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PubMedDate not supplied

Adoption of smoking policies by automobile dealerships.

Despite an increase in policies regulating smoking at the workplace, little research has been conducted on organizational factors that may be associated with the adoption of those policies. In November 1986, a survey assessing tobacco use habits was sent to 3,432 employees of 68 auto dealerships in western New York. Managers at the worksites were surveyed by telephone in 1986 and 1 year later to assess their attitudes about smoking by employees and changes in smoking policy implementation. At the time of the initial survey, 21 percent (N = 14) of businesses had smoking restrictions. Among the 54 worksites with no smoking restrictions, 14 (26 percent) adopted smoking policies within a year. The strongest predictor of policy adoption was an interaction between the presence of floating smoking restrictions (not tied to a specific area) and the manager's willingness to impose smoking restrictions on employees. Adoption of policies was also more likely to occur among worksites with younger employees. That adoption of smoking policies was more likely to occur among worksites with floating smoking policies underscores the idea that focusing efforts at the managerial level within an organization can accelerate the diffusion process. In addition, the presence of unions and employee concerns about smoking policies are likely to impact upon management's decisions regarding implementation of policies. Given the potential of smoking prohibitions to influence the smoking habits of employees, future studies should begin to focus on ways to facilitate the adoption of smoking policies in worksites.

Administrative Personnel↗

PubMed1977

Mortality of male members of the Danish Semi-skilled Unskilled Workers' Union in 1973.

The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to evaluate contemporary age and cause specific mortalities of a large group of employed men. The population is the 228,612 male members, aged 20-64, of Denmark's largest trade union, the Semi-skilled and Unskilled Workers' Union (SID). A Standard Mortality Ratio (SMR) of 93.9 compared to all men in Denmark is found. However, the distribution of mortality by age does not resemble that found in many other studies, and is usually said to result from the 'healthy worker effect'. Excess mortality is found in the younger age groups, while the opposite is the case in the older groups, mainly because of a deficit of deaths from chronic illness. Notably higher age and cause specific SMRs are found for violent and unnatural deaths, and higher SMRs for cancer of the lungs and of lymphatic and haemopoietic tissues. Regional variations are found, but no correlation found between mortality and size of union 'local'. However, cancer mortality is higher among members of specialized locals, which are situated in larger urban area. The excess mortality of members of the largest locals in the Copenhagen area is due to deaths by cancer and by violent and unnatural causes. Findings and problems will be examined further in an ongoing cohort study and in other specialized studies under preparation.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Mortality in the British printing industry: a historical cohort study of trade union members in Manchester.

A historical cohort study of the printing industry was established after an anecdotal report of a cluster of cases of bladder cancer in a newspaper factory in Manchester. The cohort comprised some 9500 men who were members of one or other of two trade unions (the NGA and NATSOPA) in the Manchester area between 1949 and 1963. During the follow up period (1949-83) 3482 deaths occurred among men born in 1890 or later; follow up was 97% complete. The results of the study do not support the hypothesis of an occupational risk of bladder cancer in the printing industry. The NGA have a standardised mortality ratio (SMR) of 63 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 31-113) and NATSOPA an SMR of 113 (95% CI 67-178) based on 11 and 18 deaths from bladder cancer, respectively. Men involved in newspaper letterpress printing have a high mortality from lung cancer (SMR = 179, 95% CI 144-218) that is consistent with the findings of previous studies. Increased mortality from cancer of the buccal cavity and pharynx was found for NATSOPA workers in the newspaper industry; editorial workers had an SMR of 1053 (95% CI 128-3803) and clerical workers had an SMR of 638 (95% CI 132-1864). This is consistent with a review of published studies, which strongly suggest that workers in the printing industry have an increased risk of mortality from cancers of the buccal cavity and pharynx. Socioeconomic differences in union composition, rather than occupational factors, may account for the lower mortality in the NGA compared with NATSOPA. The NGA, a craft union, had an all causes SMR of 92 (95% CI 88-97), whereas NATSOPA covered a broader span of occupations and skill levels, and had an all causes SMR of 112 (95% CI 106-117); the NATSOPA and NGA all causes rate ratio was 1.21 (95% CI 1.13-1,29).

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A professional imperative.

Nurses at the University of Michigan Hospitals (UMH) have been organized since 1974 into a bargaining unit of the Michigan Nurses' Association (MNA), known as the Professional Nurse Council. There have been several bargaining periods and contracts. The most recent contract prior to the strike terminated in September, 1980. Following this contract expiration, negotiations occurred, month after month, between the union and the hospital's bargaining team. At times, it appeared as though settlement was imminent, but negotiations continued on through the fall of 1980 and into the winter of 1981. A state-appointed mediator failed to solve the problem. The authors contend that the principal issues were not those being negotiated at the bargaining table.

Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over↗

PubMed2004

Methodological challenges in union commitment studies.

