As President Emeritus Tom Sito notes, today is the 70th anniversary of the 40-hour work-week.
Oct 24th, 1938-The Fair Labor Standards Act established the 40 hour workweek as the law of the land. Despite this, Animation Studios kept to a 46 hour workweek until 1941. ...
The FLSA has been stretched and twisted many times since it was passed into law. But here is how it got started:
On Saturday, June 25, 1938, to avoid pocket vetoes 9 days after Congress had adjourned, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed ... a landmark law in the Nation's social and economic development -- Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA).
Against a history of judicial opposition, the depression-born FLSA had survived, not unscathed, more than a year of Congressional altercation. In its final form, the act applied to industries whose combined employment represented only about one-fifth of the labor force. In these industries, it banned oppressive child labor and set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents, and the maximum workweek at 44 hours. ...
And here is a handy chart that shows the effect of the minimum wage over the last seventy years. (You will observe that although the nominal minimum wage is up, it is below the purchasing power attained back in 1950.)
Posts
22 comments:
I remember reading that at one time, Congress debated whether or not to legislate a 4-day work week. Then the Depression happened.
Damn, how I wish that legislation had gone through. Then, maybe, most working stiffs could have LIVES. 3 days off is enough to get necessary chores done, and have fun. 2 days aren't nearly enough. SUCKS!
The powers that be.......allow "commoners" to have an extra day off to make headway in this society?
Good heavens! Let's create a Depression, quickly and shut 'em down.
Hmmmm. Sounds familiar.
I haven't worked less than a 60-hr. week in years and never had a vacation. Most of the people I know are in the same boat. Unions (or at least the animation union) can stop patting themselves on the back.
Unions, unfortunately, are only as strong as the people in them.
Members don't go to meetings, stay informed, know the contract, stand up for their contractual rights, then guess what?
The union will be less effective.
I haven't worked less than a 60-hr. week in years and never had a vacation. Most of the people I know are in the same boat.
So what studio do you work for? I've never heard of a union employee not getting vacation. And I've been around awhile.
Doesn't sound like Mr. 60-hours-a-week belongs to a union. Nor does it sound like he's tried to organize his fellow employees into one.
What difference does it make? The union is incapable of really helping.
And all that "union is only as strong as its blah blah blah" is just more ineffective rhetoric.
Anon 9:00am -
The same can be said for Mr. "Blah Blah" Anon 9:56am.
What, it was Franklin D. Roosevelt? I thought 40 hours was Steve Huletts idea.
The union is incapable of helping? Really? Every union studio I worked for gave me 2-weeks vacation a year, and if I worked over 40 hrs/week, I was paid overtime.
From experience, I know that if those studios went non-union, those benefits would lessen and/or disappear.
Not saying the union is perfect, but it definitely helped, contrary to your sullen, defeatist post.
His sullen, defeatist post is, I'm sure, due to watching this union take and not supporting existing members. Real job posts? Let's keep talking about all the overtime they fought for. Employment pool the studios should pull from first? Oh, that's how real unions work not the wacky cartoony guys.
So you want an employment roster.
Doesn't matter how incompetent a person is, the studio HAS to hire him before a demonstrably more talented outsider can be hired.
Sorry, I don't agree. It's those kinds of policies that have given unions a bad name, and have led to legitimate accusations of mediocrity.
Lets bring in some one to work for one season then move on to another field, like games or vfx and never work in animation again. If you're on a roster you still need to be reviewed, if you suck you stay on the roster and not in a studio. Just saying, they need to go there first and have a real reason not to hire from the pool. As long as the union gets it's starting dues let's just keep turning these people over.
What would be the process for a talented newcomer to get onto the roster?
If the guy who sucks remains on the roster, what happens to the talented newcomer? Does he even get a chance?
I agree that age-ism has become a serious issue. But I don't see a way to remedy it without then hurting someone else equally.
I worked for one of the large studios prior to its unionization. It had fantastic benefits. When it went union everything was cut in half.
Anon 2:38pm -
I'll bite and call "Fact Check". Let's hear where you worked and what was cut.
New poster here... I work at Disney, and when we went to a 45 hour week, there was no increase in pay, just a restructuring of current rates to reflect the fact that we were now getting five hours of "overtime", and our 40 hour base rate was decreased. So, no more 40 hour week at Disney, those days are gone.
Great point
For "new poster" at Disney-
The union draws certain legal lines in the sand. So long as Disney operates on the legal side of those lines, they are within the agreement.
You're still paid overtime for those 5 hours, and the rate at which you're paid is still always at least union minimum or above.
At Disney, I've never heard any of us calling for a strike, or demanding a new collective agreement which abrogates what Disney did. I heard some mild grumbling, and then nothing. If WE weren't going to raise some fire about it--well, WE'RE the union membership.
If the union wasn't in place at Disney, we'd all be paid Pixar rates. But yeah, if you're fired up about the 45-hour week, let's all bring the matter to the union and demand a new agreement with Disney! It may come down to a strike. You up for it?
I work at Disney, and when we went to a 45 hour week, there was no increase in pay, just a restructuring of current rates to reflect the fact that we were now getting five hours of "overtime", and our 40 hour base rate was decreased. So, no more 40 hour week at Disney, those days are gone.
People at Disney who were overscale had their pay cut by working an extra five hours of o.t.
People who were scale got more money because they started working five hours of o.t.
Disney was cutting the pay of overscale employees. That's what the 45-hour work week was all about.
Let me see if I got this right. Let's say the common average weekly pay rate for many key classifications has settled in at around $1,900 a week. It may have taken us a few years to get up to that over scale rate as a result of good work. A $50 a week increase every year or so, you get the feeling they're trying to treat you right as much as they can, within the boundaries of the budgets. It's seen as a reward.
So by cutting everyone's weekly pay back to $1,628.56 (the contract minimums) and insisting that we all work 5 extra hours of overtime, they'll be paying $1,928.56. So, in essence they'll be getting an extra 5 hours of our time for an additional $28.56. And our hourly rate has gone down about $10. Is that about right?
This sounds like a clever scheme devised by Mr. Sucky and Uncle Skummy, and I guess it's perfectly legal. These guys must lay awake nights looking for shit like this to do.
But look at the bright side. Without the union contract, we might be looking at $10 an hour, $400 a week.
Our pals.
Ahhh, yes. The 40-hour work week. Those were grand days of a bygone era, before I entered the world of the TV storyboard (at a union shop).
Post a Comment