Work In America Research Articles

The Group-in-Institution as the Unit of Attention

All social workers in America are keenly aware of the continuing thrust towards de-institutionalizalion. They are equally familiar with the promotion of the community's responsibility for the so-called deviant populations in our society. Many may not be so aware, however, of a paradoxical trend that is occurring simultaneously. The use made by these populations of a great variety of residential facilities is on the increase. Nevertheless, indications are that these facilities are being used differently to achieve quite different aims now than in the past. For example, periods of admission to institutions are shorter and more frequent. Temporary admissions for many are often arranged to give some relief to their family members or other caregivers. Further, two different types of institutionalized populations are emerging as: (a) those who become socialized to the institution because of repeated or long-term admissions, and (b) those who become dependent on the institutions almost immediately upon their admission to it. Thus, if institutions are to become more than merely custodial services, these trends forecast the need for a more differentiated practice by the social workers who work in them (Anthony & Farkas, 1982; Mercier, 1986; Toews & Barnes, 1986). This paper asserts that group practice with individuals residing in institutions contributes significantly to the constructive use they make of institutional services. Not only does the group provide a therapeutic milieu to its members for the resolution of psychosocial problems through interactions within the group. The group is also a powerful influence on the institutional environment of the group, as well as on the external community of each of its individual members. It is further contended that there are special competencies inherent in this kind of practice with groups whose members reside in institutions. Thus the impact of institutional services on members and staff is explored in order to identify the salient practice issues. In the light of these issues the external influence of the group is conceptualized. This conceptualization is then tested against the realities of practice with groups in two contrasting institutional contexts.

Role of the Occupational Health Nurse in the Year 2000

From a historical perspective, occupational health nursing practice has changed in response to historic events and societal needs. The occupational health nurse today is expected to meet a variety of challenges and assume various roles within occupational health service settings. These roles require a sophisticated knowledge base and problem solving skills which are empirically based and multidisciplinary in their approach. The occupational health nurse can effect on local and public health issues through research and influence on public values and opinion. With the increasing demand for health care cost containment, occupational health nurses must meet the challenges of today and those of the future through program planning, research, and policy making.

From company doctors to union hospitals: The first democratic health-care experiments of the United Mine Workers of America

A successful co-operative store, a well built attractive union hall, an up-to-date-hospital—any practical achievement of the working class—is worth more than all the revolutionary talks which may be made between now and doom's day. A workers' republic will be built only by men and women who have learned things. Talk is cheap. Illinois Miner, 1922

Self‐managing Work Teams: An International Perspective

Documents the utilization of the self‐managing work teams concept throughout the world. Specifically, explores such utilization in Australia, Canada, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Also investigates the pioneering use of that concept by the unions, e.g. the Communication Workers of America. Demonstrates the value of this new concept in enhancing global competitiveness. Also looks at the impact of the dominant cultural paradigm and its possible effect on the success (or lack thereof) of this concept in the various countries. Finally, suggests the need for further research to ensure an increased understanding of the successful utilization of self‐managing work teams throughout the world.

Internal Jurisprudence and Trade Union Democracy: The Case of the Auto Workers

While much of the literature on trade union democracy considers the ability of members to influence union policy or gain union office, not enough attention has been paid to internal systems of jurisprudence. In this article, the author presents evidence of the effects of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implements Workers of America's (UAW) highly formalized system of jurisprudence on democracy in that union. Following a brief section on public policy and union regulation, key decisions of the UAW's Public Review Board are presented. Finally, the attractiveness of the public review model, in light of the current state of government deference and union acceptance, is discussed.

Becoming a Mighty Voice: Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America.

Becoming a Mighty Voice: Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America.

