Shipbuilders Strike in 1817 Over Withdrawal of Grog

My research into the evolution of the employment relationship turns up this interesting account. In 1817, Thacher Magoun, a shipbuilder of Medford, Mass., “determined to abolish the grog privilege.” As recounted by a 1934 Department of Labor historical record (quoting now): The hours of labor at that time were from sunrise to sunset, and all employers were obliged by custom to furnish liquor free at least twice a day. These two periods for drink were really periods of rest, and were called luncheon times, and Mr. Magoun's no-rum movement meant no luncheon time, and was practically an increase in the working time, the employer thus saving the cost of time as well as the cost of rum. The hours of this luncheon privilege were eleven o'clock in the forenoon and four o'clock in the afternoon. Many of the workmen who were temperance men were indignant at the action of their employer, as they felt that the luncheon times were as oases in the desert of unremitting toil. There was a brief, unsuccessful strike, “but finally all gave in and a ship was built without the use of liquor in any form.” Ship workers “seem to have been the first to bring the question of the hours of labor to a direct issue.” The journeyman shipwrights and calkers of Boston organized in 1832 and “resolved that from and after March 20 until the first of September we will not labor more than ten hours a day unless paid extra for each and every hour.”