Methodological problems in studies of union commitment were identified and illustrated with data from 4,641 members and 479 stewards in 297 local teachers' unions. Using a 20-item union commitment scale, results confirmed the existence of 3 substantive factors and 1 method factor at the individual level of analysis: loyalty to the union, responsibility to the union, willingness to work for the union, and a factor of negatively worded items. Tests of measurement invariance showed that the scale captured commitment for rank-and-file members but not for union stewards. The authors also found partial measurement invariance between long-time and newer members and full measurement invariance between men and women. Finally, the authors found that violation of the statistical assumption of independence reduced model fit when individual commitment scores were analyzed without attention to the hierarchical nature of the data.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The three faces of personnel--or, PAIR department activities as seen by executives, line managers, and personnel directors.

More so than most other departments, the personnel department shares responsibility for its activities--notably with executives and line managers. But the division of responsibility is far from clear-cut, and where to draw the line is subject to controversy, as seen in this discussion of survey results on the viewpoints of 326 PAIR directors, 162 executives, and 217 line managers. The survey was conducted by the authors, all from Arizona State University: George W. Bohlander, associate professor of management; Harold C. White, professor of management; and Michael N. Wolfe, assistant professor. They queried the three groups on four major activities--setting policy, counseling and advising line managers, providing services, and controlling personnel activities in other departments--and 17 duties. The responses are broken down according to degree of unionization in respondent firms. Discrepancies among the viewpoints of the three groups suggest a need for two kinds of programs, say the authors: one to communicate to an organization's line managers and executives the role actually performed by the PAIR department and the other to instruct them on PAIR's potential for greater contribution.

Administrative Personnel↗

PubMed1975

Obstacles to utilization of prepaid mental health care.

The coverage of out-of-hospital expenses for mental health care through prepayment and insurance programs has been a major advance in removing the economic barriers to early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders. However, obstacles to obtaining treatment block many eligible people from receiving help. The authors conducted a study among members of the United Auto Workers union to identify these roadblocks. Among the obstacles were differences in perceptions of need for treatment and in attitudes toward treatment, and lack of awareness of eligibility for benefits among three key groups - consumers, referral agents, and providers. The authors urge psychiatry to help in removing these obstacles.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed1996

Psychosocial aspects of interventions in occupational safety and health.

Attention to psychosocial hazards in work environments should become an increasingly important component of occupational safety and health interventions. Research findings have linked a number of measurable psychosocial characteristics with negative psychological and physiological consequences. Some serious physical health hazards have also been found to have psychosocial components. Several economic trends indicate that more jobs will be created with high levels of psychosocial hazards. These economic trends include a decline in wages, a move away from a manufacturing base, increased hours of work, a decline in unionization rates, and poorly implemented technological changes. Intervention strategies developed to reduce psychosocial stressors must address the multiple cause of psychosocial hazards and the multiple symptoms they produce. Additional challenges include assessing psychosocial changes within the sometimes contradictory framework of organizational and social changes. Nevertheless, comprehensive efforts to improve both the health and safety and the overall quality of working life need to incorporate psychosocial variables into their designs.

Humans↗

PubMed1991

The United Mine Workers of American and the recognition of occupational respiratory diseases, 1902-1968.

This study examines the early efforts of the United Mine Workers of America to illuminate the problem of occupational respiratory diseases in the coal fields. The union used the hearings of the US Anthracite Coal Strike Commission of 1902-3 to draw public attention to "miners' asthma." In 1915, it began to agitate for the provision of workers' compensation benefits for victims of this disorder. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the union's Welfare and Retirement Fund disseminated information on advances in understanding chronic pulmonary diseases of mining. In particular, the miners' fund promoted the British conceptualization of a distinctive coal workers' pneumoconiosis. At the same time, the staff of the union health plan pressed the US Public Health Service and the Pennsylvania Department of Health to investigate the prevalence of occupational respiratory diseases among bituminous miners. Taken together, these endeavors contributed significantly to growing recognition of the severity and extent of this important public health problem and thus helped lay the foundation for the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969.

Collective Bargaining↗

PubMed1997

Continuous quality improvement at the crossroads: contradictions and challenges.

Continuous quality improvement stands at a crossroads. One road is dominated by the frenzied competition in the current health care marketplace. Another road is traveled both by a desire to compete against disease and by vulnerable employees, many of whom are represented by a weakened union movement. This article reviews this history and lessons and its relationship to CQI. Employee involvement, not just from a psychologic, but also a decision-making and even ownership perspective is necessary for CQI to succeed in the long term. Only with this type of involvement in hand can the trust between employee and employer required for genuine CQI be created.

Communism↗

PubMed1978

Sisters as union members: what do NLRB and courts say?

The NLRB and the appellate courts are more in conflict than in harmony over the inclusion of members of religious congregations in hospital collective bargaining units. The NLRB has bound several bases for exclusion; consequently, unless a hospital affiliated with a congregation is free of these conditions or is willing to assume the burdens of appellate litigation, members of a religious congregation in that hospital are unlikely to be included in a bargaining unit there.

Collective Bargaining↗

PubMed1992

Health and safety education for workers with low-literacy or limited-English skills.

