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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBernie Sanders Wants To Bring Back Your 40-Hour Workweek
WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) thinks Americans may have forgotten about the 40-hour week.
"A hundred years ago workers took to the streets" to fight for 40 hours, Sanders told The Huffington Post. "And a hundred years have come and gone, weve seen an explosion in technology, weve seen an explosion in productivity, we have a great global economy, and what do you have? The vast majority of people are working longer hours for lower wages."
American workers with full-time jobs work an average of 42.7 hours per week, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Including part-timers in the calculation puts the average American workweek at 39 hours.
Sanders said he wants to appropriate the term "family values" from Republicans, who have historically used it to talk about social issues, and use it to promote legislation mandating paid vacation, paid sick days and paid parental leave for U.S. workers. Just 11 percent of workers had access to paid leave to care for newborns in 2012, according to the BLS.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/19/bernie-sanders-paid-vacation_n_7614186.html
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)give very little time for employees' personal lives; hell, it makes it difficult to schedule in a second crappy job. But an "unstable labor pool" has always been corporate America's goal.
bunnies
(15,859 posts)Sad truth.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)bunnies
(15,859 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)They may need to do that again.
tech3149
(4,452 posts)and the internet goes dark your average Joe and Jane might get motivated to do so.
I remember back in the old day, old man speak for when I was a kid, all these articles telling us how automation and technology advancements meant we would only have to work 10 or 15 hours a week. When I quit working over a decade ago 60 hr weeks were common and it wasn't really so much to make ends meet.