10AM -10:30AM: Introductions by Dr. Peter L. Schnall

10:30AM - 12:00 Noon: "Psychosocial factors on and off the job among women workers in the Maquiladora industry in Mexico" - Leonor Cedillo

Leonor described the linkage between the macroeconomic policies in Mexico and the Maquiladora workers' psychosocial environment, and presented her findings on the internal and predictive validity (depression symptoms) of the JCQ scales. She also presented two new scales of social relations in the workplace and five new scales related to psychosocial factors off-the job.

1:00PM - 3:00PM: "Research on Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) among Hispanic Farmworkers" - Julia Faucett

Julia Faucett discussed a series of research studies from the UC Agricultural Ergonomics Research Center. The Center team has conducted studies across the state in California's leading agricultural industries: commercial nurseries, vineyards, citrus, and cotton growing. The Center's work has focused on devising engineering and administrative controls to reduce MSDs and on enhancing worker participation in the design of these interventions.

3:00PM - 5:00PM: Trends in job strain and heart disease - Paul Landsbergis

While death rates from cardiovascular disease (CVD) continue to fall, new evidence suggests that this is mainly due to medical treatment and not prevention of disease. Over the past 20-25 years, incidence of CVD (new cases of disease) has barely fallen at all. In two new studies that have looked at these trends by social class, CVD incidence among blue-collar workers has been increasing. While some CVD risk factors have been improving other are worsening. To what extent could these trends be due to current economic and workplace trends-increasing job strain, job demands, work hours, income inequality and lean production, as well as a weakened labor movement?