On this day in Labor History the year was 1940.
That was the day that the federally mandated 40-hour work week went into effect for U.S. workers.
The 40-hour week had been passed as part of Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938.
Making five days of eight hour work the national standard had long been a top goal for labor.
For decades’ union members organized, demonstrated, when on strike, and even died for the right to work eight hours.
Labor argued that reducing the long, unregulated hours of toil was a matter of worker’s health and safety.
It was also a matter of dignity.
A more reasonable work week would give workers the time to spend with their families, to pursue other interests, and to have a full life outside of the grinding schedule demanded by many bosses.
Before the turn of the twentieth century, the eight-hour day movement declared “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will!” as their motto.
In 1886, nationwide rallies and strikes for eight hours took place on May 1st.
Today, May Day is celebrated as a worker’s holiday around the world in remembrance of that struggle.
In 1888, the American Federation of Labor took up the cause, and the Carpenters union became the standard bearer for eight hours.
Ten years later the United Mine Workers union members won the eight-hour day.
In 1916, the Adamson Act made eight hours the standard for interstate railroad workers.
A decade after that, Ford Motor Company, a leader in U.S. industry established the forty-hour work week.
Each of these victories were a step along the way to making the eight-hour day a reality and the law of the land.
July 9 - The Deadliest Commute
July 8 - Machinists Walk Out on the Airlines
July 7 - Fighting Privatization in Puerto Rico
July 6 - The Preacher and The Slave
July 5 - The Match Girls Strike
July 4 - The Guiding Light of Transparency
July 3 - Paterson Child Laborers Strike
July 2 - Denmark Vesey
July 1 - Crushing the Strike
June 30 - The Making of a Strikebreaker
June 29 - The Birth of a Working-Class Hero
June 28 - An Important Step for Labor
June 27 - Helen Keller, Labor Activist, is Born
June 26 - Gov. Altgeld Pardons Surviving Haymarket Prisoners
June 25 - The Haymarket Martyrs’ Monument
June 24 - Cutting Corners Costs Lives
June 23 - The Attack on Labor
June 22 - The Cuyahoga River Burns
June 21 -Molly Maguires Hanged in Pennsylvania
June 20 - The 1943 Detroit Anti-Black Race Riot
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