Office politics: Video display terminals and the fight for occupational safety and health in the postindustrial age.
Item
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Title
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Office politics: Video display terminals and the fight for occupational safety and health in the postindustrial age.
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Identifier
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AAI9417495
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identifier
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9417495
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Creator
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Mogensen, Vernon Lee.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Frances Fox Piven
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Date
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1994
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Political Science, General | Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations | Health Sciences, Occupational Health and Safety
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Abstract
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This is a study about power and the fight by office workers using video display terminals (VDTs) to secure occupational safety and health protection in the face of opposition from capital and the state. The widespread use of VDTs by business to increase productivity and control over the work process contributed to the introduction of occupational safety and health hazards to the office, including cancer, and reproductive health problems thought to be linked to the nonionizing radiation emitted by VDTs; repetitive motion injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome; vision problems; and stress-related illnesses, which have been linked to work speed-ups and lack of worker control over the work process. This study analyzes the efforts by office workers and their unions to secure protective regulation at the federal, state and local levels of government from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. It argues that business interests' superior mobilization of pressure, supported by structural constraints on the state's ability to address occupational safety and health problems, resulted in the defeat of VDT regulations. The state's response to the problems of VDT workers was constrained because recessionary economic pressures and increased global competition compelled it to keep business costs low in order to foster economic growth and expand tax revenues. The federal government, working with the corporate sector, has blocked scientific inquiry into the VDT problem, ignored women's health concerns, and misled the public regarding the extent of the VDT health problem.;The structural constraint on the state made it more sympathetic to business interests' argument that the costs of social regulation (e.g., OSHA), was stifling America's economic growth, and that the addition of VDT regulations--which in their view were unwarranted--to protect office workers would further exacerbate the problem. Finally, organized labor's industrial orientation, preoccupation with defending its declining blue collar membership, and patriarchal perspective, limited its interest in organizing and supporting the predominantly female, unorganized VDT office workforce.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
