Correcting misperceptions of the material benefits associated with union membership increases Americans' interest in joining unions

How accurate are Americans' perceptions of the material benefits associated with union membership, and do these perceptions influence their support for, and interest in joining, unions? We explore these questions in a preregistered, survey experiment conducted on a national sample, representative of the US population on a number of demographic benchmarks (n = 1,430). We find that Americans exhibit large and consistent underestimates of the benefits associated with unionization, as compared to evidence from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and peer-reviewed academic research. For example, 89% of Americans underestimated the life-time income premium associated with union membership, 72% underestimated the percentage of union members who receive health insurance from their employer, and 97% overestimated the average union dues rate. We next randomly assigned half of the participants to receive a brief, informational correction conveying results of academic and government research on the material benefits associated with union membership, or not. Those who received the correction reported 11.6% greater interest in joining a union, 7.8% greater support for unions, and 6.9% greater interest in helping to organize a union in their workplace, as compared to the control group. These results suggest that, overall, Americans tend to underestimate the material benefits associated with unionization, misperceptions of these benefits are causally linked to Americans' support for unionization, and correcting these misperceptions increases a range of pro-union sentiments in the American mass public.

Principles for Worker-Driven Remedy

Workers in global supply chains face forced labour, hazardous working conditions, excessive overtime, violence, union busting, and other abuses. They may be cheated of wages and bonuses promised by recruiters or dismissed without due process. They need remedy and, in fact, have a right to an effective remedy, but remedy for business-related harms in global supply chains is rare. The Principles for Worker-Driven Remedy offer a framework for making remedy a reality for workers when their rights are violated and when they are harmed in global supply chains. Developed by Electronics Watch in consultation with trade unions, labour rights organizations, and public buyers, the Principles put affected workers at the heart of the remedy process. Electronics Watch will develop tools and procedures to help public buyers to use the Principles in supplier engagement, tenders, and contract management. We encourage companies and other organizations to adopt and adapt them to address harm to workers in supply chains.

Psychological screening, providing social security or strengthening training? How can government and labor unions protect the mental health of young employees

As the mental health problems of young employees become more and more prominent, the government and labor unions need to take measures to protect the mental health of young employees. Considering that the main mental health safeguard measures are divided into psychological screening, providing social security and strengthening training, this article constructs a differential game model under these three modes. The balanced efforts and social benefits of the government and labor unions under the three modes are obtained, and the applicable conditions of various mental health protection modes are compared. The results show that if the government pays a lower cost, the government gets the highest economic benefit under the training mode, followed by the security mode, and the government gets the lowest economic benefit under the psychological screening mode. If the reputation of the labor unions improved by its efforts is low, the equilibrium benefits of the labor unions under psychological screening and providing security are the same, and greater than the equilibrium benefits under the intensive training mode. If the labor unions have a higher reputation enhanced by its efforts, the balance return of the labor unions under the guarantee mode is the highest, followed by the balance return under the intensive training mode, and the balance return of the labor unions under the psychological screening mode is the lowest.

Effect of trade unions on the mental health of UK workers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal analysis using Understanding Society data

BACKGROUND

Although trade union membership rates have continuously decreased over the past 30 years, about 50% of UK employees are still represented by a union. Yet, studies on the association between collective bargaining and workers' mental health are sparse, especially in the pandemic context. This study examines differences on UK workers' mental health due to trade union presence and membership between pre-pandemic and pandemic periods.

METHODS

In this longitudinal study, we analysed Understanding Society panel data in which the same participants are followed over time. The data concerned individuals aged 16 years and older and were collected biannually before COVID-19 pandemic (Waves 8-10: 2017-2020) and on a more frequent basis during pandemic (all COVID-19 surveys from 2020 [April, May, June, July, September, November] to 2021 [January, March, September] periods). The primary outcome was General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) caseness (GHQ-12 score ≥4: probability of caseness). Two exposures were used separately: trade union presence and trade union membership, interacting with a binary variable splitting time periods between before and during the pandemic. Our analytical sample included 49 915 observations from 5988 individuals. 3341 (56%) individuals worked in unionised workplaces. We fitted mixed-effects logistic regression models adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, UK residence, educational level, financial situation, workplace size, and survey interview date. We then replicated the analyses including a 3-way interaction with industry. All Understanding Society participants gave written informed consent. Ethics approval was not required.

