Disputes over working hours have long pitted employees against employers in California, says Fred Glass, author and instructor in Labor and Community Studies at City College of San Francisco.

In his book, "From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement," Glass documents the state's labor history going back before the turn of the century.

"The struggle between workers and employers is perpetual," Glass says. "The lessons of the past are certainly pertinent in the present."

As a bill proposing a shortened four-day workweek has stalled in a committee in the state legislature, NBCLA chronicles some of the most contentious moments in California's labor history as outlined by Glass:

Pre 1850

Native Californians, unbound by a work schedule, had worked based on the rhythm of the seasons - fishing, hunting, gathering, picking fruit. Once the Missions were established, native Americans were forced into coerced labor and had to do it on a schedule to the mission bells. There were numerous types of incidents, and resistance to the regime. There were stories of escape, individual acts of resistance, violence against soldiers and the Padres, occasionally murder, and organized revolt.

1853

Three years after California becomes the 31st state, the first California law regulates the workday, setting a 10-hour day, but it had no enforcement mechanisms. Some of the earliest laws for work hours were led by carpenters and other building trade workers. Among the leaders...

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