Abstract

Workers often have a complex relationship with the technologies they use in the workoplace, and many influences can affect that relationship. This is well demonstrated in the story of unionized painters who, at the turn of this century, were sufferingfrom occupational lead poisoning because the paints of the day used lead as their primary pigment. At the beginning of the study period, the painters were fairly passive about the disease, having accepted it as a hazard of the job. By the middle of the 1920's, however, the painters' union was fighting aggressively to remove lead from their work environments and to make employers take some responsiblilty for work-related health care needs. No single event or person brought this change about. Instead, it was the coalescence of several influences that convinced the painters that occupational lead poisoning was something they should fight against.