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by doing things like get us the 8 hour working day How do you figure? To me it seems that most of the union jobs were simply automated away, moved to third wor
by blfr 12y ago
by doing things like get us the 8 hour working day
How do you figure? To me it seems that most of the union jobs were simply automated away, moved to third world countries, or heavily supplemented with illegal immigrant labour. None of those arrangements maintain an 8 hour working day limit.
The remaining positions are generally high-skill or based on independent contractors. No wonder they command higher wages and have better working conditions.
Unions rode the tide of technology and globalization but didn't actually cause it.
- sp332 12y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-hour_day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-hour_day
- blfr 12y agoFrom your link, Although there were initial successes in achieving an eight-hour day in New Zealand and by the Australian labour movement for skilled workers in the 1840s and 1850s, most employed people had to wait to the early and mid twentieth century for the condition to be widely achieved through the industrialized world through legislative action. [And many other countries followed the same trajectory.] How come? I'll take a guess: because it was only made possible in practice in the 20th century by a sufficient increase in productivity, mainly through automation but also economies of scale. And as the process continued, those jobs went away completely. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc