Title: Books and Resources

Author:

Section/SPIG: Occupational Health and Safety

Issue Date:

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Excess Baggage: Leveling the Load and Changing the Workplace
Ellen Rosskam
Critical Approaches in the Health Social Science Series
• Series Editor, Ray Elling. Baywood Publishing Company, Inc. (2006)
Based on groundbreaking research on the working conditions of airport check-in workers in two countries, a previously unstudied category of predominantly women workers, Ellen Rosskam describes a form of work characterized as modern-day Taylorism. An occupation greatly affected by new forms of work organization and management practices — caught in the throes of rapid change due to international competition, alliances, mergers, and the application of cost-efficiency strategies — check-in work has been undermined in recent years by the adverse effects of liberalization and technological change. Excess Baggage makes a convincing case for taking a holistic approach to viewing jobs, considering them as “entire work systems” and not merely as a series of individual factors. Rosskam makes an eloquent plea for involving workers in organizational decision-making and a convincing case for using the collective voice as a critical key for improving working conditions.

Quick Guide to Health Literacy
U.S. Department of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
The Quick Guide to Health Literacy is written for health professionals at the national, state, and local levels. It contains:

A basic overview of key health literacy concepts.

Techniques for improving health literacy through communication, navigation, knowledge-building, and advocacy.

Examples of health literacy best practices.

Suggestions for addressing health literacy in your organization.
The guide is user-friendly and be easily referenced, reproduced, and shared with colleagues.
The Quick Guide to Health Literacy and other tools for improving health literacy can be found at www.health.gov/communication/literacy. If you would like to request a hard copy of this resource, or if you have any questions, please contact Stacy Robison at (240) 453-8271 or at stacy.robison@hhs.gov.

The National COSH Workplace Health and Safety Dirty Dozen Report
The report details examples of the tragic consequences of workplace deaths, injuries and illnesses for both workers and their families. It calls for stronger enforcement actions, including criminal prosecution, to encourage stricter compliance with health and safety standards. The companies were selected because they had repeated egregious records in health and safety. They are case studies in failed Health and Safety programs. The report cites the following companies: British Petroleum, Cintas Corp, DuPont Corp, Hayes Lemmerz International, Honda Motor Company of America, International Coal Group (Sago Mine), McWane, Safety Bingo Inc, Sunesis, UNICCO, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and W. R. Grace. The full report is available at www.Philaposh.org or http://users.rcn.com/jbarab/Final%20Dirty%20Dozen%20Report.pdf [English] and http://users.rcn.com/jbarab/DIRTYDOZENSPANISH.pdf [Spanish].