Case for a Four-day work week.

It’s time for labor to go for something very big in the U.S., which always seems to lag behind other countries when it comes to workers. Labor is on a very big winning streak and it’s just like the snowball rolling down a hill. The farther it rolls down the hill the bigger and more powerful it becomes. But if it stops, it will just melt away. The union snowball today is still rolling and getting bigger so let’s go for the four-day work week. The four-day work week gives workers more time with their families, enabling them to do more together, which could, conceivably, improve marriages and reduce juvenile delinquency rates. This work week could be a huge lift to the lifestyle of all workers and their families and the social infrastructure of their communities. There are so many unrecognized benefits to a schedule like this. Benefits and pay would remain the same as a five-day work week. The workers would have more time to participate in their children’s activities, volunteer to be a firefighter, Boy or Girl Scouts, all the different children sports or pursue their own interests. The four-day work week it works perfectly in other countries, like Belgium, United Arab Emirates, Iceland, France, and Lithuania. There are other countries trying this work week in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Botswana, Japan, Canada, Portugal, Brazil and some companies in the U.S. Workers in Denmark have one of the shortest work weeks of 33 hours a week; however, Netherlands has a work week of 29 hours a week, the shortest in Europe. However, the island of Vanuatu has a work week of 24.7 hours—the average American worker works this many hours by mid-morning on Wednesday. According to the World Economic Forum, working a four-day week resulted in workers getting more work done in less time. “Back in 2019, Microsoft Japan introduced a four-day working week and reported a 40 percent boost in productivity.” The pros of a four-day work week include increased productivity, employee retention, employees having a higher self-perceived status, reduced levels of stress, were less tired, personally more satisfied and cost savings. Employees felt incentivized to be more creative, and results in lower burnout rates. Also, the decrease in commuting also led to a decrease in dioxide emissions and improved air quality. The cons can include scheduling challenges (which are worked out), reduced productivity (which hasn’t been the case in other countries), and added stress, presumedly by employees adjusting to a new work schedule, but it has been found this emotion dissipates as the workers adjust. The added potential benefits if unions can get the four-day work week is that it could incentivize nonunion workers to unionize. Now is the time for this work week, the employment rate begins to rise it will be harder for employees to stick with an unfulfilling “crap job.” We should also be asking ourselves why corporations, many of which are American owned, in other countries treat their employees better then they do in the U.S. where some employees work themselves to death, do not have healthcare, sick leave or other benefits these same American corporations provide to European workers. They are not going to hand to U.S. workers, we’re going to have to fight for the same working conditions that our European brothers and sisters receive. National unions have a long history of missing the moment and the will to take necessary risks. So, now is the time for other unions to follow the example of the United Auto Workers and Shawn Fain.