Working less, living better

Description

Since the beginning of their activity, the trade unions have had among their goals the control of working time, in order to improve the conditions of workers. From the second half of the 19th century onwards, in the industrialized and developed world the drive to reduce working hours has been a permanent element in trade union strategies. If in the 19th century working time was even 12 hours a day, with the advent of mechanization a gradual but constant process of reduction of working time began, which in the following century led – by contractual or legislative means – to 8 hours daily and 40 hours a week as a general reference. Since the beginning of the 1980s, i.e. since the neoliberal economic culture has guided economic policies at a global level, the trend towards reducing working time has stalled, as well as the drive by governments to keep full employment at the center of their targets. Fausto Durante's book connects the issue of working time to the crisis caused by...