WASHINGTON ― May 1 is a day to celebrate the start of spring and the freedom for working people to do what they want on nights and weekends. May Day has long been known as International Workers’ Day because of something that happened as workers fought for shorter hours, which used to be one the foremost demands of the American labor movement. Labor leaders moved away from general strikes after the Haymarket Affair but continued pushing for shorter hours. If it hadn’t been for the shorter hours movement, the average workweek would probably be a lot longer. And if the shorter hours movement hadn’t evaporated, the workweek would probably be shorter today.

Source: Huffington Post May 01, 2017 16:41 UTC