FINDINGS

In our sample, approximately 41% were male and 59% were female, and the mean age was 47·2 years (SD 11·4). Comparing pre-pandemic and pandemic periods, we found that the odds of GHQ-12 caseness for those in non-unionised workplaces increased by 45% (odds ratio 1·45, 95% CI 1·17-1·80), whereas in unionised workplaces odds increased by 28% (1·28, 1·05-1·57). When analysis was confined to unionised workplaces, the odds of GHQ-12 caseness for non-union members increased more (1·40, 1·07-1·83) compared with members (1·18, 0·91-1·53); however, with wide CIs. Overall, industry had no modification effect in both exposures. Sensitivity analysis using GHQ-36 as a continuous outcome demonstrated no real change in the patterns of the results.

INTERPRETATION

The mental health of workers in unionised workplaces appears to have worsened less than the mental health of those in non-unionised workplaces; however, there is insufficient evidence of effect differential by type of industrial sector. Designing policies that encourage and facilitate trade union presence in workplaces should be promoted, as they are likely to mitigate adverse mental health effects in times of extreme uncertainty.

FUNDING

Medical Research Council, Chief Scientist Office, Belgian National Scientific Fund.

Labor Unions and Staff Turnover in US Nursing Homes

This cross-sectional study examines the association between labor unions and health care staff turnover in the US using data from 2021.

The Effect Of Labor Unions On Nursing Home Compliance With OSHA's Workplace Injury And Illness Reporting Requirement

All US nursing homes are required to report workplace injury and illness data to the Occupational Safety And Health Administration (OSHA). Nevertheless, the compliance rate for US nursing homes during the period 2016-21 was only 40 percent. We examined whether unionization increases the probability that nursing homes will comply with that requirement. Using a difference-in-differences design and proprietary data on union status from the Service Employees International Union for all forty-eight continental US states from the period 2016-21, we found that two years after unionization, nursing homes were 31.1 percentage points more likely than nonunion nursing homes to report workplace injury and illness data to OSHA. Data on injuries occurring in specific workplaces play a central role in injury prevention. Further unionization could help improve workplace safety in nursing homes, a sector with one of the highest occupational injury and illness rates in the US.

Health and Safety Reps in COVID-19-Representation Unleashed?

The paper explores the role of UK union health and safety representatives and changes to representative structures governing workplace and organisational Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) during COVID-19. It draws upon a survey of 648 UK Trade Union Congress (TUC) Health and Safety (H&S) representatives, as well as case studies of 12 organisations in eight key sectors. The survey indicates expanded union H&S representation, but only half of the respondents reported H&S committees in their organisations. Where formal representative mechanisms existed, they provided the basis for more informal day-to-day engagement between management and the union. However, the present study suggests that the legacy of deregulation and the absence of organisational infrastructures meant that the autonomous collective representation of workers' interests over OHS, independent of structures, was crucial to risk prevention. While joint regulation and engagement over OHS was possible in some workplaces, OHS in the pandemic has been contested. Contestation challenges pre-COVID-19 scholarship suggestingthat H&S representatives had been captured by management in the context of unitarist practice. The tension between union power and the wider legal infrastructure remains salient.

Estimating Effects of Wages on Smoking Prevalence Using Labor Unions as Instrumental Variables

OBJECTIVES

To test for the effects of wages on smoking using labor unions as instrumental variables.

METHODS

We analyzed four waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (2013 to 2019 alternate years). The overall sample included workers aged 18 to 70 years in 2013 and subsamples within blue + clerical/white-collar and private/public sector jobs (N = 37,117 to 8446 person-years). We used two instrumental variables: worker's union membership and states' right-to-work laws.

RESULTS

$1 (2019 US dollars) increases in wages-per-hour resulted in 1.3 ( P < 0.001) percentage point decreases in smoking prevalence (8.2% decreases at the smoking mean). Larger effect sizes and strong statistical significance were found for blue-collar + clerical and private-sector subsamples; smaller sizes and insignificance were found for public-sector and white-collar subsamples.

CONCLUSIONS

Unions increase wages, and higher wages, in turn, reduce smoking. Wages and labor unions are underappreciated social determinants of health.

[Trade union action in times of pandemic.]

