Labor Union Programs to Reduce or Prevent Occupational Stress in the United States

Abstract

In the United States, most efforts to reduce occupational stress continue to focus primarily on personal stress management. However, there has been a growing awareness that personal coping techniques have limited effectiveness and that sources of stress in the work environment need to be altered. Research on workplace sources of stress has been spurred and guided by Karasek's “job strain” or “job demands-control” model, and the University of Michigan model of the stress process. In addition, a model of occupational stress interventions developed by Karasek provides a useful framework for stress prevention activities. U.S. labor unions have undertaken a variety of activities at all stages of the stress process described by this stress intervention model to reduce or prevent the health hazards associated with occupational stress. These programs and strategies include employee assistance programs, educational programs, stress surveys, medical studies, stress committees, collective bargaining, organizing and public awareness, and lobbying and political action. These programs are described and analyzed in relation to models of occupational stress, as well as to the economic context faced by labor unions today, and continuing obstacles to work environment reform.