The Case for a Shorter Work Week
by Kim Moody and Simone Sagovac
[2]Time Out! looks at the changes in work and working time and the impact they are having on all workers. Good-paying union jobs are replaced by low-paid, unsafe nonunion "contingent" jobs. Injuries and stress related diseases are on the rise. Working-class family incomes are falling.
Time Out! talks about solutions. It looks at those who have fought excessive overtime, family-busting alternative work schedules, and the overwork they bring. It looks at how part-time or contract workers can organize and bargain to win decent wages and benefits.
Time Out! offers a way forward for labor. The fight for a shorter work week with no loss in pay, argues authors Kim Moody and Simone Sagovac, is the key to saving our health, our families, and our jobs. It can also revitalize and unite the labor movement around a goal that benefits every working person.
As a union organizer and activist in the 1960s and 1970s and a journalist for Labor Notes in the 1980's and 1990's, Kim Moody has been a close observer of the trends and struggles he analyzes. In plain language, he deals with the complex forces facing unionism and the means for dealing with them.
Simone Sagovac currently works for Teamsters for a Democratic Union in Detroit.
Contents include:
- Why employers are using part-time and temporary help and contracted workers
- Overtime and alternative work schedules as managements tools
- The social crisis being created
- Occupational stress
- Examples of successful programs used to combat these problems
- Bargaining for contingent workers
- Resource guide
What others are saying about Time Out!:
"The fight for a shorter work week has been on hold too long in this country. Employers are battering workers into longer hours with less pay almost at will. At the same time, unions in all other industrialized countries are winning struggles to shorten work time. The Labor Notes pamphlet Time Out! is a well documented analysis of the problem and offers strategic suggestions for 'jump-starting' that initiative in America."
— Jerry Tucker, director
New Directions Worker Education Center
"Our local has this pamphlet in our resource library. It is an invaluable tool for phone workers looking for arguments against, and alternatives to, the horrendous amount of overtime we are working because of corporate greed and mismanagement. It is also an educational tool for our members to learn the connection between their overtime, the lay-offs of their co-workers, and the homeless and unemployed who try to survive in the streets of Portland every day."
— Madelyn Elder, secretary-treasurer, CWA Local 7901
64 pages