Not AmeriKKKa?!
Are you sure?! I could’ve swore Germany, France, and Denmark were states in the US.
Exactly my point. Different systems.
The US’s system sucks!
How long should the typical work week be?
- Thread starter Rembrandt Brown
- Start date
Not AmeriKKKa?!
Are you sure?! I could’ve swore Germany, France, and Denmark were states in the US.
Exactly my point. Different systems.
The US’s system sucks!
Four-day working week and six-hour shifts to be introduced in Finland
Monday 6 Jan 2020
Finland’s new Prime Minister wants to introduce a four-day working week. Sanna Marin, 34, says an extra day off and six-hour days will allow the public to spend more time with their families and on hobbies. The proposal from Ms Marin – the world’s youngest sitting prime minister – follows the lead of Scandanavian neighbour Sweden, where a six-hour working experiment began in 2015. According to the New Europe newspaper, she said: ‘I believe people deserve to spend more time with their families, loved ones, hobbies and other aspects of life, such as culture. ‘This could be the next step for us in working life.’ Key figures in Finland’s government, including Ms Marin (centre) and education minister Li Andersson (left) (Picture: Markku Ulander/REX) Centre-left politician Ms Marin – who heads a five-party coalition of parties all led by women – has long been an advocate of the idea. Most Fins currently work for around eight hours a day, five days a week. Swedish companies have been experimenting with a six-hour working day since 2015, with early results suggesting that it increases productivity, well-being and wealth – but is expensive. Critics also say the idea could damage businesses and economic growth. But Ms Marin’s coalition partner and education minister Li Andersson welcomed the latest proposal.
Key figures in Finland’s government, including Ms Marin (centre) and education minister Li Andersson (left) (Picture: Markku Ulander/REX)
She said: ‘It is important to allow Finnish citizens to work less. It is not a question of governing with a feminine style but offering help and keeping promises to voters ‘, Mail Online reported. In the UK, Labour promised to implement a four-day working week ‘with no loss of wages’ within 10 years if it won December’s General Election. The defeated party also planned to cut the average working week to 32 hours. However, Boris Johnson’s governing Conservative party is against the idea. Ms Marin came to power in early December. Three of the four other coalition party leaders are also in their 30s. Meanwhile, late last week industrial employers in Finland reached a deal with labour unions on pay rises and working conditions, after a number of strikes.
metro.co.uk
Monday 6 Jan 2020
Finland’s new Prime Minister wants to introduce a four-day working week. Sanna Marin, 34, says an extra day off and six-hour days will allow the public to spend more time with their families and on hobbies. The proposal from Ms Marin – the world’s youngest sitting prime minister – follows the lead of Scandanavian neighbour Sweden, where a six-hour working experiment began in 2015. According to the New Europe newspaper, she said: ‘I believe people deserve to spend more time with their families, loved ones, hobbies and other aspects of life, such as culture. ‘This could be the next step for us in working life.’ Key figures in Finland’s government, including Ms Marin (centre) and education minister Li Andersson (left) (Picture: Markku Ulander/REX) Centre-left politician Ms Marin – who heads a five-party coalition of parties all led by women – has long been an advocate of the idea. Most Fins currently work for around eight hours a day, five days a week. Swedish companies have been experimenting with a six-hour working day since 2015, with early results suggesting that it increases productivity, well-being and wealth – but is expensive. Critics also say the idea could damage businesses and economic growth. But Ms Marin’s coalition partner and education minister Li Andersson welcomed the latest proposal.
Key figures in Finland’s government, including Ms Marin (centre) and education minister Li Andersson (left) (Picture: Markku Ulander/REX)
She said: ‘It is important to allow Finnish citizens to work less. It is not a question of governing with a feminine style but offering help and keeping promises to voters ‘, Mail Online reported. In the UK, Labour promised to implement a four-day working week ‘with no loss of wages’ within 10 years if it won December’s General Election. The defeated party also planned to cut the average working week to 32 hours. However, Boris Johnson’s governing Conservative party is against the idea. Ms Marin came to power in early December. Three of the four other coalition party leaders are also in their 30s. Meanwhile, late last week industrial employers in Finland reached a deal with labour unions on pay rises and working conditions, after a number of strikes.
Is Finland set to introduce a four-day week and six-hour shifts?
‘I believe people deserve to spend more time with their families', the world's youngest prime minister once said.
metro.co.uk
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As we know, workers are getting a smaller share for more productivity than 50 years ago. Now businesses are going to see the value of telecommuting and probably up productivity while reducing overhead. Think workers will get a greater share of that? Hell no. 
I know in early replies I spoke on UBI to help sustain workers. Jesus christ I didn't know how far we are from it. We in a pandemic and the GOP barely want to come up off money for the people. And people came out in droves to support the GOP. So it will be ages before these miserable fucks support a UBI. In South Dakota where it's nothing but cacs, they were cheering on the governor turning down extra UE. These delusional fucks side with the rich, but not rich.
