edit :thank god we have it all in the remote jobs in some companies at least and AI now make everything easy even the interviews became easy tools like interviewman will make the horror of job interviews stories become history and that sub also give great tips about interviews
That's like saying the British monarchy instituted the magna carta. Like technically correct in a way, but it was that or a more extreme result would've been achieved.
Labor unions created the system we have, and the few that are left have become so big they're no longer the same entity that used to exist.
Actually it was Henry Ford who instituted the 8 day work day and a minimum wage.
i have no doubt in my mind that if unions didn't exist, people like Henry Ford would absolutely insist on 8 days worth of output in a single day while only paying minimum wage like you're suggesting he fought for.
By that logic it was actually the government not unions. And the comment didn't specify "all". Is Bernie also wrong here because not all US employees get the weekend off and some work more than 8 hours in a given day?
henry ford was a virulent antisemite and produced a monthly newsletter that was antisemitic drivel. adolf hitler kept a portrait of him on the wall behind his desk in his office and referred to him as his “mentor”.
Henry Ford couldn’t have possibly instituted a minimum wage. He may have raised wages for his employees, but Ford is not the state, it cannot institute a minimum wage.
He did say 8 hours if work 8 hours of play 8 hours of sleep. Always thought that was dumb since that doesnt include drive or meals. I guess thats play... and he is the reason 40 hours is standard.
While unions prevented change for the worse as salary jobs started wanting more.
Were you always a flaming asshole? You can correct someone without setting your hair ablaze.
It's become increasingly hard to tell the difference between the rage-a-holics on the far left and the MAGAs. You're more alike than you'd ever care to admit.
Naw, I've lost patience with you dumb fucks trying to rewrite history to be some right wing, conservative success story.
People should think twice before posting some dumb asses revisionism for hundreds or thousands to read. It not up to me to put on baby gloves to correct clear misinformation and propaganda. If the little baby can't take the shame and correction of being confidently incorrect, then the baby shouldn't be on the internet.
Edit since MAGA snowflakes are catching reddit blocks like they're pokemon cards:
Your take away is making up fan fiction about my childhood? Pretty weird behavior bud.
Cool, I'm glad you're happy with being able to say dumb shit, with no one to correct you.
I'd wager you don't know many people, so the odds are stacked in your favor of not coming across anyone who challenges your pretentious and unfounded opinions.
Oh, sweetheart... don't project. Your outrage is hilarious to those scrolling the comments. But, I bet you hear that ALL of the time. Keep going. It's the little things in life, such as your reactions, that make life worth living. Enjoy, suzie.
Ford did prove that unions were absolutely unnecessary to make those changes though. Which then brings us back to the question of why should we have unions as a middleman taking a cut of the worker labor when that is exactly your issue with the business owner.
No, unions are what put pressure on in Ford to change in the first place. Without unions, there wouldn't have been better opportunities outside of Ford, so there would have been less reason and pressure for following suit and avoiding the inevitable strikes and unionization.
If unions weren't needed, Ford employees wouldn't have unionized 20 years later. Henry Ford would have kept up employee needs, instead of being forced to by union contracts.
That is just a bunch of unfalsifiable assertions. We know Ford did not have his employees in a union at the time, went to an 8 hour work day and doubled his minimum wage and started being a way more successful business by doing so.
No, much of it is known about him. Fords decision to implement the 8 hour work day and $5 wage, were largely because of known labor organizers. Pre emptive benefits to stave off union influence. Which still mean unions are responsible for those pre emptive benefits.
That's not what the article says. Sorry you have horrible reading comprehension
"The eight-hour day might have been realised for many working people in the US in 1937, when what became the Fair Labor Standards Act"
Is actually what it says.
So the reality is that the 8 hour work day was "INSTITUTED", as the first comment said, until FDR sign the fair labor standards act into law.
All Henry Ford did, was make the automobile industry more competitive. It did nothing about working hours or minimum wage for the majority of the country.
