THE FIVE-DAY WEEK

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16200, 25 November 1926, Page 5

THE FIVE-DAY WEEK

MOVEMENT IN AMERICA. SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 20. The American Federation of Labor has committed itself to a five-day week of 40 hours. The' principle was described as a “cardinal point” in the federation’s ‘policy of constructive progress” by the president, William Green, successor to Samuel Gompers, in his annual address. It was mere coincidence, it is stated, that the announcement, ox cathedra, from the federation, was to be made shortly after the decision of Henry Ford to grant a five-day week as the operative wage base for his employees. Mr. Green alluded to the Ford programme as a sign of the times. The automobile industry was, he said, ready for the shorter" schedule. Other fields ripe for the change, in. his view, were the building trades, mining industry and needle crafts. “The five-dav week is inevitable, said the president. “It is economically sound and practicable. It is also profitable for worker and employer, and has I proved an immense success in the crafts, in which it is partially effective. We have consistently maintained that hours must be reduced in direct proportion to increased production, and productivity has increased in unbelievable bounds.

“We do not want shorter hours at the expense of wages,” lie remarked, “lint- wo know that production will increase with the shorter week. fihb strain of modem industry makes the change imperative. High-pressure production and tlie physical demands of modern industry are. such that only with the shorter period can we obtain notable progress in mechanical production,”