Work Organization and Health Among Immigrant Women: Latina Manual Workers in North Carolina

Abstract

Work organization should be considered to improve occupational health of vulnerable women workers. Additional research should delineate the links between work organization and health among vulnerable workers.

Musculoskeletal and neurological injuries associated with work organization among immigrant latino women manual workers in North Carolina

“…Increased frequency of breaks can reduce work injuries, sometimes without impeding productivity [Dababneh et al, 2001;Tucker et al, 2003]. Investigations of the psychological demands of workers in these manual industries, such as poultry and meat processing, show that high levels of productivity are demanded of workers [Fink, 1998;Lipscomb et al, 2007;Horton and Lipscomb, 2011;Arcury et al, 2014]. For poultry processing, the industry in which half of the study participants are employed, a current policy initiative from the US Department of Agriculture would increase work demands by increasing the rate of production [line speed; Federal Register Volume 77, Number 228 (Tuesday, November 27, 2012)], even in the face of evidence showing the detrimental health effects of this policy [Musolin et al, 2013].…”

“…Measures for work organization included indicators of job demands (heavy load, awkward posture, and psychological demand), job control (skill variety and decision latitude), and support (perceived supervisor control and work safety climate) [Arcury et al, 2014]. The scales on which these indicators are based are in the appendix.…”

“…Higher values indicate greater levels for each concept. Each of these measures has been used previously with immigrant Latino worker populations [Grzywacz et al, 2008Arcury et al, 2014].…”

“…Perceived supervisor control is the mean of the seven items (a ¼ 0.74) coded such that higher scores indicate greater perceived control. This measure has been used in previous studies of immigrant Latino workers [Arcury et al, 2014]. Work safety climate was assessed with the Perceived Safety Climate Scale [Gillen et al, 2002].…”

“…Minorities and immigrants are more likely to be over-represented in hazardous manual labor jobs [Pransky et al, 2002;Chung-Bridges et al, 2008;Forst et al, 2010]. Immigrant women constitute one of the most vulnerable worker groups [Arcury et al, 2014]. However, little research has considered the association of work…”