As part of his Labor Day message to workers in the United States, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday re-upped his call for the establishment of a 20% cut to the workweek with no loss in pay—an idea he said is “not radical” given the enormous productivity gains over recent decades that have resulted in massive profits for corporations but scraps for employees and the working class.
“It’s time for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay,” Sanders wrote in a Guardian op-ed as he cited a 480% increase in worker productivity since the 40-hour workweek was first established in 1940.
“It’s time,” he continued, “that working families were able to take advantage of the increased productivity that new technologies provide so that they can enjoy more leisure time, family time, educational and cultural opportunities—and less stress.”
The call is to build organized labor across the country, giving workers the power to shape society toward our interests, not to expect the ruling class to offer voluntary concessions that have no benefit to them.
I’ve heard all this before. It never works.
what I mean by that is that all these politicians talk about doing good things, but they never actually do anything. They just keep saying “we don’t have the votes yet” and then they give up, because they never actually wanted to fix anything.
Again, I think you are misunderstanding the message.
The speech is not giving a promise that Bernie Sanders will make gains on behalf of workers.
Rather, it is giving encouragement to workers to make gains for ourselves, by building our own power against the oligarchs.