British Worker Research Articles

“Railway Work, Life & Death”: Exploring British and Irish Railway Worker Accidents, c. 1890–1939

The “Railway Work, Life & Death” project explores accidents and ill-health amongst British and Irish railway workers from the late nineteenth century to 1939. Drawing from state, railway company and trade union records, the project is making details of the working lives and accidents of railway employees more easily accessible. This note describes the collaborative impetus behind the project, and the crowd-sourcing methodology used, including the importance of working with volunteers. It shows that focusing on individual cases, at scale, is extremely revealing about the nature of work and the dangers of one of the largest employers of its time. It aims to encourage others to engage with crowd-sourcing and co-creation, as well as to make use of the resources being produced.

A war of words: the British Gazette and British Worker during the 1926 General Strike

ABSTRACTThe researcher used an archive of British newspapers during the 1926 General Strike. The transcripts included: the government’s British Gazette; British Worker, a trade union newspaper; and other newspapers during the conflict. The British Worker stuck to communicating strike-related information, but lost the battle for terminology control to the British Gazette and the majority of the general circulation press. Those papers stressed terms associated with disruptive effects and overall threat to the country. The findings follow past trends in news coverage of strikes, and add supporting examples to game theory, social movement theory, indexing, and political economy of communication.

The limits of agency: Emily Hobhouse’s international activism and the politics of suffering

This article pieces together the activism of the British welfare worker and feminist-pacifist Emily Hobhouse (1860–1926) during two largely unrecorded episodes of transnational activism: firstly, her ministry of Cornish miners in Virginia, Minnesota, in the United States; and secondly, her interventions during the period of reconstruction following the South African War (1899–1902). The article endeavors to contextualize Hobhouse’s activism and offer a broader understanding of the limitations and restraints on her actions. Ultimately, her activism required a platform that was in the gift of political actors and establishment figures, and dependent on fluctuations within specific political and bureaucratic situations. Based on close inspection of undocumented material in both South African and British archives, the article investigates Hobhouse’s repertoire of missionary and philanthropic roles within a wider context of humanitarian politics. It demonstrates how women’s activism and their behind-the-scenes politicking informed political decision-making in modern imperial and international affairs.

From ‘salt of the earth’ to ‘enemy within’

The aim of this paper is to examine the defeat of the 1984-1985 miners’ strike and assess whether an alternative strategy could have yielded a successful outcome for the miners, or if the writing was on the wall from the outset. It will look at the consequences of the government’s ideological neoliberal victory and the long-term ramifications for the relationship between the British state and worker, arguing that the Thatcher government purposefully dismantled and discredited the trade union movement, entrenching the values of meritocracy and a flexible labour market in the British economy. The legacy of these events can be seen in the suppression of wages and stagnation in improvement of living standards, greatly damaging the economic autonomy and community integrity of working class communities in the initial aftermath. The result of this was widespread intergenerational poverty, extending also to encompass middle class professionals in the 21st century.

A content analysis of the UK press response to the diagnosis of Ebola in a British healthcare worker.

The Ebola epidemic led to considerable media attention, which may influence public risk perception. Therefore, this study analysed theUK press response following diagnosis of a British healthcare worker (HCW) with Ebola. Using the Nexis database, the frequency of Ebola-related articles in UK national newspaper articles was mapped. This was followed by a content analysis of Ebola-related articles in the four newspapers with highest UK net readership from November 2014 to February 2015. During the 16-week study period, 1349 articles were found. The day with the highest number of Ebola-related articles was 31 December 2014, the day after the diagnosis of Ebola in a UK HCW. Seventy-sevenarticles were included in the content analysis. Content analysis demonstrated a shift from West African to UK-focused articles, increased discussion of border control, UK policy decisions and criticism, and an increased number of articles with a reassuring/threatening message. UK press coverage of Ebola increased following a HCW's diagnosis, particularly regarding discussion of screening measures. This is likely to have increased risk perception of Ebola in the UK population and may have contributed to subsequent strengthening of UK screening policy beyond World Health Organisation requirements.

The Transformation of Hunger Revisited: Estimating Available Calories from the Budgets of Late Nineteenth-Century British Households

Levels of nutrition among British worker's households in the late nineteenth century have been much debated. Trevon Logan (2006, 2009) estimated a very low average level of available calories. This paper re-examines the data and finds average levels of available calories much more in line with existing studies, more in line with what is known about energy requirements, and more in line with other aspects of the data. In sum, British households were likely to have been significantly better fed than Logan reports.

