• Activity Handout: “Identifying Changes in Technology and Work Organization in Your Workplace
• Flip chart with pages titled “New Technologies” and “New Forms of Work Organization”
• Flip chart markers 

•  Explain that work in the basic steel industry is changing rapidly as new technologies are introduced and as work is reorganized.
• Changes in technology and how work is being organized and restructured can have significant impacts on health and safety. 
• To understand how this is happening and to begin a discussion of how to prevent negative health and safety impacts from any of these changes, we first need to identify the changes that are taking place. We then need to understand their impacts on workers’ health and safety. That will allow us to then work proactively to eliminate or reduce any negative health and safety consequences of these changes.  
•  Share with participants the following case:
  

• Divide participants into small groups of four to six participants (depending on the size of the large group). Ask each small group to select one person to be the recorder/reporter for the group.
• Once participants have been divided into small groups, distribute the Activity Handout: “Identifying Changes in Technology and Work Organization in Your Workplace” to all participants, and read aloud the handout with the entire group.
• Explain that each group will have about ten minutes to create a list of changes in technology and work organization that have occurred in their workplaces over the last 3-5 years. They can also include changes that are in the process of being implemented or that they know will be implemented soon.
• Give a few examples of changes in technologies and changes in work organization that are occurring in basic steel to get participants started, such as

• While small groups are engaged in their task, facilitators should walk around among the various groups and help with any questions they may have.
• Give the groups a “two minute warning” when they have about two more minutes to complete their task.

• Tell the groups you will first be collecting the new technologies that they identified. Ask for a group to volunteer to report back on two of the changes in technology that they identified. Record these on the flip chart. 
•  Go around the room, asking each group to report back on two changes in technology. Record all of the changes on the flip chart.
• After all groups have reported, ask if there are any other changes in technology that have not yet been mentioned. Record these on the flip chart.

 A possible list of changes in technology in basic steel includes, but is not limited to:

•  Computer-Controlled Equipment
• Robots
• Remote Controlled Trains, Cranes and Other Mobile Equipment
• Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (MMS) and other computerized work scheduling and tracking systems
• Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC)
• Control Rooms
• Video Monitoring Systems
• Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
• Swipe Cards/Automated Time and Attendance Systems
• Biometric Sensors
• Other Monitoring Technologies

•  If there are key changes in technologies that do not appear on the groups’ lists, you can ask groups if these are indeed changes that are occurring. If they are, add them to the list.
•  Repeat the above for changes in work organization and record these on a separate flip chart.

 A possible list of changes in work organization in basic steel includes, but is not limited to:

• Cells
• Teams
• Job Combination
• Multi-skilling
• Operator Maintenance
• Lean Production
• Continuous Improvement
• Kaizen
• Just-In-Time
• Super Crafts
• Team Leaders
• 12 Hour Shifts
• Other Non-Standard Shifts
• Mandatory Overtime
• Contracting Out – both offsite and onsite
• Temporary Employees
•  If there are key changes in work organization that do not appear on the groups’ lists, you can ask groups if these are indeed changes that are occurring. If they are, add them to the list. 

• Point out that there are many changes in technology and work organization that are taking place in our workplaces.
• Be sure that monitoring technologies are included in the list (cameras, computer monitoring, other types of monitoring). If they are not, ask about them.
• Note that many of the changes that are occurring in technologies and work organization have taken place without considering the health and safety impacts of these changes.

•  Sum up this activity by noting that there are many changes in technology and work organization occurring in our workplaces. It is important to identify and understand theses changes, so that any associated health and/or safety impacts can be explored. Once these health and safety impacts have been identified, the next task is to identify ways to avoid the negative consequences of changes in our workplaces. This is a key to reducing workplace injuries, illnesses and stress.
• Post the list of changes in a visible place and tell participants that we will now move on to discussing the specific impacts of these changes in technology and work organization.
  

•   Activity Handout: “Health and Safety Impacts of Changes in Technology and Work Organization”
•  Flip chart with pages labeled “Health and Safety Impacts of New Technologies” and “Health and Safety Impacts of New Forms of Work Organization.”
•  Flip chart markers

• Remind participants about the wide array of changes in technology and work organization that they identified and that are occurring in our workplaces.
• Explain that these changes will continue to occur and in fact will accelerate in many cases.

• Research on certain new technologies and forms of work organization has linked particular health and safety problems (including, but not limited to, increased stress; increased risk of cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal injuries, and other occupational injuries and illnesses) with the introduction of these changes.

• We therefore need to identify the impacts of these changes on health and safety so that we can work proactively to reduce the negative health and safety consequences of these changes.

