Subject: Speakers Available Through HIV Peer Network
Date: Published: 10/13/92 (100 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Labor Letter:
    A Special News Report on People
    And Their Jobs in Offices,
    Fields and Factories
    ----
    By Cathy Trost

    TAKING AIDS FACTS to the workplace is the aim of a new network.
    More than 30 men and women infected with HIV are available as
 speakers to employee groups through the New York-based HIV Peer
 Network.  The network is underwritten by Burroughs Wellcome Co. 
 Though few workers fear getting the virus "from a co-worker or
 coffee cup or microwave," some fret about having to take over work
 for a sick employee or paying higher health-insurance costs, says
 Lewis Katoff, a clinical psychologist who has AIDS.  
    Charles Magness, a Falls Church, Va., consultant who is
 HIV-positive, has spoken to AT&T employees.  "They see a 6-foot-4 man
 with gray hair, age 52, a successful businessman, and there's an
 ability to relate to that," he says.  They may not be able to relate
 to his homosexuality, he says, but employees share his concerns as a
 father and grandfather about risks for children.
    One question he often gets:  "How do you talk to your children
 about sex?"
    RATING HEALTH CARE:  Companies probe the quality of employee
 health plans.
    After Seattle's Aldus Corp. asked employees last year to describe
 their experiences with the firm's health-care plan, nearly 150
 workers flooded corporate e-mail with horror stories.  The company
 changed providers.  Allied-Signal Inc. last year switched to a system
 of financial reimbursement based on patient satisfaction and other
 quality factors; physicians evaluated as "outstanding" are awarded a
 10% to 15% bonus on top of their fixed monthly fees.
    More than half of companies recently surveyed by consulting firm
 William M. Mercer said quality of health care is a more significant
 concern now than three years ago.  Bull HN Information Systems is
 developing an employee survey on health care, and will put employees
 on health-care review teams at each company site.
    BAG THE GUILT, a new study tells working mothers.
    Married moms who work outside the home spend about as much time
 as stay-at-home moms in direct child-care activities like bathing,
 dressing and supervising homework, say professors W. Keith Bryant of
 Cornell and Kathleen Zick of the University of Utah.  They say a
 survey of married couples shows "no evidence for guilt" among
 working mothers about child care.
    Married mothers spend about 10,500 hours on "primary" child-care
 activities when raising two children through age 18, whether they
 are employed or not.  Employed moms gain time with children at the
 expense of their own leisure and housework time.  Employed moms spend
 more time with children aged three and over and less time with
 younger ones, while it is the reverse for stay-at-home mothers.
    The research didn't examine secondary, or shared, time mothers
 spend with children while cooking dinner or doing housework.
    WHAT IT TAKES:  With real wages declining and housing and
 health-care costs growing, the average U. S. worker now has to work
 6.43 years to buy a median-priced new home, nearly twice what it
 took 20 years ago, says a study by New York City's Department of
 Consumer Affairs.  It now takes more than eight months' work to buy a
 full-size Chevy sedan, compared to five months 20 years ago.
    DESPITE ITS REPUTATION, Wal-Mart Stores' labor productivity --
 how much it gets out of each worker -- is lower than some department
 stores and mass merchants who offer more customer services, says
 McKinsey Global Institute, an affiliate of the consulting firm.  The
 reason:  Wal-Mart has yet to go head-to-head with the most
 sophisticated big-city retailers.
    RACE THAT BODY:  More than 2,000 Guardian Industries' employees
 world-wide are competing on an imaginary international race course
 by accumulating miles through walking, running, bicycling and other
 sports.  The exercise contest is part of a health-promotion plan of
 the Northville, Mich., company.
    HOLDING THE LINE:  Efforts to control labor costs continue as the
 economy wavers.
    Clark Equipment Co., South Bend, Ind., which cut its work force
 20% between 1990 and 1992, increases its use of temporary workers
 and contracts with other companies for some goods and services.
 Diebold Inc., the Canton, Ohio, maker of automatic-teller machines,
 needs 33% fewer workers now than in 1989 because of more efficient
 methods.  It also saves money by paying other companies to make parts
 it needs only in small quantities, and it increases health-care
 deductibles for employees.
    But some companies say they have trimmed enough.  Pier 1 Imports
 Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, with 16% fewer employees than two years
 ago, plans to increase employment again.  Dallas-based Dr
 Pepper/Seven Up Cos.  adds employees, as does Audio/Video Affiliates
 Inc., a consumer electronics retail chain.
    "We'll wait and see what happens after the elections," says
 Harold Smith, president of Baldwin Piano & Organ.
    CHECKOFF:  Since Anita Hill's testimony at the Clarence Thomas
 hearings last year, 81% of Fortune 500 companies now provide sexual
 harassment training to employees, up 35% from before the hearings,
 says Glamour magazine.... Gender Benders:  A national survey of
 28,000 employees by St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. reveals
 that 35% of men drink to relax after work, versus just 19% of women.

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the
 personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the
 hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering
 from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]