Due to the sudden impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on people´s lives in March 2020 after the declaration of the state of alarm and the limitations that were adopted regarding the mobility and confinement of the population, there were repercussions both in health as well as at work and the economy of the country. For this reason, Comisiones Obreras took on the challenge of informing, advising and training workers on the adoption of preventive measures and we took part in the social dialogue so that the regulatory protection would be the best guarantee for people who became ill, reduced their work activity or had to continue their essential activity with the best health and safety conditions; collaborating with the Administration and demanding its intervention in the areas that required it, as well as demanding the consideration of occupational disease for staff exposed in the health and social-health sector. This crisis has highlighted an aspect that has not yet been overcome: the necessary coordination that must exist between the Health and Labour authorities in order to attend to health in companies in its broadest sense, that is, Public Health. Whoever controls compliance with occupational health aspects must have the competences and power to act in the field of Public Health.

A bibliometric analysis of Health Promotion International content regarding unions, unionization and collective agreements

A recent article brought together the health benefits of unionization and working under collective agreements. It was noted how Canadian health promotion texts, reports and statements made no mention of unionization and working under collective agreements as promoting health. This was seen as a significant omission and reasons for this were considered. In this article this analysis is extended to consider how contributors to the flagship health promotion journal Health Promotion International (HPI) conceptualize unions, unionization and working under collective agreements as promoting health. Of 2443 articles published in HPI since its inception, 87 or 3.6% make mention of unions, unionization, collective agreements or collective bargaining, with most saying little about their promoting health. Instead, 20 make cursory references to unions or merely see them as providing support and engagement opportunities for individuals. Forty-five depict unions or union members as involved in a health promotion programme or activity carried out by the authors or by government agencies. Only 33 articles explicitly mention unions, unionization or collective agreements as potentially health promoting, representing 1.3% of total HPI content since 1986. We conclude that the health promoting possibilities of unionization and working under collective agreements is a neglected area amongst HPI contributors. Reasons for this are explored and an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report on the importance of collective bargaining is drawn upon to identify areas for health promotion research and action.

Union Burying Ground: Mortality, Mortality Inequities, and Sinking Labor Union Membership in the United States

BACKGROUND

Over the last several decades in the United States, socioeconomic life-expectancy inequities have increased 1-2 years. Declining labor-union density has fueled growing income inequities across classes and exacerbated racial income inequities. Using Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data, we examined the longitudinal union-mortality relationship and estimated whether declining union density has also exacerbated mortality inequities.

METHODS

Our sample included respondents ages 25-66 to the 1979-2015 PSID with mortality follow-up through age 68 and year 2017. To address healthy-worker bias, we used the parametric g-formula. First, we estimated how a scenario setting all (versus none) of respondents' employed-person-years to union-member employed-person-years would have affected mortality incidence. Next, we examined gender, racial, and educational effect modification. Finally, we estimated how racial and educational mortality inequities would have changed if union-membership prevalence had remained at 1979 (vs. 2015) levels throughout follow-up.

RESULTS

In the full sample (respondents = 23,022, observations = 146,681), the union scenario was associated with lower mortality incidence than the nonunion scenario (RR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.80, 0.99; RD per 1,000 = -19, 95% CI = -37, -1). This protective association generally held across subgroups, although it was stronger among the more-educated. However, we found little evidence mortality inequities would have lessened if union membership had remained at 1979 levels.

CONCLUSIONS

To our knowledge, this was the first individual-level US-based study with repeated union-membership measurements to analyze the union-mortality relationship. We estimated a protective union-mortality association, but found little evidence declining union density has exacerbated mortality inequities; importantly, we did not incorporate contextual-level effects. See video abstract at, http://links.lww.com/EDE/B839.

National Evaluation of the Association Between Resident Labor Union Participation and Surgical Resident Well-being

Importance

Labor unions are purported to improve working conditions; however, little evidence exists regarding the effect of resident physician unions.

Objective

To evaluate the association of resident unions with well-being, educational environment, salary, and benefits among surgical residents in the US.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This national cross-sectional survey study was based on a survey administered in January 2019 after the American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination (ABSITE). Clinically active residents at all nonmilitary US general surgery residency programs accredited by the American Council of Graduate Medical Education who completed the 2019 ABSITE were eligible for participation. Data were analyzed from December 5, 2020, to March 16, 2021.

Exposures

Presence of a general surgery resident labor union. Rates of labor union coverage among non-health care employees within a region were used as an instrumental variable (IV) for the presence of a labor union at a residency program.

Main Outcomes and Measures

The primary outcome was burnout, which was assessed using a modified version of the abbreviated Maslach Burnout Inventory and was defined as experiencing any symptom of depersonalization or emotional exhaustion at least weekly. Secondary outcomes included suicidality, measures of job satisfaction, duty hour violations, mistreatment, educational environment, salary, and benefits.