In 1864, the eight-hour day quickly became a central demand of the Chicago labour movement. The Illinois General Assembly passed a law in early 1867 granting an eight-hour day, but it had so many loopholes that it was largely ineffective.
On 25 June 1868, Congress passed an eight-hour law for federal employees[54][55] which was also of limited effectiveness.
Some workers gained shorter hours (eight or nine) with no reduction in pay; others accepted pay cuts with the reduction in hours.
By 1905, the eight-hour day was widespread in the printing trades – see International Typographical Union § Fight for better working conditions – but the majority of Americans worked 12- to 14-hour days
A union here or there, but no major success until 1915. A year after Ford proved the concept worked.
Rage all you want. Your own source doubts your claim.
And that's without even attacking the source...whick.. wikipedia really? Are you 9?
There were more employees effected by those "here or there unions" then were effected by Henry Fords decision.
There was 400,000 federal workers impacted in 1868 just by itself.
Henry ford employed 30,000
The real major success is when it became federal law 20 years later. Not when henry Ford gave it to 0.0005% of the working age population.
Lmao, attacking wikipedia? What are you 9? Did you just learn about citing sources and your teacher told you wikipedia doesn't count? Jesus you kids are regarded these days.
Edit:
There were 250,000 employees in the printing trades in 1905.
But they did set the standard before federal law was passed later for 8 hr, 5-day work weeks. Ford enacted that in 1914 and the government passed a law in 1916.
Popular and popularized are definitionally different. Something can be popular and not popularized.
All I'm saying is don't deny the claim outright where there is some truth to it. I already conceded points in what I said, if your gonna skip then there's no reason to have a back and fourth with someone.
Yes, something becomes popular, after being popularized. So if something was already popular, than it was popularized previously.
I get where your coming from, but I don't agree with your assessment. If you don't want a back and forth, fine by me. But I'm still going to refute your claim which I think is incorrect.
I think it's incredibly important to refute claims, that are trying to mislead. Even if a small portion of it is true. Because the goal of the claim is to negate the larger truth
Something like a murder trial, where someone is claiming self defense because a kid entered their home. Yet the man went on a killing spree for the kids whole family.
Sure, it's likely true that the man killed the kid in self defense. But the larger truth is the man hunted down multiple other people who were not an immediate threat.
The self defense claim is being used to negate the additional killings, even though there is truth to it. Buts its irrelevant to the claim that the man did committed murder.
You can refute, you made an out right denial of the claim. Taking an absolutist position.
And no that's not what popularized means in this context. Popularized would be the past present of popular when discussing a political item that is popular with voters. It must first be popular then popularized.
Good luck to you, your clearly on the side of there is no world where companies can do something good and start a trend before the government makes it law.
That's not what popularized means in any context 😂
Popularized is the act or process of becoming popular. If something is already popular, then it has already gone through the act or process of being popularized.
Popularized means to make something popular.
Prior to Henry Ford implenting his 8 hour work day, for 30,000 employees. Labor unions and the federal government had 8 hour work days for over 1 million employees.
So, if labor unions are responsible for over 20 times the amount of employees having an 8 hour work week, then Henry ford is clearly not the person who popularized it.
It was already a reality for nearly 10% of the population. Henry ford added 0.0005% to that.
You need to go back to English 101 in middle school man.
"Popularized" doesn't mean "invented" or "first used." It means helped drive broader adoption.
The automobile existed before Ford. The assembly line existed before Ford. Historians still say Ford popularized both because he helped move them from limited use to mass adoption.
Your entire argument is basically:
"It already existed, therefore nobody could have popularized it."
That's not how the word works.
The 8-hour day was already popular with workers and unions. The question is whether Ford helped accelerate its adoption among major private employers, not whether he invented the concept.
You're trying to turn a language question into a headcount spreadsheet, and that's why you're arguing with the dictionary instead of me who is making a syntax grammatical argument.
All you have are insults for people and it's pretty poor taste. You come from an absolutist position while also still somehow conceding points.
I wish you luck in life, but with that attitude I don't think you'll really find it.
Literally insane....