Book Review: Historical Studies: Becoming a Mighty Voice: Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America

Book Review: Historical Studies: Becoming a Mighty Voice: Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article:BOLMAN, LEE G. and DEAL, TERRENCE E. Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership.KLEINBECK, UWE, QUAST, HANS‐HENNING, THIERRY, HENK, and HACKER, HARTMUT (Eds.). Work Motivation.FERMAN, LOUISA., HOYMAN, MICHELE, CUTCHER‐GERSH‐ENFELD, JOEL, and SAVOIE, ERNEST J. (Eds.). New Developments in Worker Training: A Legacy for the 1990s.SCHMITT, NEAL W. and KLIMOSKI, RICHARD J. Research Methods in Human Resources Management.CASCIO, WAYNE F. Costing Human Resources: The Financial Impact of Behavior in Organizations (3rd ed.).ROOMKIN, MYRON J. Profit Sharing and Gain Sharing.SACKHEIM, KATHRYN K. Handwriting Analysis and the Employee Selection Process.YASUDA, YUZO. 40 Years, 20 Million Ideas: The Toyota Suggestion System.LEGNICK‐HALL, CYNTHIA A. and LENGNICK‐HALL, MARK L. Interactive Human Resource Management and Strategic Planning.TALLEY, JOSEPH E., and HINZ, LISA D. Performance Prediction of Public Safety and Law Enforcement Personnel: A Study in Race and Gender Differences and MMPI Subscales.BITTEL, LESTER R. Right on Time!: The Complete Guide for Time‐Pressured Managers.MACKENZIE, ALEC. The Time Trap: The New Version of the Classic Book on Time Management.BIBLE, JON D. and McWHIRTER, DARIEN A. Privacy in the Workplace: A Guide for Human Resource Managers.GELLERMAN, WILLIAM, FRANKEL, MARK S. and LADENSON, ROBERT F. Values and Ethics in Organization and Human Systems Development: Responding to Dilemmas in Professional Life.FYOCK, CATHERINE D. America's Work Force Is Coming of Age: What Every Business Needs to Know to Recruit, Train, Manage, and Retain an Aging Work Force.ULRICH, DAVE and LAKE, DALE. Organization Capability: Competing from the Inside Out.PRICHARD, ROBERT D. Measuring and Improving Organizational Productivity: A Practical Guide.

Bloody Harlan: The United Mine Workers of America in Harlan County, Kentucky, 1931-1941.

Bloody Harlan: The United Mine Workers of America in Harlan County, Kentucky, 1931-1941.

Becoming a Mighty Voice: Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America.

Becoming a Mighty Voice: Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America.

Becoming a Mighty Voice: Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America. By Daniel B. Cornfield. Russell Sage, 1989. 292 pp. $35.00

Becoming a Mighty Voice: Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America. By Daniel B. Cornfield. Russell Sage, 1989. 292 pp. $35.00

Becoming a Mighty Voice: Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America.

Becoming a Mighty Voice: Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America.

Becoming a Mighty Voice: Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America. By Daniel B. Cornfield. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1990. Pp. xii, 292. $35.00.

Becoming a Mighty Voice: Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America. By Daniel B. Cornfield. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1990. Pp. xii, 292. $35.00.

Becoming a mighty voice: conflict and change in the United Furniture Workers of America

Becoming a mighty voice: conflict and change in the United Furniture Workers of America

Termination of Health Benefits for Pittston Mine Workers: Impact on the Health and Security of Miners and Their Families

Mine workers represented by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) have had comprehensive medical care coverage since 1950. On February 1, 1988, UMWA employees of the Pittston Coal Group had their health care benefits abruptly terminated. Renewal of these benefits became a major reason for the subsequent UMWA strike against Pittston. In December, 1989, physician interviewers were organized to document the human experience of this termination of health care benefits. This report summarizes these interviews, and concludes that the UMWA experience in the Pittston coal fields is one example of the barriers to health care experienced by an increasing proportion of the United States population.

Rejoinder to Symposium on ?Myth-Making as Labor History: Herbert Gutman and the United Mine Workers of America?

Rejoinder to Symposium on ?Myth-Making as Labor History: Herbert Gutman and the United Mine Workers of America?

