Whatever happened to the eight-hour day?

This lament is heard not only in third world sweatshops but yes, even in the elite craft unions of the world’s most successful entertainment industry, where I work, painting scenery, when I’m not toiling for little or nothing at my first love: drawing political comics.

Last winter’s union-bashing from Madison, Wisconsin, just didn’t jibe with the experience of my colleagues who work their asses off for grueling hours to support families they barely have time to enjoy. Just as it is ridiculous to blame us for high production costs (movie star salaries, anyone?), it is ridiculous to blame unionized public sector workers for the budget deficit (last I checked, we had two foreign wars and a vast army of corporate overlords).

In March, I went to a centennial commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire – the disaster that accelerated the labor movement. Over beers after the show, I assured my friends that even my enviably organized workplace did not guarantee the conditions that those women fought for a century ago. We can’t relax and take out rights for granted. Every generation must defend them anew.

Next thing I know, I've been persuaded to put this all in a comic strip. More unpaid labor!

This strip originally appeared in the World War 3 Illustrated #42, Fall 2011.

See more of my work at www.sabrinaland.com.

Sabrina Jones is the author/illustrator of Isadora Duncan: A Graphic Biography; contributor to FDR and the New Deal for Beginners; Wobblies! A Graphic History; and Studs Terkel’s Working, A Graphic Adaptation. She is currently adapting Race to Incarcerate, by Marc Mauer of The Sentencing Project. She is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829, and works on "Saturday Night Live."