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.”
Long overdue. People are so conditioned to the 40+ hour week that they will immediately say they’ll settle for 4 10-hour days, and while I would like even that (because I work remote and could essentially make it 4 8-hour days), it’s just not good enough after all these years of the ownership class sucking up all the benefits of productivity gains. Honestly, we should be on 24-hour weeks by this point, but 32 hours is a start. Unfortunately, this is being presented as an outrageous demand from various outlets. I wish them the best in their fight for worker rights.