| I.W.W. Poster |
By Dustin Guastella
If the labourer consumes his disposable time for himself, he robs the capitalist. – K. Marx
Recently a Chicago firm made headlines when it was revealed that they allowed their workers less than six minutes a day in the bathroom. Naturally, people were outraged, but this is an old story; capital and labor have been fighting over working time since the earliest pangs of the bourgeois revolutions. In 1750, Philadelphian carpenters demanded a ten-hour day; by 1866 the International Working Men’s Association declared the fight for an eight-hour day its top priority; that same year, across the pond, many in the American labor movement did the same. And by 1937, the demand for a shorter workday was largely met with the passing of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Fast-forward 77 years and we are still appalled by capital’s insistence on limiting the free time of workers. What is it about capitalism (and capitalists) that insists on controlling every minute of the worker’s day? Despite numerous appeals by liberal economists who argue that shorter working hours and longer lunch breaks will lead to boosts in productivity, and despite immense capital accumulation and productivity growth, the American working day has not taken a serious hit since the early 20th century.
Source: Why We Should Demand a Shorter Workweek
