CHAPTER II
THE SCOPE OF THE FIVE-DAY WEEK MOVEMENT
I) er knowledge with respect to the extent of the
five-day week operation in American industry is very
scant. It is generally known that a few prominent
industrial enterprises have adopted this work schedule, because
 considerable publicity has attached to the announcements
 of its inauguration. It is also known that certain
local building trades have secured its adoption. Beyond such
general impressions, very little authoritative information on
the subject has been available. Hence this study, in which
the Conference Board was concerned mainly with the adoption
 of five-day week operation as a definite policy. Cases of
temporary five-day operation, as during the summer months
or during periods of slack business, or cases in which there was
a definite intention ultimately to revert to five-and-one-half
or six-day operation, were also considered with the instances
of the continuous five-day week, but they are reported
separately in this volume.
Moreover, this specific investigation has been confined to
manufacturing establishments, but for purposes of estimating
the spread of the five-day week movement in industry, other
occupations should also be considered. Thus, in the report
of its executive council, presented at its annual convention in
New Orleans, November 19, 1928, the American Federation
of Labor claims that 164,479 of its members are working
ander five-day, 40-hour-a-week agreements, as well as 550
office workers, distributed among twenty international
unions. However, an examination of these data, here reproduced
 in Table 2, shows that approximately 70%, of the total
are employed in five building trades—those of bricklayers,
carpenters, electrical workers, painters and plasterers; and
that the painters’ union alone contributes 38% of the total.
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