2024 will bring many labor-related developments, including major contract negotiations within many industries. The results of these discussions could impact Big Labor’s overall strength, which is one of the goals of the United Auto Workers in launching their aggressive campaign to organize 13 non-union car manufacturers.
UAW President Shawn Fain also has another goal to land himself in the history books: He is not going to stop talking about the 4-day/32-hour workweek for five days/40 hours of pay. Fain circled back to this failed Big Three demand after previously calling it a “very realistic goal.” Ford CEO Jim Farley countered that this demand would cause automaker bankruptcy, leading to an untold number of lost jobs.
Let’s back up for a moment for some historical perspective.
In the mid-1920s, Henry Ford helped to popularize the 40-hour work week, down from an untenable 80-100 hours per week during the height of the industrial revolution. In 1938, part of the Fair Labor Standards Act codified 40 hours as the full-time standard, and two-day weekends became the U.S. norm through our present times.
That process didn’t go entirely smoothly. President Franklin D. Roosevelt advocated for a 30-hour workweek without success. Economist John Maynard Keynes also famously predicted that 2030 work weeks would be 15 hours long. Clearly, that isn’t in the cards for various reasons, and (spoiler alert) Keynes himself possibly “died from working too hard.”
Fast forward to the brink of 2024, and a few hundred companies have tested four-day workweeks as part of the 4 Day Work Global initiative. Many of these other companies operate in office and nonprofit settings.
Yet some manufacturing companies did participate, and a motor home manufacturer, Advanced RV in Ohio, decided that a four-day workweek would be their ongoing practice. Workers say that they feel refreshed after every three-day weekend, and a shorter work week provides incentive to innovate shortcuts and efficiencies. This approach, however, does require a company to have enough wiggle room to allow for “a tolerance for risk.”
Other manufacturing settings embraced the approach, too. In Italy, Lamborghini has decided to “alternate a five-day week with a four-day week, overall cutting 22 days of work each year” with no cut in pay, according to unions in that deal. It could, however, be argued that a luxury car manufacturer has more financial leeway to achieve this milestone.
Elsewhere, some analysts wonder if happiness and productivity could best be served by a 5-day work week with 32 hours of work, but ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Rather, the goal should be to ensure each company has the right to run its business as it sees fit. That right begins to slip away once a union enters the picture.
The trick, as always, is not to provide opportunities for unions to gain a foothold. There’s no substitute for a healthy workplace where workers feel that their concerns are listened to and addressed by management. Would most people love a 4-day work week? C’mon, you know that’s true.
With that said, employers could decide, on an individual basis, to allow more flex time (or a comparative perk) for workers if the job setting allows. It’s at least something to consider as unions gear up for a 4-day workweek battle in 2024 and beyond.
