eight-hour day

(noun)

A primary demand of workers in labor disputes, and the object of the strike which led to the Haymarket affair.

Related Terms

  • anarchist

Examples of eight-hour day in the following topics:

  • The Cripple Creek Miners' Strike of 1894

    • Hagerman, David Moffat, and Eben Smith, who together employed one-third of the area's miners, announced a lengthening of the work day to ten hours (from eight), with no change to the daily wage of $3.00 per day.
    • Union president John Calderwood issued a notice a week later demanding that the mine owners reinstate the eight-hour day at the $3.00 wage.
    • Portland, Pikes Peak, Gold Dollar, and a few smaller mines immediately agreed to the eight-hour day and remained open, but larger mines held out.
    • At the beginning of March, the Gold King and Granite mines gave in and resumed the eight-hour day.
    • The Waite agreement, providing for the resumption of the $3.00-per-day wage and the eight-hour day, became operative the same day, and the miners returned to work.
  • Anarchism

    • In 1886, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labour Unions (FOTLU) of the United States and Canada unanimously set May 1, 1886, as the date by which the eight-hour work day would become standard.
    • The next day, May 4, anarchists staged a rally at Chicago's Haymarket Square.
    • The incident became known as the Haymarket Affair, and was a setback for the labor movement and the struggle for the eight-hour day.
    • In 1890, a second attempt, this time international in scope, to organize for the eight-hour day was made.
    • Although it had initially been conceived as a one-off event, by the following year, the celebration of International Workers' Day on May Day had become firmly established as an international worker's holiday.
  • Middle-Class Reformers

    • At the urging of such prominent social critics as Jane Addams , child labor laws were strengthened and new ones adopted, raising age limits, shortening work hours, restricting night work and requiring school attendance.
    • By the early 20th century, most of the larger cities and more than half the states had established an eight-hour day on public works .
  • The Coal Strike of 1902

    • The strike never resumed, as the miners received more pay for fewer hours, however, the mine owners refused to recognize the trade union as a bargaining agent.
    • The anthracite strike ended, after 163 days, on October 23, 1902.
    • The commissioners began work the next day, then spent a week touring the coal regions.
    • Darrow, for his part, summed up the pages of testimony of mistreatment he had obtained in the soaring rhetoric for which he was famous for saying: "we are working for democracy, for humanity, for the future, for the day will come too late for us to see it or know it or receive its benefits, but which will come, and will remember our struggles, our triumphs, our defeats, and the words which we spake. "
    • The miners had asked for an eight-hour day and were awarded a nine-hour day instead of the standard ten hours then prevailing.
  • The Haymarket Affair

    • Eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy and seven were sentenced to death in the aftermath of the Haymarket Affair.
    • It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour day.
    • Parsons spoke for almost an hour before standing down in favor of the last speaker of the evening, Samuel Fielden , who delivered a brief 10 minute address.
    • In the internationally publicized legal proceedings that followed, eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy , although the prosecution conceded that none of the defendants had thrown the bomb.
  • Setbacks for Unions

    • Harding and Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover convened a White House conference with manufacturers and unions to reduce the length of the 12-hour work day in a move to support the cause of labor, and the steel industry followed by reducing the 12-hour work day to eight hours.
    • In April 1929, the Communist-affiliated National Textile Workers Union (NTWU) focused its attention on the small town of Gastonia, North Carolina, where it helped organize a strike of 1,800 Loray Mill employees who demanded a 40-hour work week, minimum $20 weekly wage, union recognition, and the abolition of the stretch-out system.
    • A clash left the police chief dead and people on both sides wounded, with 71 strikers arrested and eight strikers and eight NTWU members indicted for murder.
  • X-Ray Studies of the GI Tract

    • When the patient needs to undertake an upper GI, he or she may be asked to fast on the previous day.
    • Normally, the patient must avoid solid food for up to eight hours prior to the appointment and avoid any type of consumable, including water, three hours prior to the testing.
    • This is common, and may last up to 72 hours following the test.
    • Another common side effect is the bleaching of solid waste matter; this may last up to 48 hours.
  • Circadian Rhythms

    • The circadian rhythm also causes us to feel more alert at certain points of the day, even if we have been awake for hours.
    • Along with a nap at mid-day, it has been argued that this is the natural pattern of human sleep.
    • In one experiment on segmented sleep, researchers had eight healthy men confined to a room for fourteen hours of darkness every day for a month.
    • They would sleep for about four hours, wake up for two to three hours, then go back to bed for another four hours.
    • They also took about two hours to fall asleep.
  • The Beginnings of the Labor Movement

    • After striking for higher wages, in 1806, eight union leaders were brought to trial and accused of conspiring to increase their pay rates.
    • In 1835, children employed in the silk mills in Paterson, New Jersey, initiated an unsuccessful strike for an 11-hour day.
    • In 1827, The Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations formed as a proxy of the united crafts in Philadelphia, with the primary goal of reducing the 12-hour work day.
    • Carpenters, representing the union, led a strike for the 10-hour day in June 1827.
    • In 1837, dozens of industries achieved a victory when the City of Philadelphia passed legislation prohibiting businesses from employing workers for more than 10 hours a day.
  • The Rise of Big Business

    • Women and children worked in bad conditions for long periods of time, mostly about 12-16 hours per day .
    • They only made about a half a dollar per day, which was not much in that time.
    • In the cities, laborers and employers often clashed over wages, sanitary conditions, working hours, benefits, and several other issues.
    • Eight officers were killed in the explosion and gunfight that ensued.
    • As a result, eight anarchists were tried for murder--four were sentenced to death and one committed suicide.
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