The study discussed in this article describes the alcohol-related policies, practices, and problems experienced by a sample of 111 intermediate care facilities and homes for elderly people. Data were collected using a semi-structured telephone interview and indicate that alcohol use and associated problems among nursing home residents are common. Despite the problems reported, screening for alcohol problems among residents, treatment of identified problems, and training of staff were not found to be widespread. Ambiguity about the role of alcohol as a social beverage or as a psychoactive substance to be managed was identified. Challenges to social workers and social work education are identified.
Trade unions and trade unionism are under serious threat in most industrialised countries, in what has been referred to as the ‘crisis in trade unionism’. The crisis is common to trade unions across the globe, consisting of a decline in membership and density, coupled with a loss of political influence and social standing. The crisis has been caused by changes in the political economies of the industrially developed nations. Social Movement Unionism (SMU) is one of the strategies to combat this crisis which has been embraced by unions and union movements in many of the Liberal Market Economies (LME). In the context of New Zealand, Jane Parker has looked at the possibility of SMU at a union movement level. However, at a single union level, the Service and Food Workers’ Union (SFWU) has engaged with this vision of renewal through participation in the Living Wage Movement Aotearoa New Zealand (LWANZ).This paper will seek to place the SFWU’s engagement with this campaign within a theoretical framework of union renewal; that is, a re-imagining of trade union relationships in order to (re-)gain power along various dimensions. We will further consider the SMU literature and will draw on three concepts identified by Ross in her analysis of social unionism: the ethos, or “collective action frame”; the strategies or “repertoire”; and, the “internal organisational practices”, and how these interlink with the literature on union renewal. Of particular note will be the response of both the union and non-union participants in the LWANZ to the development of their relationships, and whether and how this is contributing to the successes of LWANZ and of union renewal.
This paper proposes that raising awareness of gender deficits in trade union leadership is required to highlight the need for change in trade union leadership and representation, if renewal is to be effective. The writers discuss in particular a project by a research group under the auspices of the Global Labour University to develop an international database on women in trade unions. This database is intended to be both a tool to highlight where change is needed and to measure when, and if, change is made. There is a discussion of the pilot of this database during 2012, and the plans for the future made by the research group.
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