USA’s Only Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders Calls For “30 Hour Work Week” Regimen

America’s only socialist senator and the union chief who brought the automakers in Detroit to their knees, US Senator Bernie Sanders, has unveiled a bill which seeks to create a 32-hour work week for workers.

A 30-Hour Work Week? Bernie Sanders, America’s Socialist Senator, Says Yes

A majority of Americans want a 32-hour work week for workers, and if the bill is passed through the Republican-dominated House and the Democratic-controlled Senate, the 32-hour work week will become a reality.

US Senator Bernie Sanders has tabled the bill to make the 32-hour work week without any loss in pay and will replace the current benchmark of an eight-hour work day, which is applied to thousands of workers in the U.S.

The bill will also lower the benchmark for overtime pay from 40 hours to 32 hours. The bill also envisages the doubling of pay if the worker logs more than 12 hours of work in a day. The move will also rattle employers from keeping their workers beyond the 32 hours threshold.

Speaking before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Thursday, Bernie Sanders who represents Vermont said that there has been a phenomenal increase in technology like artificial intelligence and automation, which has increased the efficiency of the workers manyfold.

But the benefits of this increased productivity did not percolate down to the workers. Instead, the benefits have gone into the pocket of the owners. There has been a yawning gap between the employee earnings as compared to the CEO earnings, and inflation-adjusted earnings have significantly reduced.

Calling the idea as a radical one is incorrect, says the senator. Bernie Sanders recalled that 70 years ago, there was a move to change the working hours to 32 hours without any change in the earnings of the worker. He also added that the measure has been enforced by many countries with enhanced benefits.

The proceedings were also watched by United Auto Workers head Shawn Fain, who was able to wrest concessions from the Big Three Detroit automakers, and he said that it was something which may seem radical in the 1930s but not today.

Bernie Sanders said that a 30 hours’ work per week was passed by the Senate in 1933, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, establishing a 40 hours per week regimen after intense pressure from the corporate world.

Way back in 1955, United Auto Workers (UAW) leader Walter Reuther told the congress that automation and new advances in technology will significantly increase worker productivity and also boost profits for the owners. He, therefore, suggested that reduced work hour will help to cushion the impact of increase in output and also increase the manpower requirements in industry.

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