Worker Health and Safety Struggles: Democratic Possibilities and Constraints

For overviews of these phenomena, see Drache D. & Gertler M.S. eds. The New Era of Global Competition. Montreal: McGill-Queen's U.P., 1991 and Kagarlitsky B. The Mirage of Modernization. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1995, esp. ch. 7.

On the Australian experience, see Wiseman J. “A Kinder Road to Hell?: The Labor Legacy in Australia,” forthcoming, Centre for Research in Work and Society, Working Paper Series (1995); on Canada and the New Democratic Party, see “Forum: NDPs in Power,” Stud, in Pol. Eco. 43 (1994): 139–67; Walkom T. Rae Days. Toronto: Key Porter, 1994; and Glasbeek H.J. “Labour Law Reform in Ontario: Moving Forward to Go Back to What Never Was” in Steedman M. Suschnigg P. & Buse D.K. Hard Lessons. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1995, 117–37.

Wright E.O. “Coupon Socialism and Socialist Values,” New Left Review 210 (1995): 153–60.

Hall S. “The Toad in the Garden: Thatcherism among the Theorists” in Nelson C. & Grossberg L. Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Urbana: U. of Ill. Press, 1988, 35–57.

The analysis is rooted in the experience of working classes in North America and Western Europe which, while not immediately relevant for workers in the former communist states, may nevertheless prove useful in the future. The processes of privatization and restructuring of state enterprises may create relations of production that begin to resemble those of Western capitalist states. It is quite possible, however, that economic conditions and state-market relations will more closely resemble Third World configurations.

McBride S. Not Working: State, Unemployment and Neo-Conservatism in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992, 20–5.

For a more elaborate discussion of the early period of development, see Bartrip P.W.J. & Burman S.B. The Wounded Soldiers of Industry. Oxford: Clarendon, 1983 (England); Tomlins C. Law, Labor, and Ideology in the Early American Republic. New York: Cambridge U.P., 1993, ch. 10; and Tucker E. Administering Danger in the Workplace: The Law and Politics of Occupational Health and Safety Regulation in Ontario 1850–1914. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990.

Roediger D.R. and Foner P.S. Our Own Time. London: Verso, 1989.

On the gendered dimensions of early health and safety laws, see Kessler-Harris A. Out to Work. Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1982, ch. 7 and Lehrer S. Origins of Protective Labor Legislation for Women, 1905–1925. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1987.

There is some controversy over the claim that workers' compensation was a progressive reform. See Bale A. “America's First Compensation Crisis: Conflict over the Value and Meaning of Workplace Injuries under the Employers' Liability System” in Rosner D. & Markowitz G. eds. Dying for Work. Bloomington: Indiana U.P., 1989, ch. 3. Most commentators, however, see the principle of social insurance as superior to more contingent mechanisms for providing relief. A classical defence, still worth reading, is Rubinow I.M. Social Insurance. New York: Henry Holt, 1913. Also see, Guest D. The Emergence of Social Security in Canada. Vancouver. University of British Columbia Press, 1980, ch. 4; and Nelson B.J. “The Origins of the Two Channel Welfare State: Workmen's Compensation and Mothers' Aid” in Gordon L. Women, the State, and Welfare. Madison, Wise.: U. of Wise Press, 1990, 123–51.

This is not to suggest a period of total quiescence. For example, see Rosner D. & Markowitz G. Deadly Dust. Princeton: Princeton U.P., 1991.

Noble C. , Liberalism at Work: The Rise and Fall of OSHA. Philadelphia: Temple U.P., 1986, 94–98.

Moody K. An Injury to All. New York: Verso, 1988; Jacoby S.M. “American Exceptionalism Revisited: The Importance of Management” in Jacoby S.M. ed. Masters to Managers. New York: Columbia U.P., 1991, 173–241.

Korpi W. The Working Class in Welfare Capitalism. London: Routledge, 1978.

Tucker E. “Worker Participation in Health and Safety Regulation: Lessons from Sweden,” Stud, in Pol. Eco. 31 (1992): 95–127.

