UAW strike puts the four day workweek back in focus

One of the demands made by the United Auto Workers (UAW) when they went on strike last week against General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis was centered on a concept that was gaining traction in labor reform circles.

Union members also demand a 32-hour, four-day workweek with no pay cuts, in addition to a 36% wage boost and improved job security.

Recent years have seen an increase in calls for a shorter workweek, with many of these calls being fueled by the flexibility of remote work during the pandemic. Some employees are now beginning to doubt the value of a 40-hour workweek due to the growing use of artificial intelligence in the workplace.

Bernie Sanders has always advocated for a shorter workday in public.

In this country, robotics and artificial intelligence are on the rise. The ordinary worker will be significantly more productive as a result, the Vermont Independent told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. Who is going to profit from this production is the issue that we as a nation must ask. We should start a real conversation about significantly shortening the workweek, and the UAW is already doing so.

Four-day workweek trials have taken place in a number of nations, with the biggest one taking place in the UK last year. The six-month trial had around 2,900 employees from 61 different organizations. Participants reported more time with their kids, better sleep, and decreased levels of burnout.

The ability for people to spend more time with their families, engage in more cultural activities, and receive a higher education would be a remarkable thing, according to Sanders. One of the reasons why life expectancy in America is actually declining is that people are stressed out for a variety of reasons.

According to a different study done in Iceland between 2015 and 2019, fewer workdays per week did not affect output. None of the companies participating in a comparable initiative in the United States and Canada, which included dozens of businesses, intended to go back to the five-day standard after the experiment was over.

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