Sailors and the Risk of Asbestos-Related Cancer

Sailors have long been known to experience high rates of injury, disease, and premature death. Many studies have shown asbestos-related diseases among shipyard workers, but few have examined the epidemiology of asbestos-related disease and death among asbestos-exposed sailors serving on ships at sea. Chrysotile and amphibole asbestos were used extensively in ship construction for insulation, joiner bulkhead systems, pipe coverings, boilers, machinery parts, bulkhead panels, and many other uses, and asbestos-containing ships are still in service. Sailors are at high risk of exposure to shipboard asbestos, because unlike shipyard workers and other occupationally exposed groups, sailors both work and live at their worksite, making asbestos standards and permissible exposure limits (PELs). based on an 8-hour workday inadequate to protect their health elevated risks of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related cancers have been observed among sailors through epidemiologic studies. We review these studies here.

Between solid and liquid experience in a socialist port: Gdańsk shipyard workers at the turn of the 1980s

This article analyzes the Gdańsk shipyard workers, a core group that launched the August 1980 strike. It approaches the phenomenon against the backdrop of the socialist port, regardless of the complexities of the political process. Changing globalizing markets, domestic Polish policies towards socialist ports, and the reactions of shipyard workers to local and global changes all played a central role in defining the experience of work at Gdańsk Shipyard. Its workers were under pressure not only from local conditions, but also, like their foreign counterparts, faced a severe and prolonged crisis in global shipbuilding, evident in reduced demand for new vessels, rapidly evolving regulations and technology, layoffs and fierce competition. As industrial workers, they had strong local connections. As port workers, they were sea-oriented and characterized by occupational mobility. This dual nature – between solidity and liquidity – helped foster cross-sectional unity within Poland and internationally, but also caused dissatisfaction. The article continues by explaining how shipyard workers adapted in the face of new challenges.

Burnout and Time Perspective of Blue-Collar Workers at the Shipyard

Background: The aim of the research was to investigate the association between time perspective in relation to burnout and successful ageing of blue-collar workers with physically highly demanding work and low autonomy. Shipyard blue-collar workers usually do predominantly manual labor versus white-collar workers, whose jobs do not usually involve physical work. Methods: 497 participants workers in a shipyard in the north of Spain. Ages were between 20 and 69 (M = 46.62, SD = 10.79). We used the Zimbardo Time Perspective Instrument (ZTPI), Spanish version, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory–General Survey (MBI-GS). Results: Emotional exhaustion factor obtained a coefficient of 0.97; cynicism factor of 0.83; and professional efficacy factor of p = 0.86. The mean of the three reliability coefficients was 0.887. With respect to the five factors of the ZTPI questionnaire: the negative past factor obtained a coefficient of p = 0.91; that of positive past p = 0.81; the present hedonistic of 0.878; the future of p = 0.83; and the fatalistic present of p = 0.90. The mean of the five coefficients, was p = 0.86. Conclusions: Within shipyard workers, burnout is associated with a negative past and negative future time perspective. This makes shipyard workers at a higher risk of developing burnout and this can have serious consequences for the sustainable employability of these blue-collar workers.

From Iron to the Industrial Cloud

In the 1960s, Portugal lived through a period of rapid industrialization in what became known as the golden cycle of Portuguese industry. This late industrialization makes Portugal one of the countries ruled by a peripheral Fordism, which is particularly relevant in the region of Setúbal, since several heavy industry companies settled there, among them Setenave and Lisnave. These shipyards are described by workers as being “a city within the city” mostly given their dimension and labour contingent. However, this industrial “city” was more than a place of economic production; it was also a place for sociability. Informed by semi-structured in-depth interviews with former shipyard workers, and focused on the meaning they attribute to the changes experienced between the 1970s and the deindustrialization period of the 1980s, this article analyses the transition from a working culture based on solidarity to a culture dominated by competition and individualism.