Listen to today’s Subversive Historian

The Eight Hour Work Day by Subversive Historian Gabriel San Roman

One-hundred and forty-two years ago on this day in people’s history, the newly formed National Labor Union called on Congress to mandate an eight-hour workday. On August 20th, 1866, the NLU failed to sway lawmakers, but took an important step nonetheless in pressuring for this important labor reform. The union organized “eight-hour leagues” and passed a resolution calling the reform “the first and great necessity of the present to free labor of this country from capitalist slavery.” Congress did eventually pass an eight-hour work day reform for federal employees two years later, but reduced wages accompanied reduced hours in many cases. It wasn’t until 1938 that the NLU’s vision was realized under the New Deal.

And if you’re reading this at work, celebrate the eight-hour day by staying out on lunch break twice as long as you’re supposed to!

Clocking out for Uprising, this is your truth professa saying it’s no mystery why they conceal our history!