How Can We Socialize Beheadings in the West?

Professionals focused on threat assessment find that the nature of our work is fundamentally changing. Violence in the West has become increasingly more grotesque, unquestionably influenced by unprecedented media attention following the torture and beheading of British aid worker David Haines by the ISIS members in fall of 2014. The body of emperical research on the causation of violence includes many references to the copycat in social, school, and workplace settings over many decades. Documentation is clear that several school shootings, for example, analyze the tactics employed by other killers before they engage in rampages.... Language: en

Aboriginal community-level predictors of injury-related hospitalizations in British Columbia, Canada.

Population-level statistics indicating disparities in injury rates between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations disguise considerable community-level heterogeneity. Using an ecological approach, we analyzed linked data from British Columbia's (BC) universal health care insurance plan, worker compensation, vital statistics, and census databases to identify community-level risk markers for hospitalization due to injury among the Aboriginal population of BC, Canada. Community standardized relative risks (SRR) of injury hospitalization relative to the total population of BC ranged from 0.24 to 9.35. Variables associated with increased SRRs included the following: higher proportions of crowded housing, housing in poor condition, participating in industries with greater risk of a work injury claim, being more remote, and at higher latitude. Higher income and more high school graduates were protective. In the best-fitting multivariable model, variables independently associated with SRR were proportion of the population with a high school certificate (RR = 0.89 per unit standard deviation change, 95 % confidence interval 0.83 to 0.94), and remoteness index (RR = 1.06, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.01 to 1.11). Results confirm profound diversity in Aboriginal communities across BC. SRRs of injury hospitalization increased as proportion of high school graduates dropped and remoteness increased. Promoting the educational attainment of community members should be an important focus of initiatives to improve health.

Nurses working overseas are in danger of being kidnapped

Volunteer care professionals should take out insurance against abduction while abroad, writes Erin Dean

The Transformation of Hunger Revisited

We examine Trevon Logan's 2009 claim to have found low levels of nutrition among British worker's households in the late 19th century. Using the same data, we conclude that Logan's estimates are thirty percent too low. Logan buttressed his estimates by claiming that the income elasticity of calories demand was unusually high among these households, relative to other estimates, reflecting great hunger. We find that the elasticity is high, but not outside the range observed in other data sets. We also warn against the simple assertion that a high elasticity implies hunger.

Precocious Albion: A New Interpretation of the British Industrial Revolution

Why was Britain the cradle of the Industrial Revolution? Answers vary: some focus on resource endowments, some on institutions, some on the role of empire. In this paper, we argue for the role of labour force quality or human capital. Instead of dwelling on mediocre schooling and literacy rates, we highlight instead the physical condition of the average British worker and his higher endowment of skills. These advantages meant that British workers were more productive and better paid than their Continental counterparts and better equipped to capitalize on the technological opportunities and challenges confronting them.

From the British worker question to the impact of HRM: understanding the relationship between employment relations and economic performance

ABSTRACTThe long‐running UK debate over the relationship between employment relations and economic performance is examined. Its four phases are identified as: British worker question, British economic miracle, ‘what do unions do?’ and Human Resource Management (HRM) and performance. Change in the terms of debate is observed. Important common threads are identified. Recommendations for future research are made.

Internationalism in Relief: The Birth (and Death) of UNRRA

Susan Pettiss, an American relief worker, remembered that UNRRA—the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration—‘caused quite a stir when it was established’. Its creation was ‘a magnificent unprecedented feat’, she thought: ‘There was no background, tradition, system, common language or currency for UNRRA’; yet it brought together ‘men and women of different nationalities, backgrounds and skills’, all united in the ambition to build ‘a true world community with new social systems and international relations’. 2 Other relief workers thought much the same. Francesca Wilson, a British relief worker with decades of experience, described how en route to begin her duties in continental Europe it suddenly dawned on her ‘what a great experiment UNRRA was—the first international body to do something concrete and constructive, an attempt at an international civil service’.