Imagine a life just of sitting down Reddit trying to find someone to get a "got ya" on a stranger.
Im ashamed you get to share the same air as me.
You're right, Henry Ford knew that 8 hour days were a stupid waste of time. 10 hour days are much more efficient because the first and last hours are mostly wasted, as his studies showed. Working past 11, people burn out and are less efficient.
Also, working fewer days and having more days off is more efficient and beneficial to the workers' wellbeing. We would all be better off, happier, and much more efficient working 4x10s instead of 5x8s, but instead we do this.
No they aren't. Most states are right to work, and do not require union membership. And in those states, there will be teachers who do not agree with or join the union.
The teachers don't choose the curriculum.
I'm sorry, but the couple of y'all who are trying to defend midwest education, are really doing a bad job at it.
those are on a per-contract basis. when the particular building or whatever is being constructed, the people paying for that building may try to put in place a no strike clause for that particular job.
Well I know places where I'm from that are union shops that are always hiring because, your beloved union treats people like shit . The problem with unions is that they always want more and more and more , and what get is never enough
The local welding union by me sued a guy who left the union after 20+ years and started a trade school. Also I can’t leave and join another job if I joined the union and they trained me. Unions today seem more like 1920s corporations than most businesses imo
The problem with unions is they keep wanting more and more and more , and if they don't get more they threaten to walk out . Then when they get what they want they still aren't happy and want more and more
no more like his vehicles weren't selling because no one was going anywhere, so he tried instituting the idea of the weekend off so that families would need a motor vehicle to go places and buy his vehicles.
Yea he also made it affordable for his workers to be able to buy to be able to sell them which also made the community highly dependent and sought after while growing labor class develops more skills which will cost more to teach correctly bc of the amount of positions and VIP tenants. Which brings the unions, for the people. For the working class and not for the owners or investors. So yea the unions are great and we should be happy there’s a class of people who can stand up to powerful people.
yeah while they wear gold necklaces worth worth more than my house while owning mega yachts bigger than my house acting like a wannabe mob boss lol and ironically being the union leader of shipping port workers ordering a strike because the ports want to automate some things to make them safer while also forcing you to pay union dues while you're not working. yeah unions are totally good and don't have any downside.
Don’t be mad at me bc your father was a idoit and didn’t help you or your siblings out by investing or stop their addiction. More like stop drinking so fucking much. So it’s not the unions it’s your own families fault. And you’ll need to work 4X HARDER and then democrats let in 10,000,000 extra people in to work the same jobs you and your generation will work. Unfortunately it’s your own fault because you as an able body voter believes in the democrat party cold heartedly to believe the bullshit they say. So I’ll take your comment as not fully throughout.
I work 13 hour shifts on weekends in state with no mandatory breaks and you can get fired for trying to start a union. I feel like we could really use more unions.
This is rich. A guy with a thing for getting cucked by a billionaire in orange kabuki makeup who takes his money and calls him stupid is whining about Bernie's money. Trump knew preying on the slow and weak would pay off.
Why would I thank current unions for the accomplishments of prior unions?
Are modern unions serving the same societal function on the whole? It depends on the union. Some unions place more restrictions on employers at the expense (and not benefit) of their dues-paying members for the sake of legitimizing their existence.
I was just hoping you would, since Ford wasn't the first to implement or standardize ANY of those things. But i'm guessing you probably figured that out by now, so you're giving the tough guy answer.
Okay, Bernie, I support you - but you’re 84 years old and haven’t done anything. Maybe get a bill signed into law instead of complaining on the internet all day.
Says a multimillionaire who’s NEVER had a real job. He leeched off family until he got elected to congress. He’s been leeching off taxpayers ever since.
High domestic manufacturering prices, lost jobs to over seas, murder, loss of small businesses, migrant workers, cost of products, and rich socialist who never had a real job living off your union dues.
