What if you could work just four days a week but get paid for five?
That’s essentially what Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, has been agitating for in ongoing labor talks in Detroit.
The reform-minded union leader envisions a 32-hour work week for 40 hours of pay, and overtime for anything more.
As wild as that might sound, he’s leaning on a concept that has captured the imagination of workers all over the world, thanks to widely publicized trials. Microsoft ran a month-long pilot in Japan in 2019 and reported hugely positive results, including a 40% increase in productivity. More recently, dozens of companies in the U.S., Canada, and Europe have participated in ongoing trials that have likewise been deemed successful.
But Fain’s push — alongside other “audacious demands” (Fain’s own words) the UAW has laid on the table — is noteworthy because of how radical a change it would represent.
“Our members are working 60, 70, even 80 hours a week just to make ends meet,” Fain said on a Facebook Live event last month. “That’s not a living. That’s barely surviving, and it needs to stop.”
The argument is that the 40 hour standard was introduced when we were much less efficient with our labour, thanks to technology our productivity has skyrocketed while wages and working hours remain largely the same. The companies have been enjoying all the success while the workers who actually produce the value of the companies get scraps
Then make the standard 32 hours to keep full-time benefit but get paid for 32 hours. Additionally, all of these technologies that aid in efficiency are purchased by the company, and the workers are not working as hard as they used to.
If it were being sold as they want to make a Full time job be 32 hours and a 25% increase in hourly pay, it would actually sound more reasonable and essentially be the same…
But ultimately if all the worker bees start earning more and producing less, the cost of stuff will increases to adjust.
Right now we produce in 40 hours what used to be 200 hours and the corps are the only ones benefitting from that. We’re being screwed here. They can easily afford to pay us the same for 32 and still profit billions. And if they price gouge to punish us then the government can step in to slap them for it. You don’t have to just stand there and let corps fuck you over forever and you thank them for the honor, demand better because you deserve it
Still the argument stands, we produce more because of technology advancements (funded by the companies), which in turn makes the job actually easier and usually safer. If the cost of business increases because working less hours for the same amount of money, the product’s cost will increase.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a worker bee also. But I work hard at what I do and make an honest days pay for an honest days work. I would love more money for less effort but ultimately I just see it all being a wash or saving less as everything gets more and more expensive. I do not see the government currently stepping in for the price gouging that is already going on.