Results

A total of 5701 residents at 285 programs completed the pertinent survey questions (response rate, 85.6%), of whom 3219 (56.5%) were male, 3779 (66.3%) were White individuals, 449 (7.9%) were of Hispanic ethnicity, 4239 (74.4%) were married or in a relationship, and 1304 (22.9%) had or were expecting children. Among respondents, 690 residents were from 30 unionized programs (10.5% of programs). There was no difference in burnout for residents at unionized vs nonunionized programs (297 [43.0%] vs 2175 [43.4%]; odds ratio [OR], 0.92 [95% CI, 0.75-1.13]; IV difference in probability, 0.15 [95% CI, -0.11 to 0.42]). There were no significant differences in suicidality, job satisfaction, duty hour violations, mistreatment, educational environment, salary, or benefits except that unionized programs more frequently offered 4 weeks instead of 2 to 3 weeks of vacation (27 [93.1%] vs 52 [30.6%]; OR, 19.18 [95% CI, 3.92-93.81]; IV difference in probability, 0.77 [95% CI, 0.09-1.45]) and more frequently offered housing stipends (10 [38.5%] vs 9 [16.1%]; OR, 2.15 [95% CI, 0.58-7.95]; IV difference in probability, 0.62 [95% CI 0.04-1.20]).

Conclusions and Relevance

In this evaluation of surgical residency programs in the US, unionized programs offered improved vacation and housing stipend benefits, but resident unions were not associated with improved burnout, suicidality, job satisfaction, duty hour violations, mistreatment, educational environment, or salary.

Organisational Measures and Strategies for a Healthy and Sustainable Extended Working Life and Employability-A Deductive Content Analysis with Data Including Employees, First Line Managers, Trade Union Representatives and HR-Practitioners

Due to the global demographic change many more people will need to work until an older age, and organisations and enterprises need to implement measures to facilitate an extended working life. The aim of this study was to investigate organisational measures and suggestions to promote and make improvements for a healthy and sustainable working life for all ages in an extended working life. This is a qualitative study, and the data were collected through both focus group interviews and individual interviews that included 145 participants. The study identified several suggestions for measures and actions to increase employability in the themes: to promote a good physical and mental work environment; to promote personal financial and social security; to promote relations, social inclusion and social support in the work situation; and to promote creativity, knowledge development and intrinsic work motivation, i.e., based on the spheres of determination in the theoretical swAge-model (sustainable working life for all ages). Based on the study results a tool for dialogue and discussion on employee work situation and career development was developed, and presented in this article. Regular conversations, communication and close dialogue are needed and are a prerequisite for good working conditions and a sustainable working environment, as well as to be able to manage employees and develop the organisation further. The identified measures need to be revisited regularly throughout the employees' entire working life to enable a healthy and sustainable working life for all ages.

Occupational Health Hazards: Employer, Employee, and Labour Union Concerns

This review paper examines the extent of employer, worker, and labour union concerns to occupational health hazard exposure, as a function of previously reported and investigated complaints. Consequently, an online literature search was conducted, encompassing publicly available reports resulting from investigations, regulatory inspection, and enforcement activities conducted by relevant government structures from South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Of the three countries’ government structures, the United States’ exposure investigative activities conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health returned literature search results aligned to the study design, in the form of health hazard evaluation reports reposited on its online database. The main initiators of investigated exposure cases were employers, workers, and unions at 86% of the analysed health hazard evaluation reports conducted between 2000 and 2020. In the synthesised literature, concerns to exposure from chemical and physical hazards were substantiated by occupational hygiene measurement outcomes confirming excessive exposures above regulated health and safety standards in general. Recommendations to abate the confirmed excessive exposures were made in all cases, highlighting the scientific value of occupational hygiene measurements as a basis for exposure control, informing risk and hazard perception. Conclusively, all stakeholders at the workplace should have adequate risk perception to trigger abatement measures.

Workers' rights are human rights: organizing the psychology of labor movements

A surprisingly small body of research in psychology documents the costs and benefits of labor unions on an individual's psyche. However, the importance of labor unions - so critical it was codified in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights - requires a renewed examination of labor movements beyond the individual differences that predict labor membership. I review the body of evidence that shows labor has had an overwhelmingly positive impact on the workplace and have begun to use social movement actions of growing support and building power. I conclude by highlighting new questions for future research, and calling on a renewal of union psychology research by studying unionization as the emergence of a new culture.

