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The '''Eight hour day movement''' forms part of the early history for the celebration of [[Labour Day]], and [[May Day]] in many nations and cultures.
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==New Zealand==
[[Image:8hoursday banner 1856.jpg|thumb|250px|Eight-hour day banner, Melbourne, 1856]]
In [[1840]] in [[New Zealand]] Samuel Parnell, a carpenter, refused to work more than eight hours a day, and successfully negotiated the working condition and campaigned for its extension in the infant [[Wellington]] community. A meeting of Wellington [[carpenter]]s in October 1840 pledged "''to maintain the eight-hour working day, and that anyone offending should be ducked into the harbour''".
Parnell is reported to have said: "''There are twenty-four hours per day given us; eight of these should be for work, eight for sleep, and the remaining eight for recreation and in which for men to do what little things they want for themselves.''" With tradesmen in short supply the employer was forced to accept Parnell's terms. Parnell later wrote, "''the first strike for eight hours a day the world has ever seen, was settled on the spot''".
Emigrants to Otago while onboard ship decided on a reduction of working hours. When the resident agent of the New Zealand Company, Captain Cargill, attempted to enforce a ten-hour day in January [[1849]] in [[Dunedin]], he was unable to overcome the resistance of trades people under the leadership of house painter and plumber, Samuel Shaw. Building trades in [[Auckland]] achieved the ''eight-hour day'' on [[1 September]], [[1857]] after agitation led by Chartist painter, William Griffin. For many years achievement of the eight-hour day was confined to craft tradesmen and unionised workers. [[Labour Day]], which commemorates the introduction of the eight-hour day, became a national public holiday in [[1899]].
==Australia==
[[Image:Melbourne eight hour day march-c1900.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Eight-hour day march circa 1900, outside Parliament House in Spring Street, [[Melbourne]].]]
The Australian gold rushes attracted many skilled tradesmen to Australia. Some of these trades people had been active in the chartism movement, and subsequently became prominent in agitation for better working conditions in the Australian colonies.
The Stonemasons Society in [[Sydney]] issued an ultimatum to employers on [[18 August]], [[1855]], that after six months masons would only work an ''eight-hour day''. Construction of many buildings was occurring with the rapid increase in population caused by the gold rushes, so skilled labour was scarce. Stonemasons working on the Holy Trinity Church and the Mariners Church (an evangelical mission to seafarers), decided not to wait and pre-emptively went on strike, thus winning the eight-hour day. They celebrated with a victory dinner on [[1 October]], [[1855]]. When the six month ultimatum expired in February 1856, stonemasons generally in Sydney agitated for a reduction of hours. Although opposed by employers, a two week strike on the construction of Tooths Brewery on Parramatta Road proved effective, and stonemasons won an ''eight-hour day'' by early March [[1856]], but with a reduction in wages to match.
Agitation was also occurring in [[Melbourne]] where the craft unions were more militant. Stonemasons working on [[Melbourne University]] organised to down tools on [[21 April]], [[1856]] and a march on to Parliament House with other members of the building trade. The movement in Melbourne was led by veteran chartists and mason James Stephens (1821-1889), T.W. Vine and James Galloway. The government agreed that workers employed on public works should enjoy an eight-hour day with no loss of pay and Stonemasons celebrated with a holiday and procession on Monday [[12 May]], [[1856]], when about 700 people marched with 19 trades involved. By [[1858]] the eight-hour day was firmly established in the building industry and by [[1860]] the eight-hour day was fairly widely worked in Victoria. From [[1879]] the eight-hour day was a public holiday in Victoria. The initial success in Melbourne led to the decision to organise a movement, to actively spread the eight-hour idea and secure the condition generally.
In [[1903]] veteran socialist [[Tom Mann]] spoke to a crowd of a thousand people at the unveiling of the Eight Hour Day monument, funded by public subscription, and located on the corner of Victoria and Russell Streets, outside [[Melbourne Trades Hall]].
[[Image:Wyalong eight hour day.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Eight-hour day procession by miners in [[Wyalong, New South Wales]] - late 1890s]]
It took further campaigning and struggles by trade unions to extend the reduction in hours to all workers in Australia. In [[1916]] the ''New South Wales Eight Hours Act'' was passed granting the eight-hour day to all workers in the state. The eight hour day was not achieved nationally until the [[1920s]]. The Commonwealth Arbitration Court gave approval of the 40-hour five-day working week nationally beginning on [[1 January]], [[1948]]. The achievement of the eight-hour day has been described by historians such as Rowan Cahill: ''one of the great successes of the Australian working class during the nineteenth century, demonstrating to Australian workers that it was possible to successfully organise, mobilise, agitate and exercise significant control over working conditions and quality of life. The Australian trade union movement grew out of eight-hour campaigning and the movement that developed to promote the principle.''
The intertwined numbers '''888''' soon adorned the [[pediment]] of many union buildings constructed around Australia. The Eight Hour March which began on [[April 21]], [[1856]], continued each year until [[1951]] in Melbourne, when the conservative [[Victorian Trades Hall Council]] decided to forgo the tradition for the [[Moomba]] festival on the [[Labour Day]] weekend. In capital cities and regional towns across Australia Eight Hour day marches became a regular social event each year, with early marches often restricted to those workers who had won an ''eight hour day''.
==Amerika Syarikat==
In the region of [[Alcoy]], [[Spain]], workers struck in [[1873]] for the eight hour day following much agitation from the [[anarchist]]s. In [[1919]] in [[Barcelona]], after a 44 day long general strike with over 100,000 participants which had effectively crippled the Catalan economy, the Government in Barcelona settled the strike by granting all of the striking workers demands which included an eight hour day, union recognition, and the rehiring of fired workers. Spain became the first country in the world to pass a national eight hour day law, as a result of 1919's general strike. ''See [[Anarchism in Spain]]''.
==AmerikaUnited SelatanKingdom==
The [[Factory Act of 1833]] was an act of the parliament of the United Kingdom, which limited the workday for children in factories. Those between 9 and 13 could only work eight hours, and children between 14 and 18 could work twelve hours. Children under 9 were required to attend school. ▼A strike for the eight-hour day was held in May 1919 in [[Peru]]. In [[Uruguay]] during the second term of president [[José Batlle y Ordóñez]] such things as unemployment compensation (1914), eight-hour workdays (1915), and universal suffrage were introduced.
In 1884, [[Tom Mann]] joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) and published a pamphlet calling for the working day to be limited to eight hours. Mann formed an organisation, the Eight Hour League, which successfully pressured the [[Trades Union Congress]] to adopt the eight-hour day as a key goal. ▼==Amerika Tengah dan Caribbean==
The [[Mexican Revolution]] of 1910-1920, produced the Constitution of 1917, which contained Article 123 that gave workers the right to organize labor unions and to strike. It also provided protection for women and children, the eight hour day, and a living wage. ''See [[Mexican labor law]]''.
In [[Puerto Rico]] in May 1899, while under US administration, General [[George W. Davis]] succeeded to Island command and decreed Freedom of assembly, speech, press, religion and an eight-hour day for government employees.
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==United Kingdom==
▲The [[Factory Act of 1833]] was an act of the parliament of the United Kingdom, which limited the workday for children in factories. Those between 9 and 13 could only work eight hours, and children between 14 and 18 could work twelve hours. Children under 9 were required to attend school.
▲In 1884, [[Tom Mann]] joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) and published a pamphlet calling for the working day to be limited to eight hours. Mann formed an organisation, the Eight Hour League, which successfully pressured the [[Trades Union Congress]] to adopt the eight-hour day as a key goal.
==Lihat juga==
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