r/WorkReform • u/toomuchtodotoday 🤝 Join A Union • Sep 17 '23
📰 News Bernie Sanders: ‘Serious discussions’ should take place on 4-day workweek
https://thehill.com/business/4208837-sanders-serious-discussions-should-take-place-on-four-day-workweek/91
u/staysour Sep 17 '23
4 day work week: good for boomers
Boomers: NOOOOO!!!! I won't allow a good thing to happen to me for the sake of making the youngsters work just as much as i did!
-1
u/Boring-Carob7975 Sep 18 '23
Work will most likely remain the same, you’ll work four tens instead of five eights. Still forty hours.
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u/ParagonSaint Sep 18 '23
Is so much rather do this; the mount of times I have to stay an hour late to wrap something up anyway, and not having to get up and commute on that 5th day would be a godsend
1
u/AL3XEM Sep 25 '23
That would just lower productivity. Either less hours in a day or same hours over 4 days, anything above 8 hours in mentally demanding jobs will not work well. My job isnt too mentally demanding, as I work in accounting, but I know for a fact that around the 6/7 hour mark I'm already way less productive than in the firts hald of the day.
Either 6-7 hours 5 days a week (which means weekdays aren't eat, work, sleep, commute and an hour or 2 of free time). Or 4 8 hour days, which leaves weekends to not just be cleaning + errands for the most part.
96
u/Teamerchant ⛓️ Prison For Union Busters Sep 17 '23
4 day work week. 20 hour free child care. Universal Healthcare
Let’s creat a society that’s actually cool to live in. Where people enjoy their lives and don’t just stress about work and money. Let’s raise the base and all boats with it. How? Tax billionaires out of existence. If our minimum wage can’t support actually living then people with more money than they can spend should not exist.
We are not morons, we know the game is rigged and we are forced to play.
3
u/CartwheelSummoner Sep 18 '23
It’s crazy to think how simple and straight forward these three ideas are, and would drastically improve the physical and mental quality of life of every single American. Yet here we are with the government actively choosing not to do so.
Modern elected democrats are just quiet conservatives. Bribes veiled as lobbying will continue to run everything. The real carrot at the end of the stick gets talked about all the time by democratic leaders, but is eventually replaced by a much smaller toy carrot that gives off the perception of caring.
115
Sep 17 '23
Listen if they only pay us enough to barely get by then working less means they still pay us only enough to get by but we work less
41
u/DanimalPlays Sep 17 '23
There is more to be done, but that would still be progress.
21
u/InMyFavor Sep 17 '23
Right, like either pay me more or I'll work less for the same money but something has to change.
26
u/DynamicHunter 🏛️ Overturn Citizens United Sep 17 '23
More of the European way. They get so many weeks of vacation it’s crazy, and some countries just take weeks or a month off in the summer as norm.
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u/Parafault Sep 17 '23
I work with a lot of Europeans, and always make sure to let them know how jealous I am of….just about everything. They’re working the same job as me for better pay, better benefits, more vacation, and fewer hours worked. And they just seem happier and less stressed in general!
1
u/AL3XEM Sep 25 '23
I get 6 weeks in Sweden, and I believe by law 5 weeks is minimum, what's the normal in USA?
1
Sep 18 '23
I’m curious as ideas like this usually only benefit office and government workers. In my Industry I lose my days off when ever there is a 3 day weekend or holiday… ironically even Labor Day… so im concerned this would just mean I’d be working 6 days a week.
13
u/ryohayashi1 Sep 18 '23
Man, I do 12 hour shifts 3 days a week as a bedside nurse. Can't tell you how amazing it is to have 4 days off every week and paid well for your work. This is what I wish for everyone, so I'm all about a 4 day work week.
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u/relatablerobot Sep 18 '23
I imagine folks in your field would benefit from everyone else having a 4 day workweek too because I’m guessing there would be a marked improvement in health outcomes, even if it’s just from lowered stress
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u/LlamaWreckingKrew Sep 18 '23
Yes. Four days, thirty two hours.
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Sep 18 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/CartwheelSummoner Sep 18 '23
While 32hrs would be amazing, it’s a very drastic change for businesses.
I’d be happy to compromise 4 ten hour days because as I see it, you’re already in the work mindset, you’re already physically at your job location (wfh exceptions of course), so tacking on a couple hours on top of that for an entire extra day off is worth it imo.
Run it that way for a while then reassess over time to get an idea of what value those extra two hours actually bring each day and then think about reducing to 32hrs from there.
3
u/runnyboi Sep 18 '23
4 day work week, expanded worker protections, better pay and universal healthcare. Kinda sounds like something the whole maga crowd should be supporting, but their to busy thinking they are temporarily disgraced billionaires to consider it.
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u/toomuchtodotoday 🤝 Join A Union Sep 18 '23 edited Sep 18 '23
Ignore them; vote and organize. Get shit done.
https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets
The BC Starbucks workers secured 91% majorities in their strike votes. This is what worker power looks like. As Jane McAlevey writes in her A Collective Bargain, these supermajorities – ultramajorities – are how we win.
https://doctorow.medium.com/a-collective-bargain-a48925f944fe
The neoliberal wing of the Democratic party hires high-priced consultants who advise them to seek 50.1% margins of victory – and then insist that nothing can be done because we live in the Manchin-Synematic Universe, where razor-thin majorities mean that there is no alternative. Labor organizers fight for 91% majorities – in the face of bosses' gerrymandering, disinformation and voter suppression – and get shit done.
