The new england workingmen's association Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The new england workingmen's association - Essay Example However, the mechanics kept their dream of better working conditions alive and hence they called for a region-wide convention to address the question of a 10-hour workday in Fall River. Indeed, the region-wide convention held on October 1844 addressed this issue in great length and resolved to form the New England Workingmen’s Association (NEWA) to address the workers’ plight (Massachusetts AFL-CIO 1). As such, most of the meetings held by New England Workingmen’s Association focused on the dominant concern of a 10-hour workday (Massachusetts AFL-CIO 1). In the meetings that followed the formation of the New England Workingmen’s Association, members ended such meetings with a resolution calling for an abridgement of the hours of labor, which was evidently fundamental in rendering every citizen of the commonwealth worthy and capable to perform the sacred duties of a freeman (Massachusetts AFL-CIO 1). As such, the New England Workingmen’s Association followed the footsteps of other labor leaders of the 1840s, who focused on the relationship between connection between 10-hour workday and citizenship. However, the New England Workingmen’s Association was seemingly different from other labor associations in that it included middle-class reformers who stressed issues such as land reform, and women, who frequently found themselves excluded from other groups unlike other labor associations that disregarded middle-class reformers (Massachusetts AFL-CIO 1). In the 1840s, many labor organizations disregarded the membership and contribution of women. Nevertheless, the New England Workingmen’s Association offered a reprieve to the women by extending all the rights, privileges, and obligations of membership to women’s labor groups through its constitution (Massachusetts AFL-CIO 1). As such, the association addressed both men and women issues that relate to their working conditions. Notably, women