[ON THE OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH ASPECTS IN THE REGULATIONS OF JEWISH TRADE UNIONS AND RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS IN EUROPE]

Trade unions (guilds) became an important socio-economic-religious institution in Jewish communities of Eastern Europe since the beginning of the modern era. These unions mainly regulated economic matters, but also functioned as religious organizations and regulated matters in this field. A somewhat similar phenomenon was that of religious-voluntary associations, whether founded for the purpose of engagement in specific religious-social-communal affairs such as the treatment of the deceased and sick, and whether for the purpose of engagement in specific religious-pietistic affairs. Like the trade unions, these associations also became common since the early modern era, in Europe and in the Mediterranean Basin, and regulated the membership terms and duties in detail. Despite the comprehensive regulation of various issues and problems, the records and documents of these unions (from the 16th to the 19th century) do not contain real evidence for dealing with questions of occupational medicine and preventive medicine in the areas of employee health. These findings are consistent with the general trends and developments in the awareness and regulation of these areas. Regarding the religious-voluntary associations: regulations dealing with Association members' health can be found in the regulations of the associations for the treatment of the deceased and sick, namely regulations dealing with the question of avoiding treatment of dangerous patients. This reflects awareness of the specific issue of avoiding highly contagious diseases rather than an actual approach to occupational medicine issues.

On-the-ground health and safety experiences of non-union casino hotel workers: A focus-group study stratified by four occupational groups

OBJECTIVES

To understand the health- and safety-related experiences of specific occupations among non-union casino hotel employees to identify processes leading to worker health and safety risks.

METHODS

Using purposive, criterion sampling, 61 workers participated in 13 recorded focus groups (FGs). A semi-structured topic guide addressed work-related health and safety impacts, workplace hazards, and management responses, among others. FG transcripts were analyzed following grounded theory methodology. Demographic and occupational health information was collected via survey.

RESULTS

Codes (97) were collapsed into seven themes: activities/exposures negatively affecting health/safety; barriers to health/safety; injury/pain occurrences; coping mechanisms; job vulnerability; management policies/enforcement; lack of management concern for employees. From these themes emerged the Dynamic Theoretical Framework of Employee Health and Safety Risk.

CONCLUSIONS

"Management's lack of concern" creates a negative environment whereby employer-controlled factors jeopardize employees' health and safety. Interventions targeting management's lack of concern for employee health and safety could favorably change work-based risks.

Undiagnosed attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among unionized drivers in Ghana: Public health and policy implications

Road traffic accidents (RTA) are among the leading causes of mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Many males that drop out of school in Ghana, a population at risk for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), find employment by joining driver's unions. Moreover, the vehicles of Ghanaian unionized drivers are over-represented in fatal road accidents. Untreated ADHD has been linked with higher rates of RTAs. The objectives of this cross-sectional analysis is to determine the following among unionized drivers in Ghana: 1) the prevalence of ADHD, and 2) the association between self-reported ADHD risk and driving behavior. Data comes from participants' responses (200 unionized drivers and 171 community controls) to a 6-item ADHD Self - Report Scale (ASRS), the Driving Behavior Survey (DBS), and a culturally adapted version of the Jerome Driving Questionnaire (JDQ-GH). The self-reported prevalence of ADHD was 17.6% for the unionized drivers and 7.8% for the control group (χ²=7.7, df=1, p=0.006). Also, ADHD drivers endorsed that they were more likely to pay bribes to police and having worse driving behaviors across among both unionized drivers and controls. Study findings suggest that increased awareness of ADHD and possible screening of drivers for ADHD with subsequent evaluation and treatment may result in prevention of vehicle accidents.

Sensitive Topics, Missing Data, and Refusal in Social Network Studies: An Ethical Examination

We describe our ethics-driven process of addressing missing data within a social network study about accountability for racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, cis-sexism, ableism, and other forms of oppression among social justice union organizers. During data collection, some would-be participants did not return emails and others explicitly refused to engage in the research. All refusals came from women of color. We faced an ethical dilemma: Should we continue to seek participation from those who had not yet responded, with the hopes of recruiting more women of color from within the network so their perspectives would not be tokenized? Or, should we stop asking those who had been contacted multiple times, which would compromise the social network data and analysis? We delineate ways in which current discussions of the ethics of social network studies fell short, given our framework and our community psychology (CP) values. We outline literature that was helpful in thinking through this challenge; we looked outside of CP to the decolonization literature on refusal. Lessons learned include listening for the possible meanings of refusals and considering the level of engagement and the labor required of participants when designing research studies.