I know in early replies I spoke on UBI to help sustain workers. Jesus christ I didn't know how far we are from it. We in a pandemic and the GOP barely want to come up off money for the people. And people came out in droves to support the GOP. So it will be ages before these miserable fucks support a UBI. In South Dakota where it's nothing but cacs, they were cheering on the governor turning down extra UE. These delusional fucks side with the rich, but not rich.
Thank you Covid for freeing me from a commute and a cubicle!
3 days 10 hrs
Tu-wed-thur
24 hours in a day.
7 days in a week.
I'd love to see a 24 hour work week. One full day out of the week devoted to work and the rest should be your's to enjoy as you see fit.
I can dream ....
7 days in a week.
I'd love to see a 24 hour work week. One full day out of the week devoted to work and the rest should be your's to enjoy as you see fit.
I can dream ....
Shawn Fain Is Right: The Workweek Should Be Shorter
As negotiations kicked off between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Stellantis — the parent company of Chrysler and Jeep and one of the Big Three automakers, along with Ford and General Motors, who collectively employ around 150,000 UAW members — one person was conspicuously absent from the...
As negotiations kicked off between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Stellantis — the parent company of Chrysler and Jeep and one of the Big Three automakers, along with Ford and General Motors, who collectively employ around 150,000 UAW members — one person was conspicuously absent from the proceedings.
Mark Stewart, Stelllantis’s chief operating officer, was not at the bargaining table in Detroit, Michigan. Instead, he was apparently in Acapulco, Mexico, at a second home. According to the UAW, Stern did not attend negotiations over Zoom either.
Yet Stewart found time to pen a letter urging a deal based in “economic realism” — a response to workers’ ambitious demands for an end to tiered contracts, the right to strike over plant closures, and 40 percent raises over the life of the four-year contract, which would claw back concessions made during the Great Recession. Stewart characterized UAW president Shawn Fain’s comments on the negotiations, such as a video in which the union president throws a paper containing Stellantis’s proposals in a garbage can, as “theatrics.”
Asked by the Detroit Free Press to comment on Stewart’s alleged absence from negotiations, Stellantis spokeswoman Jodi Tinson declined to do so.
But if one of Stellantis’s top executives was prioritizing rest and relaxation over work, perhaps his employees deserve the same.
Fain has frequently emphasized shorter work weeks in speeches given in the months since his nail-biter election win over incumbent Ray Curry in March of this year. He says his aim is a forty-hour workweek Monday through Friday, but with every worker receiving a paid day off one day a week — effectively, a thirty-two-hour workweek. Overtime provisions would apply but would kick in sooner, at the thirty-two-hour mark.
The new UAW leader is eloquent on the subject of free time, and one gets the sense that he really means it.
“We have to work longer and harder just to maintain the same standard of living that we had before,” said Fain in an address to members about bargaining with Stellantis, broadcast on Facebook Live. Members’ wages have been stagnant for years: some autoworkers’ current starting pay is $18.04, lower than the rate workers received in 2007, which amounted to $19.60 when adjusted for inflation.
“That means more time at work, and less time living life. That means missing Little League games and family reunions. It means less time outdoors, less time traveling, less time pursuing our passions and our hobbies,” Fain added.
As the new UAW president tells it, he was drawn to the idea of shorter workweeks when perusing old issues of the union’s Solidarity magazine at the Black Lake UAW conference and education center in Michigan. In back issues from the 1930s and 1940s, UAW members advocated thirty-five- and even thirty-two-hour weeks. The ambition stands in marked contrast to more recent UAW leaders’ acquiescence to scheduling that can force some members to work seven days a week, twelve hours a day.
Fain is right to emphasize the long lineage of the demand. Former UAW president Walter Reuther took up the subject in the 1950s, at a time when technological progress and the union’s industrial strength meant workers had a real shot of winning it.
In his livestreamed address to members, Fain also traced his commitment to winning a better work-life balance to a book he’d read in a church group. One Month to Live’s authors ministered to people who were in their final days of life, and their findings were revelatory for the union leader.
“They found that very few people, when they looked back, wished that they had spent time at work,” said Fain. “Instead, most people had a lot of regrets about all the things they wanted to do but never did or never got to do or never had the time to do.”
In his address to members, Fain went on to describe a person’s time as “the greatest resource in this world,” noting that while we each have a finite amount of time, we spend so much of it at work, often doing something we wouldn’t choose to do, for the sake of someone else’s profit.
“That’s what wages are about: no matter what type of work somebody does, you’re being paid for your time,” Fain continued. “That should be the focus of everything going forward.”
Not everyone is thrilled with Fain’s focus on reducing work hours. Speaking to the Washington Post, Fain said, “The talking heads have zeroed in on the 32-hour workweek [demand], and they’re trying to call me a communist.” In response to such criticisms, Fain pointed to a recent survey by Deloitte, which found that 66 percent of financial-service workers would quit their jobs if they were asked to come to the office five days a week, with workers citing improved relationships with their loved ones as a reason for wanting to work remotely.
