"Educate the Individual... to a Sane Appreciation of the Risk" A History of Industry's Responsibility to Warn of Job Dangers Before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and the Workers Right to Know laws later in that decade were signature moments in the history of occupational safety and health. We have examined how and why industry leaders came to accept that it was the obligation of business to provide information about the dangers to health of the materials that workers encountered. Informing workers about the hazards of the job had plagued labor-management relations and fed labor disputes, strikes, and even pitched battles during the turn of the century decades. Industry's rhetorical embrace of the responsibility to inform was part of its argument that government regulation of the workplace was not necessary because private corporations were doing it.

Strikes by physicians: a historical perspective toward an ethical evaluation.

Current conditions surrounding the house of medicine-including corporate and government cost-containment strategies, increasing market-penetration schemes in health care, along with clinical scrutiny and the administrative control imposed under privatization by managed care firms, insurance companies, and governments-have spurred an upsurge in physician unionization, which requires a revisiting of the issue of physician strikes. Strikes by physicians have been relatively rare events in medical history. When they have occurred, they have aroused intense debate over their ethical justification among professionals and the public alike, notwithstanding what caused the strikes. As physicians and other health care providers increasingly find employment within organizations as wage-contract employees and their work becomes more highly rationalized, more physicians will join labor organizations to protect both their economic and their professional interests. As a result, these physicians will have to come to terms with the use of the strike weapon. On the surface, many health care strikes may not ever seem justifiable, but in certain defined situations a strike would be not only permissible but an ethical imperative. With an exacerbation of labor strife in the health sector in many nations, it is crucial to explore the question of what constitutes an ethical physician strike.

Traditional and non-traditional collective bargaining: strategies to improve the patient care environment.

Acquiring organizational autonomy and control over nursing practice, through a combination of traditional and non-traditional collective bargaining (CB) strategies, is emerging as an important solution to the nursing shortage crisis. For the past 60 years, nurses have improved their economic and general welfare by organizing through traditional CB, particularly during periods of nursing shortages. During the past decade, however, the downsizing of nursing staffs, systems redesign, and oppressive management practices have created such poor nursing practice environments that improvement in wages no longer is viewed as the primary purpose of CB. Much more essential to nurses is assuring they have a safe practice environment free of mandatory overtime and other work issues, and a voice in the resource allocation decisions that affect their ability to achieve quality health outcomes for patients. The thesis presented in this article is that traditional and non-traditional CB strategies empower nurses to find such a voice and gain control over nursing practice. This article describes the current shortage; discusses how CB can be used to help nurses find a voice to effect change; reviews the American Nurses Association's (ANA's) history of collective action activities; explains differences between traditional and non-traditional CB strategies; and presents a case study in which both strategies were used to improve the present patient care environment.

[Grievances in South African hospitals: from a nursing service management perspective]. / Griewe in Suid-Afrikaanse hospitale: 'n Geskiedkundig-verpleegkundige perspektief.

The nursing service manager is accountable for adequate and efficient personnel management in the nursing service and the management of grievances is an important aspect of the personnel management function. The question arises, however, how and when grievances in nursing services arose and developed? The purpose of this article is to give a historical description of the development and management of grievances in nursing services for the time frame 1652-1990. An historical analysis was undertaken by means of news paper analysis, as well as other written resources. The results show that the development of grievances are related to the development of hospitals in South Africa and that grievances were poorly managed. The following conclusions are made: grievances in nursing are related to the establishment of hospitals; the first official grievance was lodged in 1824 by a surgeon; grievance are mainly related to the working conditions, remuneration and management; complaints with salaries and food were lodged by nurses as early as 1869; it appears as if nursing service managers are not adequately skilled in the management of grievances experienced by nursing staff--the same mistakes are made leading to strike action by nurses/midwives; unhappiness with the inappropriate manner in which grievances are managed lead to industrial action by nursing staff since 1889. Continuous empowerment of nursing services managers in the management of grievances is important and therefore the development of a model for grievance management in nursing services is also recommended.

Negociación colectiva ante el Siglo XXI aportes para la acción sindical / Collective negotiation collective bargaining before the 21st Century

INTRODUCCIÓN: La idea de "pensar globalmente y actuar localmente", últimamente ha cobrado fuerza en los distintos ámbitos del que hacer político y socíal. Como institución con variadas vinculaciones internacionales, la Fundación Friedrich Ebert considera muy pertinente este lema. Sin duda hay temas, en los cuales el análisis y las comparaciones de estructuras globales son muy adecuadas. En un mundo económicamente cada vez más globalizado, esto es válido para muchos procesos laboral-sindicales. Las consecuencias del actuar, sin embargo, para ser efectivas y eficientes, deben tomar en cuenta los condicionantes específicos de cada caso. Por lo tanto, los procesos de negociación colectiva, pueden tener una base analítica compartida en países europeos y latinoamericanos, pero no necesariamente se deberían Ilevar a cabo en forma parecida. Para hacer un aporte al fortalecimento de las organizaciones sindicales en el Cono Sur, a menudo no basta con copiar modelos europeos. Con la elaboración del presente manual hemos hecho un esfuerzo específico en esta dirección. OBJETIVOS: Este trabajo recoge la experiencia concreta en capacitación y negociación que los autores realizaron en Argentina y Paraguay en los últimos años. Esperamos, que el presente manual sea un producto con los ingredientes de la realidad, que refuercen su utilidad como material de consulta y capacitación para dirigentes sindicales. Tenemos la convicción, que, a pesar de las diferencias de las condiciones-marco en cada país, también será de provecho para el movimiento obrero en los países vecinos. Con esta publicación, la Fundación Friedrich Ebert sigue en su tradicional línea de trabajo de apoyo a las organizaciones sindicales. A la vez quisiéramos introducir un elemento modernizador. Apuntamos a que no sea un texto clásico, sino un Manual en su mejor sentido, que acompañe directamente los procesos de negociación colectiva. CONCLUSIÓN: Un buen resultado de negociación, por último puede ser un buen paso hacia una sociedad más justa y equitativa. Si a través de este trabajo logramos colaborar con este objetivo, nos sentiremos satisfechos con el aporte.

The ANA's Economic Security Program: the first 20 years.

This historical study is an analysis of the American Nurses Association's (ANA) Economic Security Program (ESP) from 1946 to 1966. Primary data sources include ANA Biennial Convention proceedings, ANA headquarters files, the ANA Collection at Mugar Memorial Library, and selected nursing journals. The findings indicate that although ANA took a bold step in initiating the ESP and collective bargaining, the ESP was minimally effective for several reason: nurses would not support collective bargaining, hospitals would not negotiate with nurses, ANA would not use coercive tactics, and hospitals were not included under existing labor laws. As a result, ANA resorted to an old tactic, education, to secure its economic goals.

The history of industrial action in nursing.

The long tradition of successful campaigning and industrial action by nurses counters the profession's complacent image. Throughout the century, nurses have fought for, and gained, improved working conditions and pay in line with inflation. The threat of local pay bargaining means that nurses continue to need the protection of their unions.

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.