“Making His way to the heart of India”: British Missionaries, Indian Nationalism, and Religious Belonging in Post-World War I India

In 1929, Mary Gardner, a British missionary worker in Kurseong, India, wrote home to her church secretary describing a particularly difficult day during her work in village houses, schools, and mission homes. She outlined instances of child abandonment, incest, and abuse, but ended on a note of hopefulness when explaining the redeeming nature of her society’s missionary homes: “What a blessing the Homes are to poor, unwanted children!” Despite this optimism, in the same letter Gardner angrily criticized the Swaraj movement and decried the “deplorable state” of India in the midst of increasing Indian nationalism.1 Her tone, shifting from faith in her mission’s redeeming promise to fear regarding alternate movements of belonging, reveals some of the many tensions of British identity within the context of interwar fears of imperial decline and colonial nationalism. Following the brutal conflict, Britons across the empire grappled with their imperial identities as the muscular Christianity and competitive imperialism of the Edwardian period shifted to more subtle articulations of Commonwealth, trusteeship, and internationalism. During the interwar period, despite a widespread desire to return to “normalcy”

Real Wages and Labor Productivity in Britain and Germany, 1871–1938: A Unified Approach to the International Comparison of Living Standards

Throughout the period 1871–1938, the average British worker was better off than the average German worker, but there were significant differences between major sectors. For the aggregate economy, the real wage gap was about the same as the labor productivity gap, but again there were important sectoral differences. Compared to their productivity, German industrial workers were poorly paid, whereas German agricultural and service sector employees were overpaid. This affected the competitiveness of the two countries in these sectors. There were also important differences in comparative real wages by skill level, affecting the extent of poverty.

Union Decline, Minority Ethnic Workers and Employment Advice in Local Communities

There is substantial evidence that workplace problems among British workers are widespread. In 2001, the British Worker Representation and Participation survey found 38% of respondents had problems at work. Unionised workers can seek support from their trade union—but union membership is now a minority. Workers generally have poor knowledge and understanding of their employment rights and information and advice is uncoordinated and spread across informal help, libraries, the Internet telephone helplines, equality bodies, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, solicitors and other legal advisers. So where, in practice, do the non-unionised go? This is the question being asked by a team at the Working Lives Research Institute at London Metropolitan University who have been conducting research with three minority ethnic communities in London to investigate the different factors influencing the way that workers seek advice for workplace problems. The study has focused on three locally based ethnic groups: Kurds in Hackney, South Asians in Ealing and black Caribbeans in Lambeth. The 3-year Economic and Social Research Council-funded research project is still ongoing and draws on data from over 120 in-depth face-to-face interviews with people working in third-sector organisations such as Law Centres and other advice and advocacy organisations like Citizens Advice Bureaux, local solicitors' firms, community organisations, faith groups and local council representatives. Individual workers have also been interviewed to understand how they respond when faced with a problem at work and where they turn for help or advice.

Real Wages and Labour Productivity in Britain and Germany, 1871-1938: A Unified Approach to the International Comparison of Living Standards

Throughout the period 1871-1938, the average British worker was better off than the average German worker, but there were significant differences between major sectors. For the aggregate economy, the real wage gap was about the same as the labour productivity gap, but again there were important sectoral differences. Compared to their productivity, German industrial workers were poorly paid, whereas German agricultural and service sector employees were overpaid. This affected the competitiveness of the two countries in these sectors. There were also impor-tant differences in comparative real wages by skill level, affecting the extent of poverty.

A Strange Enemy People: Germans under the British 1945-50

Like her BBC documentary Zone of Occupation, this book draws on Meehan's experience as a British welfare worker in 1946, and on interviews with many Germans who remembered the occupation. She says that within their zone ravaged areas of the industrial Ruhr and the port of Hamburg the British settle

Afghanistan's Challenge

> “All we are breaking are stones.” > > —Taliban leader Mullah Omar, March 2001, on the destruction of Afghanistan's statues On my first afternoon in Kabul, I threaded my way through packs of dirty children and decaying concrete high rises to thank a British aid worker who had helped

Human exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation

Solar ultraviolet (UV) irradiation depends upon the local UV climate, people's behaviour. Behaviour includes the time spent outdoors and the use of photoprotective agents. In adult life, a British indoor worker in the UK might typically receive 30% of his or her annual UV exposure from sun-seeking holidays, 40% from summer weekends, 20% from casual weekday exposure between April and September and just 10% from sun exposure during the 6 month period October to March. Whilst climatic factors do influence levels of UV radiation (UVR) at the Earth's surface, it is people's behaviour out of doors that has a much greater impact on personal solar UV irradiation. Methods of personal protection include: avoiding direct sunlight in summer around noon; seeking the shade; wearing clothing absorbs UVR; wearing hats that shade face and neck; and using topical sunscreens.