Time to fight for a shorter work weekBy Tim WheelerThis article was reprinted from the September 5, 1998 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits. 
BALTIMORE - George A. Meyers, chair of the Labor Commission of the Communist Party USA, warmly greeted the recent wave of strikes in which the main demand has been the preservation of existing union jobs threatened by corporate America's ferocious downsizing offensive. "We hail the great fight that workers are waging to save union jobs," Meyers told the World in an interview at his Baltimore home. "The GM workers walked the picketline for six weeks to save 10,000 jobs in Flint Michigan. The Communications Workers of America struck against Bell Atlantic last month and forced the company to agree to phase out hundreds of jobs presently contracted out to non- union employers. This was a helluva settlement." Meyers, who helped organized the 10,000 workers at the Celanese plant in Cumberland, Md. into the Textile Workers during the 1930s, said their contract with the company included a clause that all work done in the mill would be performed by union workers. "If they tried to bring in non- union subcontractors, we would shut the mill down," Meyers said. "The only exception was construction work and that had to be done by unionized building trades workers." But a downside of these recent strike struggles, Meyers said, is that many non-union employees have been terminated. "These non-union workers are not scabs. Many of them were once union workers who lost their jobs because of downsizing. Their employers tell them to blame the union for losing their jobs. This can be used to split the workers - to pit unionized workers against non-union workers." The answer, he said, is for the labor movement to spearhead the struggle for millions of new livable wage jobs. "What we need are demands to unify the whole working class and the most obvious is a shorter workweek, a six hour day with no cut in pay," Meyers said. "Outlaw forced overtime. It would create millions of new jobs. Its a way to go after the enormous profits of these corporations." A shorter workweek makes sense given the tremendous increases in worker productivity. Meyers cited Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point mill that once employed 30,000 workers. Now it is down to about 7,000 workers who produce just as much steel. Computerization is another factor. Big Business, Meyers said, has simply pocketed the colossal extra profits generated by the technological revolution and by brutal speedup and forced overtime. The AFL-CIO estimates that there are 21 million part-time workers, a big majority minimum wage with no benefits. "They get part-time pay but full time bills," Meyers said. A cut in the statutory workweek would make them full-time workers, Meyers said. "Double the minimum wage and these workers would have full-time, livable wage jobs," he added. "It is not pie in the sky," Meyers said. "In Germany, the labor movement fought for and won a 35 hour workweek with no cut in pay as a means of forcing German Big Business to hire additional workers. The French center-left coalition government has also promised to implement a reduction in the workweek with no cut in pay. "Its got to be a demand directed at the government," he said. "What we need is a statutory reduction in the workweek with no cut in pay." The AFL-CIO has long been on record for a shorter workweek with no cut in pay. During the 1970s, Rep. John Conyers (D- Mich.) sponsored legislation that provided for a 35 hour statutory workweek, the outlawing of forced overtime and double-time for all work over 35 hours a week. The Meany- Kirkland AFL-CIO leadership refused to support the measure. "But we have a different labor leadership today," Meyers said. There are other unifying demands such as a fight for a universal national health care system, Meyers said. Another is a massive public works jobs program. It would create millions of jobs repairing the nation's infrastructure - streets, water mains, sewers, schools, libraries, and recreation centers. A recent report by New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi warned that $90 billion is needed at a minimum to repair New York's collapsing infrastructure. Nationally, hundreds of billions would be required. As a start, Rep. Matthew Martinez (D-Calif.) has introduced a bill to provide $250 billion for a public works jobs program over five years. Meyers also cited the struggle to defend affirmative action programs. "The AFL-CIO in Washington state is in the thick of the fight to defeat Initiative 200, a ballot measure that would outlaw affirmative action," Meyers said. "Racism is Corporate America's favorite weapon for splitting the working class. Affirmative action is a program that moves us toward equality in hiring and promotions." Meyers said this program will unify the working class because each of the demands is in the vital interests of the class as a whole. "It will take a strong, unified grassroots movement to win each of these demands," he said. "If organized labor takes the lead in fighting for such a program, it will greatly facilitate the drive to organize the unorganized."
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