Bumblebee Sweet Potato

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Just over 120 years ago, on May 1, 1886, workers in Chicago and other cities across the U.S. struck for the eight-hour day. Until that point, workers were commonly forced to work 10 or more hours in a day, without additional compensation. They had been organizing for nearly 20 years to build a movement to take back their own lives. Their slogan was "eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what you will." Their strike was met with violence, but it paid off–states started passing legislation limiting the workday, and in 1940 (I know, can you believe it took 74 years?), the US Congress finally passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which set one workday standard for the entire country.

In the 1960s and '70s, women in the U.S. agitated for equal access to jobs and for equal pay. They demanded access to quality childcare programs and after-school care, so that they could be reliable workers. And while the struggle for pay equity continues, we've mostly won the access-to-jobs fight at this point–woe be to any employer who puts a 'girls need not apply' ad in the classifieds these days.

But where did it get us? And by us, I mean all of us, not just women, not just shift workers, not just working parents. Those things were good things to win, and they made our lives better–I don't know anyone who's interested in going back to the working conditions that existed in 1886. But they didn't go far enough.

The fight for the eight-hour day was predicated on the idea that a man should be able to feed his family on what he earned in eight hours in a day. It wasn't just that he should only have to work eight hours–it was that he should have a family-sustaining wage at his eight-hour job. The fight for equal access for women was fought not just to give highly educated women access to jobs at law firms that wouldn't hire them before–it was a fight to give women entry into jobs as welders, and race car drivers, and I don't know, hod carriers.

I don't think our forefathers and foremothers could've predicted where we've ended up as a result of their efforts. Now, instead of one job providing a family-sustaining wage, we've got two parents working just to get by. Now, instead of the eight-hour day, we're creeping back to the ten-hour day with no additional pay. We're juggling our kids, our jobs, our homes. It's not about keeping up with the Jones' anymore, it's about keeping ahead of the bill collector.

There are those who would say it's the workers who got greedy, that the dysfunction of our society is just about people wanting too much, wanting two cars, and a tv in every room, and expensive consumer electronics. I disagree. I think we didn't demand enough, didn't fight for the logical conclusion of the eight-hour day and equal access to jobs.

I think it's time for the four-hour day.

If we believed, as we did, that one man, working eight hours in a day, should be able to sustain his family, then it's time for the four-hour day. If we believed, as we did, that women should be able to have equal access to jobs, and to have equal pay for their work in those jobs, then it's time to demand the four-hour day. We've more than doubled our workforce by adding women to the mix–why haven't we seen a halving in the need for our labor?

Try to imagine what your life would be like right now, if feminists and the labor movement had joined this fight, together, thirty years ago. Imagine that you could spend time volunteering in your kids' school, or shopping to cook healthy meals, or hanging out and reading to your baby. Imagine if you weren't pressed for time every moment of your day, so that by the time Friday night rolls around, you collapse in a heap, too tired to do anything but watch Law & Order reruns.

As we approach this Mother's Day weekend, why not do something good for all the mothers in your life, and the fathers too. Call your Congressperson and Senator. Tell them it's time for the four-hour day. We might not win it for ourselves, but if we don't start now, we won't even win it for our grandchildren.

*To order this poster, go here. For more info on the economics behind the four-hour day, go here.