• bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    Whoever invented the eight hour five day work week is Satan.

    Unions. Unions won the five day eight hour workweek after heavy, sometimes bloody conflicts with employers. Before that it was common for workweek to be 10 or 12 hours.

    • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Too many people are ignorant of the role Unions played in American history. I assume they were brought up in places where the GOP controls the schools.

      • Bombastion@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        8 months ago

        I was actively taught in high school that “unions were nice, but not necessary any more, they get in the way of all our very cool free trade!”

        Obviously, my thinking on that has changed a whole lot, but both my partner and I got fed that kind of rhetoric straight out of text books.

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        The bad news is their power has been systematically eroded for a long time. The good news is they’ve made a bit of a comeback in the last couple of years. Hopefully this trend continues.