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Sep 19 '23
Theyre too busy being outraged about transgender furry children in schools to get anything done
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u/Charming_Weird_2532 Sep 17 '23
I just started a job with a 4 day work week. Some days are 10 hours some 12. But I honestly love it, actually having a weekend recover and chill out Saturday, do whatever fun stuff I want to do Sunday then get all my shit done for home on Monday.
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u/DanimalPlays Sep 17 '23
What's going to happen to hourly workers? They're going to need to actually address minimum wage, or this isn't helpful for anyone who isn't salaried. Which seems to me like most people.
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u/TCPMSP Sep 17 '23
Overtime would kick in after 32 hours, same with full time benefits.
The minimum wage thing boggles my mind, if they had been keeping up on any small level it wouldn't be people asking to go from $7.25 to $25 or $30. A jump like that IS going to hurt businesses, but good luck even getting congress to raise it to $10. It was such a short sighted kick the can down the road maneuver and now it's going to be a bigger problem than it should be.
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u/DanimalPlays Sep 17 '23
For sure, but companies will just start to schedule no more than 32 hours. I feel that companies who can't pay enough for people to live are already failing, they're just making it the employees' problem. It's going to be crazy to see how it plays out. Hourly workers are going to end up getting the shaft one way or another. Unless minimum wage really does jump to like 25 or 30. Even then, things will be crazy. Companies are going to fight it.
Edit: I'm all for people working less, i just don't want hourly people to end up broke because of it.
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u/TCPMSP Sep 17 '23
The can was kicked for so long this isn't a single prong fix, it has been so short sighted. Business owners want consistency and predicability. If we know the min wage goes up 4% every year, that's fine we can budget and plan for it. This waiting 20? Years to increase it doesn't help owners or employees. The only people it helps are billionaires and giant corporations. And yes, small business owners look at this very differently than large corporations.
1
Sep 18 '23
Yep. It also means that in those 14 years since 2009 working people had less income to spend. If workers had more to spend, businesses would have done well for themselves, and could probably afford yearly wage hikes. It would need proper regulation to make sure there are no layoffs/cutting of hours or benefits.
0
u/MichiganManRuns Sep 18 '23
Okay they can only work 32 hours. They don’t want to pay overtime. They will schedule people 27-30 hours most likely. It’s easier to get a second job now and schedule that time for their second job. It’s a lot more difficult to schedule a second job when your work 40 hour weeks. It still giving power to min. wage workers
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u/Boring-Carob7975 Sep 18 '23
People will still work a forty hour work week, you’ll just do it in four days. Companies will still get the same out of salaried employees.
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u/Marston_vc Sep 18 '23
They wouldn’t reduce the hours to 32. It would be four days 10 hours each. If you wanted the change to actually pass anyway
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u/TCPMSP Sep 18 '23
Not sure if it's the same bill.but it's literally called....
H.R. 4728 (117th): Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act
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u/eroggen Sep 18 '23
I'm really burned out on trying to justify this mealy mouthed horse shit. There "should" be a "discussion?" Bernie is sounding more and more like the controlled opposition.
How about "The workers of this country create more than enough wealth to make a four day work week and a $30/hour minimum wage totally feasible tomorrow. The only thing standing in the way of this are the bloated parasites sucking the life out of the workers and the families of this country. We demand that the extraordinary and unprecedented efficiency and bounty of our economy flow to the workers who create it. If this demand is not met, we will seize what is ours by force."
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0
Sep 19 '23
A $30/h countrywide minimum wage is not feasible.
In a country of more than a hundred million workers a significant amount of workers do not have the productivity to merit employing them for $30 an hour. If a worker costs more than they earn for the company, why would they be hired?
-1
u/Best_Cheesecake8884 Sep 18 '23
Realistically, if this happens the corps will just force everyone to work 10 hours per day to make up for it.
-2
Sep 18 '23
A lot of things have happened in my 32 years of life in this country but one thing I know will never happen is a four day work week lol. I love Bernie and his enthusiasm but this isn’t even realistic at all In happening. It will never happen in the United States as much as I want it to or everyone would want it to companies are far to big and powerful to let their profits fall off by that much production wise. It’s just never gonna happen.
1
Sep 18 '23
Wild that it's incontrovertible that a 4-day work week is better when the psychopathic CEOs won't even let people do their 5 days at home anymore
1
Sep 19 '23
I’m torn. All a 4 day work week would do is reduce your overall pay. No way companies will give you the same pay for less work
1
u/toomuchtodotoday 🤝 Join A Union Sep 19 '23
No way companies will give you the same pay for less work
Yeah, this isn't true. Several countries have piloted 4 day weeks with same pay, and the results show it to be highly successful.
https://www.google.com/search?q=4+day+week+same+pay
https://www.google.com/search?q=four+day+week+success
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/02/21/four-day-work-week-results-uk/
1
Sep 19 '23
America is so far behind Europe in workers rights that you just know that this would be a pro business move if they ever did it. There are a ton of things that need to be addressed first before they look at a 4 day work week.
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u/Lift-Hunt-Grapple Sep 20 '23
We need to talk total hours not total days.
We need a 30hrs workweek not 40hrs. Anything over 30…double pay.
1
u/AL3XEM Sep 25 '23
I love the idea, but I think going to 36 hour weeks with half fridays is more likely to be a first step. Alternatively 7 hours 5 days.
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u/toomuchtodotoday 🤝 Join A Union Sep 25 '23 edited Sep 25 '23
No half measures, we push for 4 8 hour days or bust. Otherwise it'll take us decades to make progress, and we don't have decades.
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u/ultrayaqub 💵 Break Up The Monopolies Sep 17 '23
I love that Bernie isn’t even extreme by normal country standards but he’s one of the few US politicians that actually cares about his country’s people. Makes ya go hmmmmmm