“How the hell is it that when you’re talking about financial workers or white-collar workers, this is acceptable?” said Fain at a recent strike preparation conference. Noting that many corporate leaders are still working remotely, he added, “It’s okay for them but goddammit, when we ask for the same thing, for some fair treatment and some fucking work-life balance, what do they say to us? They say, ‘You don’t deserve it.’”
Fain isn’t the only person advocating for the idea. Spurred by a pandemic that led workers to reevaluate their priorities, the push for a shorter workweek has gained traction. In Iceland, an experiment that shortened work weeks to thirty-five or thirty-six hours resulted in reduced worker stress and increased time for non-work-related activities, all while “productivity and service provision remained the same or improved across the majority of trial workplaces,” according to a report on the experiment. Since then, eight in ten Icelandic workers have shifted to shorter work schedules. Additional experiments in the UK, Japan, New Zealand have likewise produced positive results.
In the United States, Representative Mark Takeno (D-CA) introduced legislation in Congress in 2021 that would reduce the standard workweek to thirty-two hours for nonexempt employees by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938. The FLSA codifies the work week at forty hours and was itself the product of a push by the US working class. For those workers whose hours may be harder to reduce (perhaps autoworkers among them), the legislation would mean a significant increase in overtime pay.
Rep. Takeno’s bill was endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus but has little of the support it would need for implementation in a country whose people, despite a slight recent decrease in work hours, put in more work time than almost any other in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. For instance, in 2021, we worked 294 more hours than British workers, and 442 more hours than German workers.
That is where unions come in. Historically, it was organized workers who forced new standards on their employers; once those changes became the norm, they became easier to codify in law. The first May Day protest, at which the Haymarket radicals were martyred, was a push to win the eight-hour day, with tens of thousands of marchers chanting, “Eight-hour day with no cut in pay.” Only with the FLSA, more than fifty years later, did it become the law of the land.
For society-wide progress, the implementation of a shorter workweek could not stop with UAW. member. It would need to be tied to the problem of underwork, which is the more pressing problem for many in the United States who want full-time jobs but can only find part-time employment.
Unifying the overworked and the underemployed by demanding greater say over scheduling — and equalizing the distribution of work by paying full-time employees overtime for hours thirty-two to forty, giving them less incentive to work more than forty hours a week — would be central to the project. Such an agenda would aim to claw back the decades-long trend of employers demanding greater flexibility from workers, or what is sometimes called “just-in-time employment,” both in the form of forced overtime for some and temporary, part-time work for others.
“If we don’t lead this fight, if we don’t lead these conversations, no one is going to do it,” Fain told members at the strike preparation conference. “We have to change the narrative. That’s what our responsibility is as a union, and that’s what our leadership’s responsibility is and that’s what we’ve set out to do.”
Not me. I am disturbed constantly in office
I edited my post. It meant to read “on some real shit”
I think you're wrong.
It will not happen today.
It will not happen this year or next.
It will happen.
That's what most political pundits miss. The main value visionaries and dreamers bring to our society is moving the Overton window.
I've been WFH years before the pandemic.
Last year I had jury duty for a week which required time for getting up early, dressing up, preparing lunch, commuting/traffic/parking, walking a 1/2 mile to the courthouse, security screening, sitting in a hard ass wooden chair all day, driving back home/more traffic. My whole day was practically over when I was done (really no time for anything else)...and I had to do the same bs all over again the next day. MAN FUCK THAT SHIT!!!!! NEVER AGAIN !!!! I prays for you 9 to 5 commuting niggas daily.
Last year I had jury duty for a week which required time for getting up early, dressing up, preparing lunch, commuting/traffic/parking, walking a 1/2 mile to the courthouse, security screening, sitting in a hard ass wooden chair all day, driving back home/more traffic. My whole day was practically over when I was done (really no time for anything else)...and I had to do the same bs all over again the next day. MAN FUCK THAT SHIT!!!!! NEVER AGAIN !!!! I prays for you 9 to 5 commuting niggas daily.
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This is the key and alot of CEO's for for profit companies can't see this....
I've been WFH since 2020 and my job was offering this as a benefit even before I started working there in 2010.....
If more CEO's can see the benefit, yes it can happen, but I personally don't think it will not in the next 5 -10 years.....Too much focus on profits, when the focus should be on quality of life for your staff which will eventually bring in more profits with a happier workforce...
I’ve been doing remote work since 2021. It’s why I can teach part time. It’s amazing.
I told my wife it feels like I’m stealing money at times because I may go an entire day or days not doing shit. Project based remote work is where it’s at. When I met with my boss in DC he told me they decided to go fully remote. And the just gave me a $10k raise.
I’m not leaving this job no time soon. I’m going to ride this wave as long as I can.
I disagree.
There's too many industries that require a person's presence to do a job. This would put a huge burden on all of them and their customers.
I think a better solution is to require employers to play for their employees commute time. It would accomplish the same goals and more.
6 days a week
16 hour days
U all want railroads and planes to take days off too????
16 hour days
U all want railroads and planes to take days off too????
Children should be seen, not heard.