The new labor history and the historical moment

Herbert Hill's revision of Herbert Gutman's essay, "The Negro and the United Mine Workers of America: The Career and Letters of Richard L. Davis and Something of their Meaning, 1890-1900," represents a useful tonic in labor history, for Hill challenges Gut? man's writing of history in this particular instance as well as his role as a pioneer in the revival of labor history since the 1960s. Gutman's article, drafted in the mid-1960s, describes the career of Richard Davis, a black organizer for the United Mine Workers of America during the 1890s. Leaning heavily on Davis's published letters to the UMW Journal, Gutman shows Davis as a full-fledged member of his union, for the most part respected by white and black miners alike, but aware of considerable racial tension in the workplace. Gutman's Davis is a man in the middle, walking the line between racist white miners and separatist black miners, seeking and find? ing allies?well-intended whites and union-minded blacks?in the union. Davis died young and blacklisted, his poverty, for Gutman, an indication of Davis's devotion to a predominantly white union that was able to discern the need for American workers to organize across racial lines. Gutman's Davis stands out because he reached high office in the international union and wrote a series of letters that were published in the union's newspaper, but Davis's impor? tance is more than merely individual. In Gutman's hands, Davis symbolizes a broader and important phenomenon?the recognition of black leadership in the UMW at the turn of the twentieth century. Gutman concludes that the existence of hitherto unknown black UMW organizers such as Davis is crucial to a correct understanding of the age of Booker T. Washington and Samuel Gompers. Here was a decent, although buried, labor history that showed that the mid twentieth-century American Left might discover historical antece? dents as inspiring as the revolutionary European working classes who were becoming the talisman of the American New Left. Hill attacks Gutman's history of Richard Davis as purposefully misleading, on the ground that Gutman so tampered with the evi? dence as to produce an untruthful piece of history. Using Gutman's

Chest Pain in Users of Video Display Terminals

To the Editor.— Haynes 1,2 and LaCroix 3 have reported that office workers who used video display terminals (VDTs) experienced a fourfold increase in angina pectoris compared with nonusers. These findings were reported to the membership of the union that requested the study, 4 but are as yet unpublished in a peer-reviewed forum. The resulting publicity ( Washington Post , Jan 31, 1985) linking VDTs to cardiovascular morbidity has caused concern among office workers as well as skepticism in the scientific community. Public concern over potential cardiac hazards of VDT exposure joins other health concerns associated with VDT use, such as visual/musculoskeletal disturbances and reproductive effects. 5 The Communications Workers ofAmerica, the union representing the study population, requested that we further investigate this excessively high frequency of reported chest pain. We first attempted to confirm the reported excess by reanalyzing the data provided to us by the union. 6 We found

Chest pain in users of video display terminals

<h3>To the Editor.—</h3> Haynes^1,2and LaCroix³have reported that office workers who used video display terminals (VDTs) experienced a fourfold increase in angina pectoris compared with nonusers. These findings were reported to the membership of the union that requested the study,⁴but are as yet unpublished in a peer-reviewed forum. The resulting publicity (<i>Washington Post</i>, Jan 31, 1985) linking VDTs to cardiovascular morbidity has caused concern among office workers as well as skepticism in the scientific community. Public concern over potential cardiac hazards of VDT exposure joins other health concerns associated with VDT use, such as visual/musculoskeletal disturbances and reproductive effects.⁵ The Communications Workers ofAmerica, the union representing the study population, requested that we further investigate this excessively high frequency of reported chest pain. We first attempted to confirm the reported excess by reanalyzing the data provided to us by the union.⁶ We found

Sociological ambivalence: The case of East European peasant-immigrant workers in America, 1880s?1930s

The paper develops an understanding of the tensions experienced by East European immigrants by drawing on the concept of “sociological ambivalence”: being pulled in cognitively and emotionally opposed directions generated by the social situations in which the actors are located. Using a variety of sources created by East European peasant-immigrants themselves—letters, diaries, poems, prayers, newspaper articles, and oral history collections—the paper discusses four kinds of sociological ambivalence experienced by the immigrants: (1) resulting from the multiplicity of “interests” incorporated in different social positions occupied by the same person; (2) induced by the opportunity structure characterized by the disjunction between culturally prescribed aspirations and socially structured avenues for realizing these goals; (3) generated by conflicting values and goals contained in a group's cultural system and in normative role expectations prescribed for its members; and (4) resulting from individuals' simultaneous orientation to several different sets of cultural values and reference groups.