Today marks a birthday of sorts for the eight-hour workday. In the mid-1800s most people worked ten- or twelve-hour days, prompting the newly formed National Labor Union (NLU) to call on Congress to officially trim the workday. While Congress didn't heed the NLU's pleas, the union's efforts pushed the issue onto the national stage. The public picked up the call for shorter hours, as did some legislators: Federal employees were the first to enjoy truncated days when Congress passed appropriate legislation in 1863. However, after a few fruitful decades, the drive for the eight-hour day hit a snag in 1886, when a strike by workers at the McCormick Reaper Manufacturing Company turned bloody. Though the workers, who had hit the picket line to protest for shorter hours, were victims of violence, the ugly affair, along with the ensuing Haymarket Riot, branded the push for the eight-hour day as a radical movement. But, in 1923, the movement received support from an unlikely ally, as the Carnegie Steel Corporation granted shorter work hours to its employees. Eventually, President Franklin Roosevelt made the eight-hour workday an official part of his New Deal legislation.
-source: www.history.com
No comments:
Post a Comment