Abstract The resurgence of labor unions in the U.S., evidenced by recent unionization successes across various industries, reflects a broader revival of organized labor's role in workplace advocacy. These developments counter a long-term decline in union membership, with global efforts also seeing modest gains. As is demonstrated in this series of contributions, labor unions remain critical in promoting occupational health and safety, mitigating workplace hazards, and addressing psychosocial risks such as stress and harassment. Historically, unions have shaped labor standards and influenced the development of safety regulations. Today, they contribute to broader societal benefits, including democratic participation, workplace well-being, and public health innovation. Despite their significant contributions, unions face challenges from globalization, technological changes, the rise of non-standard work arrangements, and political polarization. Despite the critical role unions play in occupational health and organizations more generally, organizational scientists have paid relatively little attention to unions. In response, this series of contributions highlights the need for renewed scholarly attention, particularly in industrial-organizational psychology, to support unions in safeguarding workers' rights and well-being.

Abstract Employees in contemporary work environments frequently face negative health impacts from sedentary behavior, such as musculoskeletal pain in the neck, shoulders, or lower body. This study reanalyzes data from a 3-month longitudinal randomized controlled intervention trial involving office-workers from five organizations alongside previously unpublished data from the same trial. The trial demonstrated that office-yoga and walking interventions effectively reduced musculoskeletal complaints (MSC) compared to a waitlist control group. This research aims to uncover the role of temporal dynamics of MSC that enhance and explain the success of these interventions. Drawing on self-regulation and psychological momentum theory, we hypothesize that employees who experience initial successes in terms of initial velocity and acceleration of MSC reduction show an increased intervention adherence which predicts intervention effectiveness. Based on social cognitive theory and the theory of planned behavior, we investigate how participants’ pre-intervention attitude toward the intervention and their outcome expectations predict initial adherence and subsequent temporal dynamics of health changes in a serial mediation model. Results from Bayesian Latent Acceleration Modelling revealed that initial velocity and acceleration of MSC reduction predicted intervention effectiveness. However, adherence did not mediate this relationship. Furthermore, a gradually increasing amount of walking was found beneficial. Attitude toward the intervention predicted initial adherence only in the walking group, while findings regarding outcome expectations were non-significant. This research emphasizes the importance of temporal dynamics, especially the initial temporal dynamics of health changes, for the effectiveness of workplace physical activity interventions and offers new directions for occupational health research and practice.

Chronic health conditions are not uncommon among working adults; however, research on the unique challenges experienced by such workers is relatively limited. The present study investigated the experience of workers with a chronic health condition during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were gathered via online survey from 116 workers with a chronic health condition, from various occupations and with various conditions. Results from analyzing qualitative data indicated that around half of workers were satisfied with their organization’s response to the pandemic, but a substantial portion desired additional accommodations or felt some sense of stigma or being undervalued. Quantitative tests of study hypotheses indicated that job insecurity affected workers’ psychological well-being, while perceptions of devaluation affected burnout. Resources of perceived organizational support and flexibility were beneficial for well-being, as evidenced by bivariate correlations, but did not show unique or moderating effects in more stringent regression models. Exploratory analyses suggested that some of the benefits of resources and impacts of demands could depend on the number of health problems being managed. Implications of our findings are discussed, along with recommendations for future research.

This study provides insight into how having COVID-19 shifted Black and older Hispanic adults’ organizational perceptions and experiences. We used data from 30 Black and Hispanic full-time men and women over the age of 45 who have had COVID-19, and most have co-occurring physical and mental chronic illness, to examine how having COVID-19 shapes their perceptions of their workplace and organizational interactions. We examine how older Black and Hispanic adults’ intersectional identities further shape their work experiences. Further, we illuminate how COVID-19-related enhanced safety protocols impacted these workers’ emotional and interpersonal experiences by increasing feelings of safety and support, while simultaneously widening relational gaps among coworkers and increasing mental health concerns. We end with workplace practice recommendations, centering an intersectional and Total Worker Health® (TWH) approach, to reduce work-related health and safety hazards with efforts to promote and improve the well-being of older Black and Hispanic workers.

The attention to workplace mental health is timely given extreme levels of burnout, anxiety, depression and trauma experienced by workers due to serious extraorganizational stressors – the COVID-19 pandemic, threats to climate change, and extreme social and political unrest. Workplace-based risk factors, such as high stress and low support, are contributing factors to poor mental health and suicidality (Choi, 2018; Milner et al., 2013, 2018), just as low levels of social connectedness and belonging are established risk factors for poor mental health (Joiner et al., 2009), suggesting that social support at work (e.g., from supervisors) may be a key approach to protecting and promoting employee mental health. Social connections provide numerous benefits for health outcomes and are as, or more, important to mortality as other well-known health behaviors such as smoking and alcohol consumption (Holt-Lundstad et al., 2015), and can serve as a resource or buffer against the deleterious effects of stress or strain on psychological health (Cohen & Wills, 1985). This manuscript provides an evidence-based framework for understanding how supervisor supportive behaviors can serve to protect employees against psychosocial workplace risk factors and promote social connection and belongingness protective factors related to employee mental health. We identify six theoretically-based Mental Health Supportive Supervisor Behaviors (MHSSB; i.e., emotional support, practical support, role modeling, reducing stigma, warning sign recognition, warning sign response) that can be enacted and used by supervisors and managers to protect and promote the mental health of employees. A brief overview of mental health, mental disorders, and workplace mental health is provided. This is followed by the theoretical grounding and introduction of MHSSB. Suggestions for future research and practice follow, all with the focus of developing a better understanding of the role of supervisors in protecting and promoting employee mental health in the workplace.