{"id":9357,"date":"2026-07-20T15:45:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T19:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/?p=9357"},"modified":"2026-08-07T09:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:49:07","slug":"labor-history-160-years-of-the-national-labor-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-44-no-6\/labor-history-160-years-of-the-national-labor-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor History: 160 years of the National Labor Union\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-9358 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Labor-History-Web.jpg\" alt=\"Labor History\" width=\"385\" height=\"271\" srcset=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Labor-History-Web.jpg 569w, https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Labor-History-Web-300x211.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 385px) 100vw, 385px\" \/>August 7, 2026 &#8212;<\/em> August 2026 marks the 160<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">th<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> anniversary of the formation of the National Labor Union (NLU) in Baltimore, Maryland. It was the first labor union in the United States that once formed immediately began to study the concept of an 8-hour workday.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The committee on \u201cEight-Hours in All Its Respects\u201d eventually recommended calling on Congress to establish an 8-hour workday, the start of what is now codified into law through the Fair Labor Standards Act. Congress passed the law in 1868 for federal employees.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The scope of the 1868 law did not come with all the necessary protections, however, as federal workers saw their pay reduced by 20%. A year later, President Ulysses S. Grant issued a proclamation that demanded wages not be cut due to shorter workdays.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Over many decades, the idea of an 8-hour workday would continue to be popular with workers across all sectors. In 1912, then candidate for President Theodore Roosevelt took on the slogan \u201c8 hours for work, 8 hours for rest and 8 hours for what you will\u201d to push the campaign further. <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">By 1873, the NLU was effectively defunct, but the Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor eventually formed and continued the push for workers\u2019 rights.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The 40-hour work week and \u201ctime-and-a-half\u201d overtime pay for those who worked more than 40 hours was added to the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>August 7, 2026 &#8212; August 2026 marks the 160th anniversary of the formation of the National Labor Union (NLU) in Baltimore, Maryland. It was the first labor union in the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"division":[],"allowed_regions":[],"allowed_divisions":[],"class_list":["post-9357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","issue-volume-44-no-6"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Labor History: 160 years of the National Labor Union\u00a0\u00a0 - PEF Communicator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-44-no-6\/labor-history-160-years-of-the-national-labor-union\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Labor History: 160 years of the National Labor Union\u00a0\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"August 7, 2026 &#8212; August 2026 marks the 160th anniversary of the formation of the National Labor Union (NLU) in Baltimore, Maryland. 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