Union-management solutions for preventing workplace injury of older workers

Issue title: Challenges and Opportunities for the Older Worker

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Freeman, Everette J.

Affiliations: University of Indianapolis, Office of the President, 1400 East Hanna Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46217, USA. Tel.: +1 317 788 3213; Fax: +1 317 788 6152; E-mail: efreeman@uindy.edu

Abstract: As the US workforce continues to age, organized labor and management will have to work creatively to redesign jobs, workflow, and work pace to accommodate older workers. Union-management cooperation in developing safety strategies have been largely unsuccessful because of mutual distrust, animosity left over from contract negotiations and administration, the absence of strong labor legislation that promotes shared governance, injury concealment, and world-wide competitive pressures to reduce labor costs at the expense of worker safety. If workplace injury prevention that focuses on cost-effective and efficient workplace modifications for older as well as for all workers is to become reality, then employers and their unions will need to develop solutions to forge new, more expansive approaches to accommodation.

Keywords: unions, Americans with Disabilities Act, workplace safety

Journal: Work, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 145-151, 2004