code Chapter 8) was first proposed under the New Deal. As enacted, the act applied to industries whose combined employment represented about twenty percent of the U.S. labor force. In those industries, it set the maximum workweek at 40 hours,[16] but provided that employees working beyond 40 hours a week would receive additional overtime bonus salaries.[17]
And so it goes on Labor Day 2014.
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The 12 hour day, three day week straight time has taken hold in hospitals for nurses here. HPD experimented with it some years back.
My mother was an account clerk in the stock yards in Sioux City in 1937. If the accounts didn’t balance at the end of the night, the entire staff–5 or 6 women–had to stay until they did, although only one of them worked on the books. The other women, who were just sitting around waiting, offered to take turns staying late and pleaded that the others be allowed to get home to their families. But “No,no,” it was essential that everyone stay. After the Fair Labor Standards Act took effect, the company suddenly discovered that it really only needed to have one person stay late.
My wife is a nurse and does 12 hour day, three day week straight time. she prefers it – it keeps her out of Honolulu’s rotten traffic.
i am no fan of the one-size-fits-all mentality. emergency medical personnel are NOT the same as librarians. emergency medical personnel had better handle work stress or they do *not* belong in their field. like it or not, we do not live in Paris and we never will.
That’s really a stretch Ian to conflate a twelve hour three and four day a week to six days a week 12 hour days.
The switch to 12 hour work days in health care is not more hours per week. Many if not most in health care actually prefer the longer shift and shorter work week (three and four days alternating) because it provides more days off and less commuting days but mostly because it provides more continuity of care and therefor better patient outcomes. Plus the fact that many are working overtime and even double shifts under eight hour days.
Andy Parx –
Exactly my point. For similar reasons, some doctors work 24-Hour shifts.
Why?
Because. they. can. it’s called devotion. doctors are far from perfect, but at least they try (ok, some believe they are perfect but that’s another story.)
physician Jane Orient, 2013:
“In the old days, it was understood that residency would be grueling. A surgical residency was specifically compared with becoming a Marine. The enemy was disease or death or human suffering, and the schedule of fighting was determined by the enemy, not by a central committee.
While people might be able to learn more facts when well-rested, part of physician (and military) training is learning how to cope when exhausted. It is no doubt true that surgeons tend to perform better when well rested. However, 20 additional hours per week of time off during residency—time off that is not necessarily spent resting—translates into perhaps 1,000 fewer hours of learning opportunities per year.”
to be blunt, Dr. Orient is an unabashed conservative, but she’s also executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
I would rather have a rested medical professional working on me than someone who is on their third
straight 12+ hour day.
Kirk Caldwell is a nass.
Well, let’s talk firefighters. They work 24 on and 24 off for three cycles before getting a four day break. And after two or three calls during the day if one comes in at 11:30 pm, they got to roll out. Then if they get back to the fire house at 2:00 am and another call comes in at 3:00 am, there is no rolling over and saying I’m tired. I will let this one slide. You got to be rolling out the door in about a minute with your game face on.
However, when guys sign up for that job they know what to expect. Many like my son-in-law really like it. You get to spend a lot of uninterrupted family time. Some even have second jobs. Or like my SIL work extra callout shifts. Or, if the waves are pumping he can go surfing for two days. Can’t do that on a 9 to 5er.
For some perspective: EMS ambulance services on Hawaii island are provided by Hawaii Fire Department (the only FD in the state to provide EMS ambulances). The regular work shift is 24 hours, with occasional added extensions of 10 more hours, for a total of 34 continuous hours of duty. Sure, they are tired from pulling double duty as an EMS crew as well as fighting fires. But you don’t hear them complaining. They are puzzled and amused at the situation on O’ahu.
“to be blunt, Dr. Orient is an unabashed conservative, but she’s also executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons”
Being that the AAPS has branded Medicare and Medicaid as being “evil” and “immoral,” being exec. director of that outfit merely makes Dr. Orient a prominent spokesperson for an advocacy group representing the political interests of ultra-conservative doctors. It doesn’t bestow any prestige as far as medical research or peer evaluation is concerned.
yes, which is why i am sharing her logic and viewpoint, not her imaginary knowledge of god, etc. the concept of “being able to handle emergencies” transcends lefty-righty ultra-this ultra-that political war. i want an ambulance dude who loves his work and ENJOYS stress, not his labor rights.
“to be blunt, Dr. Orient is an unabashed conservative, but she’s also executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons”
Hmmm. The way you phrased this made it sound like Dr. Orient’s position in the AAPS transcended her political views. Whatever. I’ve encountered a few people in the past who’s tried to pass opinions/statements from the AAPS as coming from a non-partisan organization that’s a vanguard of medical advancement or a recognizer of professional excellence. Just wanted to “keep things real” for anyone who may not be aware of the AAPS’ agenda.
why, thank you for keepin’ it real.