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.
February 20 - Angelina Grimke is Born
February 19 - Philly Street Car Workers Spark General Strike
February 18 - Anti-Slavery Begins in America
February 17 - Standing Up By Sitting Down
February 16 - The Wisconsin Uprising Begins
February 15 - The Uprising of the 20,000 Comes to a Close
February 14 - Kansas City Laundresses Walk Off the Job
February 13 - Martial Law Declared to Crush the UAW
February 12 - The NAACP is Founded
February 11 - Cutting Corners on Safety at Sequoyah I
February 10 - Forty-Three Workers Buried Alive
February 9 - Organizing Bloody Harlan
February 8 - Butte Copper Miners Join the 1919 Strike Wave
February 7 - Strike at Cripple Creek
February 6 - Philly Garment Workers Win!
February 5 - The Fight for Craft Governance
February 4 - Solidarity on the Coast
February 3 - Anti-Trust Injunctions Used Against Labor
February 2 - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
February 1 - A Pivotal Moment in the Flint Sit-Down
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