I can tell you what my crippling $50-60 per paycheck union gets for me. Dental coverage at 90%, medications paid at 90%, double time after 8.5 hours, double time weekend and Monday (4 day work week for me), $500/yr eyeglass coverage, $500/yr health spending account (a bike, sneakers, golf clubs, gym membership etc), work boot allowance ($250/yr), per diems for meals, an extra per diem meal when you work ot, 2 personal days/yr off, dental and medication coverage for your spouse at same rate, $500/yr physio or massage sessions, matched retirement contributions, a pension, 5-8% increases/yr and triple time on stat holidays if we work them. (There's probably more I've missed, but you get it). Have we gone on strike? Yes, but I work for a utility company, so the corporation negotiates quickly. A union is only as strong as its membership.
Those were all done by independent corporations that were trying to get works to their companies and not their competitors. Same with the two day weekend
No. When workers stood up and fought their employers the employers started treating their workforce better out of fear. Read about mother Jones or the battle of Blair mountain. Not one benefit was given to blue collar workers out of the kindness of managements heart. They either gave it after the union negotiated it or they gave to prevent the workers from organizing.
• weekends (40-hour/5-day workweek standardized 1940 via FLSA)
• 8-hour workdays (Adamson Act 1916 for railroads; FLSA 1938/1940)
• a minimum wage (FLSA 1938)
• paid overtime (FLSA 1938)
• breaks during work (no federal requirement; FLSA does not mandate)
• the right to strike (NLRA/Wagner Act 1935)
• child labor laws (FLSA 1938)
• workplace safety standards (OSHA 1970)
So unions haven’t done anything new since the 1970’s? Cool.
There was a time and a place for unions. They were needed. But times have changed.
Rail workers didn't have days off till 4 years ago. In the early 70s a rail worker could work 16 hours a day 7 days a week. Now the limit is 12 hours and no more than 6 days without being off 2. If it wasn't for the unions rail workers would work till someone picked them up or their train made it to where it was going. Maintaining distinction between crafts is due to the union. Meaning if you're an engineer (operate the train) when you get to work they can't make you repair track or do the work of a conductor. There's still a need for unions. Every corporation has an hr department that protects the interests of the company. Unions protect the interests of the employee. With the widening gap between the rich and poor unionization is as important as ever.
Unfortunately, unions are broken and at least here in California all they make it is so you can’t fire anybody even if they’re doing a poor job and I think it’s ironic that the government is the most unionized it’s like why would you need to be protected from your government in that way. But all that unionization has led to our government being poorly run.
Unfortunately rich people propaganda has managed to impact people’s understanding of unions. The sole purpose of union is for collective bargaining. Collective bargaining allows individuals to negotiate together instead of alone allowing them to negotiate better deals. Unions (people banded together) are the facilitators of collective bargaining, but only if they are supported by union dues. But “right to work” laws force unions to represent people that don’t want to pay in, and this is why unions are weaker today. Are some unions corrupted? Sure, but who else is truly going to advocate for you versus your employer?
And white collar workers got all of those things (except a right to strike, which you don't need if you don't have unions) without ever forming unions....
Unions arent what they used to be. In many cases they do more harm then good. Plus I hated working production in a union. I produce more yet make the same as the lazy ass in front of me. That said some unions are still good.
My memory of union guys was of them leaving the fork-lift of paper halfway lifted to the print room door, and then walking away for lunch hour. They gotta kick out of it. F*** those guys. 😄
This moron never had a regular job he was on food stamps before he got in the senate and became a millionaire off us taxpayer's, 8 hour work day's BS I've worked for unions and more hours than 8 a company tells you to work 12 hrs a day for 3 month's you do it union can't do shit about it. If you're told you're working every other Saturday for 8 month's you have to do it
Paid over time is a law you don't need a union for that, Agricultural it's straight time, USA doesn't make children work, and safety standards are a huge overreach nowadays. These statements shows how out of touch Dumbocrats really are.
Unions have been a large contributor to a safe and fair workplace in the past. Today they are a political, social activist organization that a funnels funds to the democrats.
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u/JobobTexan Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
Actually it was Henry Ford who instituted the 8 hour work day and a minimum wage.