A different way of doing nursing

The transition from nursing manager to NZNO lead organiser has proved to be just another way of nursing.

Supporting victims of domestic violence

NZNO believes workplaces have a role in preventing domestic violence and supporting its victims.

Unions reject scheme to charge overseas patients

Proposals to charge overseas patients for non-urgent NHS treatment are unworkable, and nurses and healthcare workers must not be made to police them, health unions have warned.

What to consider when you want to join a union

Nurses are faced with an array of choices when it comes to which union to join, but they are most likely to opt for the RCN, Unison, Unite or GMB.

Union demands end to pay award restriction

The RCN has given evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body (RB), which will make recommendations on nurses' pay levels to the government for 2017/18.

Unions to combat post-Brexit racism

Unions have vowed to combat a 'surge' in racism in the workplace amid reports EU nurses and other workers have been racially abused following the Brexit vote.

Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation Policies in Manufacturing Facilities in the Tobacco-Growing State of Kentucky

Purpose.

To assess workplace tobacco use prevention and cessation policies in manufacturing facilities and explore factors associated with tobacco policies and practices in the tobacco-growing state of Kentucky.

Design.

Cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational design.

Setting.

Telephone survey of Kentucky manufacturing facilities.

Subjects.

A total of 437 human resource managers (77% participation rate).

Measures.

Telephone interviews by trained local health department staff to assess indoor and outdoor smoking policies, sale of cigarettes on company property, and provision of cessation and prevention programs.

Results.

Nearly seven in 10 manufacturing facilities had a written smoking policy, but only 43% banned indoor smoking. About one-fourth of companies reimbursed for cessation treatment and/or provided cessation resources. Companies with unions were more likely than those without unions to provide cessation resources but were also more likely to allow indoor smoking. Although large companies had more than two and a half times the odds as small companies to have a written smoking policy, they were more likely to allow cigarette sales on company property.

Conclusion.

Despite the importance of smoke-free policies in the workplace, most manufacturing facilities surveyed allowed indoor smoking and few helped smokers quit. Companies with unions were more likely to cater to their smoking employees. Manufacturing facilities provide an opportunity to protect large numbers of adult workers from the hazards of secondhand smoke and to provide quit assistance for smokers.

A New Channel for Health Promotion: Building Trade Unions

Purpose.

Labor unions are a largely unevaluated channel for health promotion interventions for working class populations, who are at increased risk for smoking and poor diet. We conducted qualitative and quantitative research to understand the meaning and function of union membership in workers' lives and applied this information to health promotion intervention design.

Methods.

Cross-sectional data included a survey conducted with a nationally representative sample of unionized construction workers (n = 1109; 44% response rate), and 16 focus groups (n = 88) conducted in multiple regions around the country.

Results.

The vast majority of survey respondents held strongly positive views of their union. Focus group findings revealed the meaning of the union in members' daily lives, how members view information from the union, and their perceptions of the union's limitations.

Conclusions.

The findings provide a compelling rationale for considering unions as a channel for health promotion interventions.

RCN must flex its union muscles

The government wants to condemn nurses to an annual 1% 'pay rise' for the next four years. With inflation this amounts to a 20% pay cut between 2010 and 2020.

Social Hazards on the Job: Workplace Abuse, Sexual Harassment, and Racial Discrimination—A Study of Black, Latino, and White Low-Income Women and Men Workers in the United States

This study documents the prevalence of workplace abuse, sexual harassment at work, and lifetime experiences of racial discrimination among the United for Health cohort of 1,202 predominantly black, Latino, and white women and men low-income union workers in the Greater Boston area. Overall, 85 percent of the cohort reported exposure to at least one of these three social hazards; exposure to all three reached 20 to 30 percent among black women and women and men in racial/ethnic groups other than white, black, or Latino. Workplace abuse in the past year, reported by slightly more than half the workers, was most frequently reported by the white men (69%). Sexual harassment at work in the past year was reported by 26 percent of the women and 22 percent of the men, with values of 20 percent or more in all racial/ethnic-gender groups other than Latinas and white men. High exposure to racial discrimination was reported by 37 percent of the workers of color, compared with 10 percent of the white workers, with black workers reporting the greatest exposure (44%). Together, these findings imply that the lived— and combined—experiences of class, race, and gender inequities and their attendant assaults on human dignity are highly germane to analyses of workers' health.