History of Myanmar's labour movement (33/505)

This post presents page 33 of The History of the Myanmar Labour Movement by Thakin Lwin (Bagan Books, 1968).

Vocabulary:

ကြိုးကျစ် ။ to twist yarn into rope
ဆင်နွှဲ ။ participate or take part in group activities or celebrations
ရေရာ ။ to be definite
သာမန် ။ ordinary; normal; usual; casually; lightly
အကယ် ။ really, in reality
သိသာ ။ to be evident, obvious
အပြန်အလှန် ။ reciprocally, mutually
ကြွေးကြော် ။ to proclaim, shout loudly
ဂယက် ။ small waves or ripples; repercussions
ပြိုကွဲ ။ disintegrate; become disunited; be broken up
ပုံသွင်း ။ mould; shape; fashion; inculcate; instil; drill
ပန်းပဲ ။ the craft of blacksmithing
တည်တံ့ ။ be steadfast; be stable; endure; continue to exist
အနှံ့အပြား ။ everywhere, all over

Translation:

... rope factory workers [in Philadelphia in 1806], workers at a building in that city in 1827, and New York City bakers participating in 10 hour work day strikes in 1834, faced many dangers of being beaten and arrested. Therefore, in 1837 as the 10-hour work day conflicts spread from city to city, some state-level governments issued superficial proclamations delimiting the 10 hour work day. In reality, so far as there was no substance [to these proclamations], the right [to the 10 hour workday] was not obtained.

It is evident given the condition of the organised American labour movement in 1850, that among the reasons for success was the mutual support with English workers with whom they were in close contact. In that year, the sound of the chant "Work 8 hours! Enjoy 8 hours! Sleep 8 hours!" while demanding the 8 hour workday initiated the start of the conflict prior to reform.

After that, although many workers unions broke up due to the repercussions of the American civil war in 1861-62, with the collective leadership of an industrial workers association, a non-industrial workers union, and a large blacksmiths union, which continued to endure, the National Labour Union was successfully established in 1866 at a conference of over 30 branches of workers' unions in Baltimore. The famous leader of that federation was the industrial worker William H. Sylvis. When 8-hour workday conflict committees were successfully formed in every region of the entire country with the leadership of the aforementioned National Labour Union federation, the American parliament and some state-level governments passed legislation in 1868 officially designating an 8 hour workday in public departments, although this had absolutely no effective power in private capitalist industries.