Social construction of work stress: Australian newsprint media portrayal of stress at work, 1997–98

Public understanding of health issues is influenced by the social and political interests of those who gather the information and by the media which disseminates it. This has implications for lay people's beliefs about work stress and has potentially serious personal implications in terms of recognizing, reacting to, and reporting stress in the workplace (Furnham, 1997). The somewhat ambiguous nature of work stress renders it vulnerable to political, social and economic manipulation. This study explores how the issue of work stress is represented in the Australian newsprint media. Fifty-one work-related articles from all major Australian newspapers from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 1997 were selected if 'stress' appeared in the headline. The articles were examined for dominant ideologies and themes. Attention was given to the language used to describe stress, the intended audience, and the voices represented in the articles. Results showed that work stress is represented in the media as an economically costly epidemic, as an outcome of unfavourable work conditions but with individual remedies, and as primarily situated within the public sector. The main voice represented in the media was that of the unions. The reproduction of work stress as a public sector phenomenon serves the interests of public sector unions, the newspapers, and the managers of private sector workers and is not consistent with available workers' compensation data (which is itself problematic).     

艾德礼政府时期的工党与工会关系论析

艾德礼政府时期工党与工会总体保持密切合作,相互支持的和谐关系。工会支持工党的内外政策,在工资等问题上表现出明显的克制;工党的政策则带有鲜明的工会考虑,重视维护和提高工会在社会生活中的地位。这种局面形成的原因有工党和工会30年代以来在劳工运动中密切合作、相互确立适宜的政策与态度和英国选民结构的特点。工党与工会之间的这种密切合作关系对工党具有明显的两重效应。它既帮助工党取得巨大的执政绩效,也是工党争取连续执政和发展壮大的主要障碍。     

European Welfare Futures: The Views of Key Influentials in Six European Countries on Likely Developments in Social Policy

The welfare state, having reached maturity in most European countries, faces challenges from economic, social and political developments. Some studies argue that common pressures are likely to evoke similar responses; others suggest that the differences between welfare regimes both permit and require different policies. It is also suggested that the single European market will require convergence in tax regimes, social provision and entitlements to ensure fairer competition and to prevent "social dumping". Analysis of data from a survey of politicians, representatives of business, trade unions, civil servants and others shows some convergence in the recognition of problems in welfare policy and in ideas about finance. However, debate about the response to similar issues often differs, according to the detail of institutional structure and the pattern of interests it produces.     

INTERNATIONAL STUDY CIRCLES

In theory, computers have overcome the tyranny of distance associated with international education. In practice, many obstacles remain. An examination of International Study Circles allows for a greater understanding of the issues associated with computer-assisted international workers' education.     

Constructing Union Motherhood: Gender and Social Reproduction in the Los Angeles “Justice for Janitors” Movement

The literature recognizes the need for unions to change their strategies in order to organize women but whether these strategies reinforce or undermine gender inequality is insufficiently examined. An ethnography of the Los Angeles Justice for Janitors movement demonstrates how women can mitigate unequal gender relations tied to social reproduction through unions. Secondary documents, participant observation and in-depth interviews with Latina/o immigrant janitors and with union staff show how women janitors constructed a union motherhood that undermined the invisibility and devaluation of caregiving generally performed by women. As they moved into union leadership, women worker leaders made caregiving more visible in union practice and recognized its value in the way they framed a broader unionism for the family. Attention to how unions contend with social reproduction extends our understanding of the consequences of union renewal for gender inequality.

Labor market institutions and demographic employment patterns

We study collective bargaining’s effect on relative employment for youth, women, and older individuals. Our model of collective wage setting predicts that unionization reduces employment more for groups with relatively elastic labor supply: youth, older individuals, and women. We test this implication using data from 17 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries over the 1960–1996 period. We find that time-varying indicators of unionization decrease the employment–population ratio of young and older individuals relative to the prime-aged, and of prime-aged women relative to prime-aged men, and unionization raises the unemployment rate of prime-aged women and, possibly, young men compared to prime-aged men.

Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Policy: New Life in an Old Connection

The purpose of this paper is to account for the revival of both academic and substantive interest in what had long been seen as an unimportant byway of social policy: the role of social partners, especially trade unions, in the management of national social insurance systems. The answer is found in the budgetary crises facing these systems along with the frequent embedded role of the social partner organizations in their governance. Meanwhile, this welfare state role of trade unions then has implications back on to the conduct of industrial relations. The diversity of national experiences is considered, including the reasons for British exceptionalism on this question. Particular use is made of a comparison between Italy and the Netherlands on the one hand (cases of some success in the role of social partners in managing change in social insurance arrangements), and France and Germany on the other (at the time of writing, cases of stalemate).     

社会转型中的俄罗斯工会联盟

随着苏联解体和俄罗斯发生剧变,俄罗斯工会运动受到重大冲击,发生了一系列变化。面对严峻的现实挑战和生存危机,以俄罗斯工会联盟为代表的传统俄罗斯工会在理论、活动机制和组织建设等方面进行了一系列改革和探索,以调和、折衷的"社会合作者"身份参与政府所倡导的三方会谈机制,为俄罗斯工会在国家转轨时期寻找新的立足点和发展机会,使遭受社会剧变的工会组织在新的社会环境中确立了自己的地位。