• Divide participants into small groups of four to six participants (depending on the size of the large group). Ask each small group to select one person to be the recorder/reporter for the group.
• Once participants have been divided into small groups, distribute the Activity Handout: “Impacts of Changes in Technology and Work Organization on Health and Safety” to all participants, and read aloud the handout with the entire group.
• Assign each group one particular new technology or a change in work organization taken from the lists they developed in Activity A: Identifying Changes in Technology and Work Organization to work on. Alternatively, you can assign each group a category (either technology or work organization) and allow them to choose one particular change to work on from the list of changes they developed in Activity A. 
• Explain that each group will have about ten minutes to create a list of possible impacts on workplace health and safety from the change they are working on.

• Give the groups a “two minute warning” when they have about two more   minutes to complete their task.

• Ask for a group to volunteer to tell the large group what particular change their group worked on, and report back on the health and safety impacts that they have identified. Write the particular change and the health and safety impacts from that change on the flip chart page labeled either “Health and Safety Impacts of New Technologies” or “Health and Safety Impacts of New Forms of Work Organization” (depending on the category that group worked on).
• Ask for another group to report back on what change they were working on, and the associated health and safety impacts. Record these on the appropriate flip chart page.
• Continue this process until all groups have reported back. 

 A sample list of health and safety impacts of new technologies could include:

• Stress related to constant monitoring
• Stress related to increased pace of work
• Stress related to increased job insecurity
• Stress related to decreased control over work
• Increased risk of repetitive strain injuries
• Possible increased risk of injury if new technologies result in changes such as fewer workers who are working alone. 

A sample list of health and safety impacts of new forms of work organization could include:

• Stress related to increased workload
• Stress related to increased work pace
• Stress related to decreased control over work (often coupled with increased job demands)
• Stress related to fewer people doing more work
• Stress due to increased job insecurity
• Potential injuries related to fewer people doing more work
• Possible increased risk of repetitive strain injuries
• Potential risk of serious injury due to increased numbers of people working alone
• Potential increased risk of injury and fatalities from working when fatigued due to increased working hour
• Potential increased risk of injury or illness from increased job duties with multi-tasked jobs coupled with lack of adequate training
• Potential increased risk of occupational disease from exposure to toxic and hazardous chemical and physical agents over longer periods of time as a result of increased working hours

• Review the lists of health and safety impacts from changes in technology and changes in work organization. Note that there may be some cases where health and safety has been positively affected by a change in technology or work organization. However, there remains serious concerns about recent trends in the use of new technologies and new forms of work organization, and a growing body of research is documenting deteriorating health and safety conditions from many of these changes.

Also, in some cases where a change leads to potential improvements in health and safety, there may also be down-sides regarding workplace health and safety:

• There can be a trade-off. For example, when some processes are automated, exposures to toxic chemicals may be reduced but the automation results in significant job loss.  Job insecurity/fear of job loss is a stressor.
• Reducing one type of ergonomic hazard can mean an increase in another type of ergonomic hazard. For example, if a job is ergonomically re-designed to eliminate an awkward posture (bending, twisting, lifting), this can lead to fewer work-related musculoskeletal injuries of the back. If, however, the job is re-timed as a result and the intensity of the work is increased, repetition may increase and with it, work-related musculoskeletal disorders of the arms and wrist.

•  Ask participants what has been tried in their workplaces to eliminate or reduce any of the negative health and safety impacts that the groups identified.
• Have participants share any solutions they have identified and gotten implemented that have eliminated or reduced any of the negative health and safety impacts on which they reported back
• Ask participants if the union’s health and safety representatives have brought these concerns regarding the health and safety impacts of new technologies and/or new forms to work organization to their joint labor-management health and safety committee meeting. If so, were there positive outcomes that resulted from this, and what were they? If not, why have these concerns not been raised?
• If barriers to raising concerns about negative health and safety impacts of new technologies/new forms of work organization are identified, note these on the flip chart and ask the group for suggestions about how these barriers might be overcome.

• Sum up this activity by noting that changes in technology and work organization are having significant impacts – many of them negative -- on workplace health and safety.
• Remind participants that this activity is aimed at identifying the impacts of new technologies and new forms of work organization. An important part of union involvement in health and safety in the workplace is to identify health and safety issues that need addressing. New technologies and new forms of work organization that are introducing health and safety problems, or are making existing health and safety problems worse, need to be modified so that they are not introducing health and safety problems into the workplace, or some type of control need to be implemented to eliminate or reduce the negative health and safety impacts of these changes.
• Post the list of impacts in a visible place and tell participants that one goal now is to figure out how to eliminate or reduce these specific problems. Sometimes both short-term and long-term solutions will be needed. Workers and unions have an important role to play in not only identifying problems, but identifying what is needed to eliminate or reduce the problems.