this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
657 points (99.7% liked)

Work Reform

10137 readers
471 users here now

A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.

Our Philosophies:

Our Goals

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] trolololol 67 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Mate there was a point in time that 7 year olds worked 12h day 6 days a week, and neither women nor people without land were able to vote. Do you think things improved after conversations?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I'm prefacing this with I don't agree with the methodology that I'm about to state, as it's a very morbid one, It's just something I've noticed as I learn history.

No I don't. As seen by history conversations generally do not make change, it's not until it starts getting bloody that change starts to happen. In the case of the 5-day work week it occurred not because of peaceful protest and striking(although it did contribute) but because multiple protests ended up turning bloody which ended up getting the attention of the media which then exponentially increased peer pressure on major companies like Ford, which with the combined ideology that he had which was that if workers have more free time and have more money they can buy more model T's which will then boost his industry further, eventually caused that company to break and drop to the 5-day work week. Due to the prominence that Ford industry was, it basically forced every other company to follow suit or get left behind and then eventually 25 years later it was written into Federal law.

I firmly believe if that movement had stayed peaceful, Ford would not have caved (or had done something lesser), and we would still be working the 70 Hour Work Week, and while I do not agree that violence is the answer to making change I can't argue that it gets results.