Sweden For , see Frick K. “Can Management Control Health and Safety at Work?” Economic & Industrial Democracy 11 (1990): 375–99 and National Board of Occupational Safety and Health (NBOSH), Newsletter (1-2/95); for the United States, see Noble , Liberalism at Work; for Great Britain, Dawson S. . Safety at Work: The Limits of Self Regulation. Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 1988; and for Ontario Tucker E. “And Defeat Goes On: An Assessment of Third Wave Health and Safety Reform” forthcoming in Pearce F. & Snider L. eds., Corporate Crime: Ethics, Law and the State. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995.

Sass R. “A Conversation about the Work Environment,” Int'l. J of Health Serv. 25 (1995): 117–28.

See Ontario . Workplace Health and Safety Agency. “Working Together on Health and Safety: The Impact of Joint Health and Safety Committees on Health and Safety Trends in Ontario, Canada.” (A paper presented to the March 1994 Conference, International Evidence: Worker-Management Institutions and Economic Performance, Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations and the Work Technology Institute), Walters V. & Haines T. ‘Workers' Use and Knowledge of the ‘Internal Responsibility System’: Limits to Participation in Occupational Health and Safety,” Canadian Public Policy 14 (1988): 411–23; and Svensson L. “A Democratic Strategy for Organizational Change,” Int 'l. J of Health Serv. 19 (1989): 319–34.

Clement W. “Exploring the Limits of Social Democracy: Regime Change in Sweden,” Stud, in Pol. Eco. 44 (1994): 95–123; Olsen G. “Labour Mobilization and the Strength of Capital: The Rise and Stall of Economic Democracy in Sweden,” Stud, in Pol. Eco. 34 (1991): 109–145; and Pontusson J. “Radicalization and Retreat in Swedish Social Democracy,” New Left Review 165 (1987): 5–33.

For a sample of the vast literature, see Miliband R. & Panitch L. eds., Socialist Register 1992[:] New World Order? London: Merlin Press, 1992. On Sweden, see Olsen ibid. and Clement ibid. On the impact of trade agreements, see Streek W. & Schmitter P.C. “From National Corporatism to Transnational Pluralism: Organized Interests in the Single European Market,” Politics & Society 19 (1991): 133–64.

Jenson J. & Mahon R. The Challenge of Restructuring: North American Labor Movements Respond. Philadelphia: Temple U. P., 1993 and Femer A. & Hyman R. Industrial Relations in the New Europe. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.

On these dangers, see Mandel E. “The Debate on Workers' Control” in Hunnius G. , eds., Workers' Control. New York: Vintage Books, 1973, 344–73 and Panitch L. Working Class Politics in Crisis. London: Verso, 1986.

Grayson J.P. “Perceptions of Workplace Hazards,” Perspectives on Income and Employment 6: 1 (1994): 41–47 and Lindsay C. Women in the Labour Force—1994 Edition. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 1994, 60–62.

For a particularly useful discussion of this, see McKay I. “The Realm of Uncertainty: The Experience of Work in the Cumberland Coal Mines, 1873–1927,” Acadiensis 16 (1986): 3–57, esp. at 52–57.

Kuhn S. & Wooding J. “The Changing Structure of Work in the United States: The Implications for Health and Welfare, Parts 1 and 2,” New Solutions 4: 3 (1994): 43–56 & 4: 4 (1994): 21–27. An interesting development along these lines is the recent amendment to Saskatchewan's occupational health and safety legislation that prohibits harassment in the workplace “where it constitutes a threat to the health and safety of the worker.” The Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993, S.S. 1993, c. 0–1.1.

Schor J.B. The Overworked American. New York: Basic Books, 1991.

Karasek R. & Theorell T. Healthy Work. New York: Basic Books, 1989.

A particularly promising strategy not discussed here is the development of broader coalitions between environmentalists and health and safety activists. This was the subject of a New Solutions Conference, Work and Health in the Global Economy, Toronto, September 1994. Also see DeMatteo B. , “The Social Realities of Job Death and Disease,” New Solutions 5: 1 (1994): 17–23.

For example, in the European Union, somewhat more progress has been made toward protecting worker health and safety than other social rights. See Silvia S.J. “The Social Charter of the European Community: A Defeat for European Labor.” Industrial and Labour Relations Review 44 (1991): 626–43 and Allen M. Protecting the Community (London: London Hazards Centre) 1992. For a less sanguine view, see Watterson A. “British and Related European Workplace Health and Safety Policies and Practices: No Major Changes Likely.” New Solutions 5: 1(1994): 62–71.