On 2010-11-22, at 2:52 PM, Jim Devine wrote: > Eugene Coyle <[email protected]> wrote: > >> In my view, if you think beyond both of those possibilities you reach the >> idea, if not the conclusion, that working hours must be cut in the USA. >> Moreover, in my view, cutting working hours is a necessary prior to >> strengthening labor and also prior to moving to socialism. So why not work >> now to build a movement for cutting working hours? > > Fighting to shorten the work-week (and work-year) is a good thing, but > we also need to strengthen labor, since (with labor in its current > weakened condition) the capitalists can easily compensate for a > shorter work-year by cutting wages and salaries. The fight to shorten > the work-year may encourage strengthening of labor, but it's not > automatic.
We've had his discussion before. Public and private employers have been been aggressively shortening the work week and work year throughout the downturn. They call it part-time work and furloughing. You can agitate for shorter hours at no loss in pay, but most trade unionists are fighting to hold on to the hours they have and will think that demand utopian in the present context. Where shorter hours have been negotiated, they have almost always resulted in a cut in take home pay, grudgingly accepted by the workers as an alternative to layoffs. These reductions in paid work time have not strengthened the labour movement, but are an expression of its weakness. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
