Many impatient workers didn’t wait for a law. In December, the union of ship caulkers (workers who sealed ships watertight) struck and became the first granted the new hours. Other maritime unions quickly achieved the same goal in the early part of 1866, some by walking off the job, others through simpler negotiations with their employers.

In February, the state assembly passed a version of the eight-hour bill and sent it to the state senate. Kenaday presented a twenty-two-foot-long petition with 11,000 signatures supporting the eight-hour day to the senate. But after vocal opposition from the iron trades’ employers association, the bill was narrowly defeated. Kenaday later sent the petition on to the California delegation to the U.S. Congress, when it was considering an eight-hour bill for federal workers. That law passed in June 1868.