ADVENT MESSENGER
US Senate Committee Hearings on a 32-hour Work Week Argued that People Cannot Attend Church on Sundays if They Work 70 Hours
March 14, 2024 by Andy Roman
The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions heard a speech by Connecticut Democrat Senator Chris Murphy on Thursday, March 14, 2024. [1] The committee hearings addressed the need for a 32-hour work week that would give Americans more time for leisure activities such as family socials and Sunday church services. Speaking to Mr. Shawn Fain, International President of the United Auto Workers Union, Senator Murphy said that the reason for the drop in religious attendance is that individuals are simply too exhausted after their week of work. In response, the head of the union reaffirmed that those who work too much don’t have time for worship on Sundays.
The following exchange occurred in our US Congress between Senator Murphy and Union President Fain:
Senator Chris Murphy: “There’s a pretty wild thing happening in America today: in 2000, 70 percent of Americans belonged to a religious institution, but today that number is 50 percent. There has been a pretty precipitous decline in the ability or willingness of Americans to go to church or to a religious institution on a regular basis. And I think that has lots of broad impacts in our society. There are a lot of reasons for that, but one of them is that Americans just have less free time. When you have to work 70 hours to get the same standard of living for your family that 40 hours would have gotten you a few decades ago, you don’t have time to go to Wednesday night Bible study; you might not have the ability to even attend church services on a Sunday. You can talk about church if you want or if you don’t want, but it is just true that some of the leisure time activities, some of the institutions that Americans found value and meaning in, are less accessible when you have to work these long hours. I’d love to just hear your thoughts on that.”
Shawn Fain, UAW President: “One of the biggest, one of the things we talked about was the 32-hour work week when we put that in our contract talks was the fact that we wanted to create work life balance … And as I say when you’re working multiple jobs to live paycheck to paycheck or you’re working seven days a week, 12 hours a day, something else is sacrificed in that, and that’s what ends up happening. You have to sacrifice, you know, the ability to go to church. If it’s something else to do on a Sunday, maybe you get a Sunday off and you haven’t slept all weekend, and you spend the whole day sleeping. I mean that that is a reality a lot of workers face on some of the schedules they work … I do believe Congress has an obligation here, spending priorities and regulations. And that may be an ugly word to some people that represent business.”
Senator Chris Murphy: “Well, listen, I agree with you. I think we should have an interest in leisure time. We should have an interest in making sure that people are able to find value outside of work. A lot of people find value in work, and I’m glad that they do, but a lot of people find more value by the institutions and the social clubs and the churches that they affiliate and spend time with outside of work. But that is just less accessible for people today and that should be a public policy interest of the United States Congress. I appreciate this hearing allowing us to talk about that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”
A sitting US senator is urging policymakers to get involved in ensuring that people have more time for church and recreation. According to Senator Murphy, the desire for more leisure ought to be considered a “public policy interest of the United States Congress.” This is a call being made in a Senate committee to reduce the work week, and one of the justifications is so that people can get back to church on Sundays. It’s not simply a call, though. A bill to cut the workweek down to only 32 hours has already been introduced. [2]
“The dignitaries of church and State will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet’s words: ‘The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ’.” (Great Controversy, p. 592).
Sources
[1] https://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/workers-should-benefit-from-new-technology-and-increased-productivity-the-need-for-a-32-hour-work-week-with-no-loss-in-pay
[2] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1332
© 2014-2023 Advent Messenger | All Rights Reserved
Senator Chris Murphy: “There’s a pretty wild thing happening in America today: in 2000, 70 percent of Americans belonged to a religious institution, but today that number is 50 percent. There has been a pretty precipitous decline in the ability or willingness of Americans to go to church or to a religious institution on a regular basis. And I think that has lots of broad impacts in our society. There are a lot of reasons for that, but one of them is that Americans just have less free time. When you have to work 70 hours to get the same standard of living for your family that 40 hours would have gotten you a few decades ago, you don’t have time to go to Wednesday night Bible study; you might not have the ability to even attend church services on a Sunday. You can talk about church if you want or if you don’t want, but it is just true that some of the leisure time activities, some of the institutions that Americans found value and meaning in, are less accessible when you have to work these long hours. I’d love to just hear your thoughts on that.”
Shawn Fain, UAW President: “One of the biggest, one of the things we talked about was the 32-hour work week when we put that in our contract talks was the fact that we wanted to create work life balance … And as I say when you’re working multiple jobs to live paycheck to paycheck or you’re working seven days a week, 12 hours a day, something else is sacrificed in that, and that’s what ends up happening. You have to sacrifice, you know, the ability to go to church. If it’s something else to do on a Sunday, maybe you get a Sunday off and you haven’t slept all weekend, and you spend the whole day sleeping. I mean that that is a reality a lot of workers face on some of the schedules they work … I do believe Congress has an obligation here, spending priorities and regulations. And that may be an ugly word to some people that represent business.”
Senator Chris Murphy: “Well, listen, I agree with you. I think we should have an interest in leisure time. We should have an interest in making sure that people are able to find value outside of work. A lot of people find value in work, and I’m glad that they do, but a lot of people find more value by the institutions and the social clubs and the churches that they affiliate and spend time with outside of work. But that is just less accessible for people today and that should be a public policy interest of the United States Congress. I appreciate this hearing allowing us to talk about that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”
A sitting US senator is urging policymakers to get involved in ensuring that people have more time for church and recreation. According to Senator Murphy, the desire for more leisure ought to be considered a “public policy interest of the United States Congress.” This is a call being made in a Senate committee to reduce the work week, and one of the justifications is so that people can get back to church on Sundays. It’s not simply a call, though. A bill to cut the workweek down to only 32 hours has already been introduced. [2]
“The dignitaries of church and State will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet’s words: ‘The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ’.” (Great Controversy, p. 592).
Sources
[1] https://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/workers-should-benefit-from-new-technology-and-increased-productivity-the-need-for-a-32-hour-work-week-with-no-loss-in-pay
[2] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1332
© 2014-2023 Advent Messenger | All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment