‘We planned a dispute by Blackberry’: The implications of the Trade Union Bill for Union use of social media as suggested by the BA-BASSA dispute of 2009–11

The Trade Union Bill 2015–16 was expected to receive royal assent by May 2016. The Bill enshrines the Conservative Government’s plans to reform trade unions and ‘to protect essential public services against strikes’. Following the Government’s climb-down on changes to union checkoff arrangements and to the operation of union political funds and facility time, central features are the proposed changes to thresholds for industrial action in strike ballots, to the notice period for strike action and to the time limit in which industrial action can be taken. In parallel with the introduction of the Bill, the Government published an eight-week public consultation which asked whether statutory measures should be taken to tackle the intimidation of non-striking workers during industrial disputes. In the Consultation, the Government stated its intention to reform and modernise the rules relating to picketing, including the possible extension of the Code on picketing to protests linked to industrial action which may encompass the use of social media. The Consultation found little support for Government proposals and in particular the suggestion that unions give two weeks’ notice of plans for picketing and protests, including the intended use of social media and this proposal was subsequently dropped. However, the government has stated that it will update the Code of Practice on Picketing to include guidance on the use of social media. This paper draws on our research on the 2009–11 British Airways strikes to consider the Government’s aspiration to widen the definition of industrial action to include protests away from the workplace, particularly organised by, or involving, social media. It will reveal how social media was used by BASSA (British Airways Stewards and Stewardesses Association) during the industrial action at British Airways (BA), when it became an additional site of conflict between the union and employer. In the light of these developments, the paper will also consider the potential consequences of the inclusion of measures on unions’ use of social media in the Code of Practice

The effects of a UK review of breast cancer screening on uptake : an observational before/after study

Objectives: To measure whether uptake of breast cancer screening was affected by the publication of the Marmot Review and associated press coverage. Setting: Eight NHS breast screening centres in the West Midlands of the UK. Methods: Uptake of breast cancer screening invitations was compared in the week before and after the Marmot review publication. All 12,023 women invited for screening between 23 October 2012 and 5 November 2012 were included. A mixed effects model of the predictors of screening uptake (on date invited, or within 21 days) was created. Predictors considered for inclusion were whether the allocated screening appointment was before or after publication of the review, population factors (age, index of multiple deprivation income domain by quintile, previous attendance), and interaction terms. Results: Uptake decreased after publication of the review from 65% to 62% (OR = 0.87 95%CI = 0.80–0.94), but a similar decrease was seen for the same dates on the previous year (OR = 0.85 95%CI = 0.78–0.93). Odds of attending screening were lower for women in the most deprived (uptake = 49%, OR = 0.54, 95%CI = 0.46–0.62) in comparison with the least deprived quintile (uptake = 71%). Odds of attendance also increased if the woman had ever previously attended (OR 3.9 95% CI 3.5–4.4), and decreased with each year of increasing age (OR 0.96 95% CI 0.96–0.97). There were no interactions between any of the other predictors and whether the appointment was before or after publication of the Marmot review. Conclusion: No change in uptake of breast cancer screening above normal seasonal variation was detected after publication of the Marmot review

Fatigue in radiology : a fertile area for future research

Fatigue in radiologists may be responsible for a large number of medical errors. This review describes the latest research on fatigue in radiology. This includes measurement methods, and recent evidence on how fatigue affects accuracy in laboratory test conditions and in clinical practice. The extensive opportunities for future research in the area are explored, including testing interventions to reduce fatigue-related error, and further understanding of which fatigue measures correlate with errors. Finally we explore the possibility of answering these questions using large population based observational studies and pragmatic integrated randomised controlled trials

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Prior Appropriations Water Calls

A spatiotemporal model is developed to examine prior appropriations–based water curtailment in Idaho’s Snake River Plain Aquifer. Using a 100 year horizon, prior appropriations–based curtailment supplemented with optimized water use reductions is shown to produce a spatial distribution of water use reductions that differs from that produced by regulatory curtailment based strictly on initial water right assignments. Discounted profits over 100 years of crop production are up to 7% higher when allocation is optimized. Total pumping over 100 years is 0.3%, 3%, and 40% higher under 1, 10, and 100 year prior appropriations–based regulatory curtailment, respectively

Does preoperative axillary staging lead to overtreatment of women with screen detected breast cancer?

Aim To determine the impact of pre-operative axillary ultrasound staging in a screen detected breast cancer population Materials and Method Ultrasound and needle biopsy staging results alongside reference standard sentinel lymph node biopsy and axillary lymph node dissection were retrospectively extracted from the unit's computer records between 01/04/2008 and 31/03/2015. Axillary staging was compared with final pathology and treatment. Results Of the 215,661 screening examinations performed, 780 invasive cancers were diagnosed which had pre-operative axillary staging data, of which 162 (20.7%) were node positive. 36 (4.6%) had a heavy nodal burden (3 or more nodes). 90 (11.5%) had an abnormal axillary ultrasound and axillary biopsy of which 54 were positive for cancer (33.3% of the node positive cases) and triaged to axillary lymph node dissection avoiding a sentinel lymph node biopsy. Of these 22 (40.7%) had neoadjuvant treatment, and 32 (59.3%) proceeded directly to axillary lymph node dissection. The sensitivity of axillary ultrasound and biopsy to detect women with aheavy nodal burden (3 or more nodes) was 41.7% (15 of 36). However, 17 (53%) of the 32 women with a positive axillary biopsy had a low burden of axillary disease (≤2 positive nodes) at axillary lymph node dissection, the mean number of nodes obtained was 14.6. Conclusion Significant numbers of women are being potentially overtreated or denied entry into Positive Sentinel Node: adjuvant therapy only vs adjuvant therapy and clearance or axillary radiotherapy (POSNOC) because of routine pre-operative axillary staging

Double reading reduces miss errors in low prevalence search

Low Prevalence studies show that people miss a large proportion of targets if they appear rarely. This finding has implications for real-world tasks, such as mammography, where it is important to detect infrequently appearing cancers. We examined whether having people search in pairs in a ‘double reading’ procedure reduces miss errors in Low Prevalence search compared to when participants search the displays alone. In Experiment 1 pairs of participants searched for a mass in a laboratory mammogram task. Participants either searched the same display together (in the same room) or searched the displays independently (in separate rooms). Experiment 2 further manipulated the reading order so that paired participants either read the mammograms in the same or different orders. The results showed that, although there was no effect of reading order, double reading led to a substantial reduction in miss errors compared to single reading conditions. Furthermore, the reason for the double reading improvement differed across reading environments: when participants read the displays in a shared environment (i.e. in the same room) the improvement occurred due to an increase in sensitivity, however when participants read the display in different rooms the improvement occurred due to a change in response bias

Organising in the air and on the ground - cabin crew resistance to British Airways : Reconfiguration of work and employment

The focus is on the protracted dispute (2009 - 2011) between British Airways (BA) and its cabin crew and their union BASSA (British Airlines’ Stewards and Stewardesses Association). Against a historical legacy of adversarial employment relations, the dispute was triggered by the company’s imposition, in disregard of collective bargaining procedures, of reduced crewing levels, transformed working arrangements and a new ‘mixed fleet’ on inferior terms and conditions. Despite the fact that the company marshalled considerable resou rces against the union, including a ‘strategy of decapitation’ of the BASSA leadership, the cabin demonstrated a profound commitment to collective action that saw very large ballot majorities and 22 days of strike action. The question driving the paper is how to explain such powerful collectivism given the adverse conditions facing the crew. Specifically, the paper is concerned with how BASSA was able to organise when confronted with a number of spatial problematics, including the residential disaggregation of it crews and the dispersal across the globe of a transient workforce. Drawing on testimony deriving from extended in-depth semi-structured interviews, the paper provides compelling evidence of BASSA’s and crews’ utilisation of internet-based communication to organise members and to help overcome the problems of dispersion and distance. Particular emphasis is placed on the effectiveness of the BASSA Forum and Crew Forum. The paper engages with a recent literature on union use of internet-based communication and social media and both challenges those who have exaggerated the importance of their capacity to generate a ‘distributed discourse’ and those who have been overly-sceptical of unions’ ability to effectively use such technologies. In the BA-BASSA dispute of 2009 - 2011 virtual forms of organising were integrated with the real, although in the final analysis mass meetings, and rallies and effective picketing were the fulcrum of action on strike days. Internet-based communication and interaction certainly contributed to successful organising but of most import for collectivism was BASSA’s embeddedness in the work lives of their members

The perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced people

The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on care-experienced people has been the subject of research, but important gaps remain in our understanding of how care-experienced people felt their mental health and well-being were affected by the pandemic. Care-experienced adults from across the UK were invited to complete a survey and submit a diary during the first lockdown. Responses were received from 140 people, aged eighteen to sixty-nine years. Most respondents reported that their mental health deteriorated due to the pandemic and lockdown. However, a substantial minority thought that either there had been no change or the lockdown had helped them make positive improvements. Improvements were attributed to stable housing and employment, support from services and transferable skills they had learnt in care. A minority of respondents referred to their care status in their diaries. Most diarists presented their experiences as being common to other, non-care-experienced, people. This article showcases the resilience of many care-experienced people, including some who made explicit reference to the benefits of coping strategies developed while in care. The findings of this study reveal that when provided with the right support, the care system can assist people to develop important life skills