Low literacy and limited English proficiency have become a growing concern for health and safety educators. With one-fifth of the workforce reading below an eighth-grade level and possibly another tenth having limited English skills, health and safety educators and unions have increasingly become aware that current training programs often surpass the language and literacy abilities of workers being trained. This article describes the dilemmas facing health and safety professionals in incorporating knowledge about language and literacy skill levels. It documents creative strategies and new programs, largely based on participatory and popular education approaches, to provide training that simultaneously matches worker needs and leads to worker empowerment.

Curriculum↗

PubMed2002

Labour-management forums and workplace performance. Evidence from union officials in health care organizations.

Many health care workplaces are adopting more cooperative labour-management relations, spurred in part by sweeping changes in the economic environment that have occurred over the last decade. Labour-management cooperation is seen as essential if health care organizations are to achieve their valued performance objectives. Joint labour-management committees (LMCs) have been adopted in many health care workplaces as a means of achieving better industrial relations. Using data from a sample of Canadian union leaders in the health care sector, this paper examines the impact of labour-management forums and labour climate on employee and organizational outcomes. Research results suggest that labour climate is less important in predicting workplace performance (and change in workplace performance) than is the number of LMCs in operation. However, labour climate is found to be at least as important in predicting union member satisfaction (and change in member satisfaction) as is the wide adoption of LMCs in operation. These findings are consistent with the notion that the greater use of LMCs is associated with augmented workplace performance (and a positive change in workplace performance), notwithstanding the contribution of the labour climate in the workplace.

Attitude to Health↗

PubMed1992

Lessons from the United Kingdom: fightback on workplace hazards, 1979-1992.

For the past 13 years there has been an aggressive anti-union government in the United Kingdom. Yet despite this fact, very real advances have been made in the area of working-class activity over the issue of workplace hazards. Trade unions, because of membership concern and activity, have been forced to keep this topic on their agenda. The European Community has been a big factor in these advances. This article describes some of the issues and elements of the fightback. In the 1990s, with the rediscovery of environmental issues, the hazards movement of the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, is here to stay and set to expand.

Absenteeism↗

PubMed1991

Private health care in South Africa: should the unions intervene?

The South African state's policy of privatization of health services has led to deterioration of public-sector health care and increased costs of access to this sector. This has generated an increasing demand for private health insurance among the predominantly black organized working class. These demands pose a dilemma for the progressive trade unions; negotiation of private-sector health insurance will have deleterious consequences for the equity and efficiency of the health services in general. Current trends in the private health sector also indicate that rapid cost increases will make most regular insurance packages unaffordable to the majority of workers within a few years. On the other hand, trade unions are obliged to meet the material demands of their members, and to intervene to stem the flow of individual workers to the private health sector. This article describes these trends, and the authors argue the case for intervention in this process by trade unions, in the form of union-negotiated and union-controlled "managed care" schemes. Such schemes will allow for the delivery of an adequate and appropriate package of health services at affordable rates. Union control will also allow for such structures to become the building blocks of a future national health service, and for incorporation into that service. Finally, the political implications of such interventions are addressed. The authors argue that the potential for undermining broader political campaigns and for creating divisions within the working class are important problems, but that many of these may be overcome through appropriate interventions.

Health Maintenance Organizations↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Evaluation study of the exploratory visit: an innovative outreach activity of the ILGWU's friendly visiting program.

The exploratory visit to recent retirees, an outreach component of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union Friendly Visiting Program, was evaluated during a ten month period beginning in September 1973. An operations analysis found that need identifying activities of Friendly Vistors by type of service need. A post-test only control group effect study revealed exploratory visits were effective in establishing a link between the program and the retiree although they had no significant impact on the retirees' service needs.

Aged↗

PubMed1995

Fighting fire with fire: physicians blazing new paths to autonomy.

Thousands of physicians around the country have stopped complaining about being burned by the system and have started reengineering their destinies. They're building super IPAs, forming and operating HMOs, and joining unions to represent their rights in a growing grassroots physician effort to regain control. These physicians have thumbed their noses at managed care companies they say have drastically cut reimbursements, arbitrarily dropped them from panels, dictated utilization, and cost them patients. They're tired of working harder and earning less and frustrated by sacrificing quality in the name of cost reduction. And they have learned that there are ways to prevail.

Health Maintenance Organizations↗

PubMed2006

Immigrant workers are our allies, not our enemies.

The cold, hard reality of the global "savage capitalism" will be the greatest recruiter for unions offering real protections for workers. Health and safety issues have long been recognized as key to organizing workers. There is a positive "union effect" on workplace health and safety when informed and active workers are part of a member-controlled union on site. Solidarity among all working people in the global economy is essential. It will be a challenge in the U.S. because of recent efforts to scapegoat immigrant workers. But it is crucial that we overcome that corporation-absolving approach. Our future depends on us seeing Mexican or Chinese workers-- in the U.S. or in their own countries--as "fellow workers" with the same problems and goals as us.

Commerce↗