The Eight-Hour Law Backlash
Young workers organize against labor reform, fearing the end of Saturday half-holidays and annual vacations.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Seattle—Hundreds of young men and women throughout the state are already at work against the proposed eight-hour law because it has been brought to their attention that if the act becomes a law and employers are permitted to work their help only eight hours a day, the half-holiday on Saturday as well as the annual vacation granted by many employers to their employees and usually covering a period of a week, will come to an end. While employers are taking no action in the matter, they admit that if the eight-hour bill becomes a law they will be compelled to ask their employees to work all day Saturday and the annual vacation will become a thing of the past. This important fact has aroused these employees and they are now at work in an effort to prevent the eight-hour bill from going on the statute books of the state.
“The half-holiday on Saturday as well as the annual vacation will come to an end.”
This reflects an ironic moment in labor history where workers mobilized against their own potential protections due to corporate messaging. It mirrors modern debates where workers are pitted against structural changes to their own working conditions.
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