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BackgroundNovel interventions tailored to blue collar workers are needed to reduce the disparities in smoking rates among occupational groups. ObjectiveThe main objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and usage of the Web-enhanced “Tobacco Tactics” intervention targeting operating engineers (heavy equipment operators) compared to the “1-800-QUIT-NOW” telephone line. MethodsOperating engineers (N=145) attending one of 25 safety training sessions from 2010 through 2012 were randomized to either the Tobacco Tactics website with nurse counseling by phone and access to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) or to the 1-800-QUIT-NOW telephone line, which provided an equal number of phone calls and NRT. The primary outcome was self-reported 7-day abstinence at 30-day and 6-month follow-up. The outcomes were compared using chi-square tests, t tests, generalized mixed models, and logistic regression models. ResultsThe average age was 42 years and most were male (115/145, 79.3%) and white (125/145, 86.2%). Using an intent-to-treat analysis, the Tobacco Tactics website group showed significantly higher quit rates (18/67, 27%) than the 1-800-QUIT NOW group (6/78, 8%) at 30-day follow-up (P=.003), but this difference was no longer significant at 6-month follow-up. There were significantly more positive changes in harm reduction measures (quit attempts, number of cigarettes smoked per day, and nicotine dependence) at both 30-day and 6-month follow-up in the Tobacco Tactics group compared to the 1-800-QUIT-NOW group. Compared to participants in the 1-800-QUIT NOW group, significantly more of those in the Tobacco Tactics website group participated in the interventions, received phone calls and NRT, and found the intervention helpful. ConclusionsThe Web-enhanced Tobacco Tactics website with telephone support showed higher efficacy and reach than the 1-800-QUIT-NOW intervention. Longer counseling sessions may be needed to improve 6-month cessation rates. Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT01124110; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01124110 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6TfKN5iNL).

In der Industrie findet ein kontinuierlicher Prozess der internen Tertiarisierung statt. Die Zahl der Angestellten ist inzwischen ebenso hoch wie die der Arbeiter. Der Frauenanteil unter den Angestellten stagniert allerdings. Das Niveau der prekären Beschäftigungsformen wie Befristungen, Minijobs oder Leiharbeit ist bei den Angestellten weit niedriger als bei den Arbeitern. Zugleich weisen Angestellte im Durchschnitt höhere Qualifikationen, einen höheren betrieblichen Status und höhere Einkommen auf. Dennoch sind die Arbeitsbedingungen widersprüchlich. Wichtigste Anzeichen dafür sind lange Arbeitszeiten, wachsende Arbeitsintensität und Klagen über schlechte Aufstiegschancen. Zugleich empfinden viele Angestellte ihre Arbeitsplätze als sicher. Zu den Gewerkschaften bleiben die Angestellten stärker auf Distanz, auch wenn ihr Organisationsgrad schwächer gesunken ist als derjenige der Arbeiter. Dafür ist ihr Anteil an aktiven Betriebsratsmitgliedern inzwischen höher als bei den Arbeitern. [Change in industrial employment - Working conditions of blue and white collar workers] Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the German Microcensus, the paper compares the working and employment conditions of blue and white collar workers and their relation to trade unions. The aim of the paper is to develop starting points for the collective representation of white collar workers interests because employees have been less in focus in the past. In addition, our analysis shows that employees are becoming increasingly important for labour unions because the number of employees in the industry has increased while the number of workers in the direct production has decreased. Furthermore, the term 'white collar employee' has lost little of its meaning as a relevant category of social practice, although the formal distinction between workers and employees in the industry no longer exists. Our results show that employees have on average still better working and employment conditions than workers. They have higher qualifications, higher occupational status, higher incomes and they consider their employment as safer. Furthermore, precarious forms of employment such as fixed-term contracts, marginal part-time jobs (Minijob) and temporary agency work are less widespread among employees than among workers. But the working and employment conditions of white collar employees are also showing negative trends. Employees complain much more often about long working hours, increasing work intensity and a lack of career prospects than workers. Yet despite this development, white collar employees keep their distance to trade unions. However, their unionisation rate is more stable over time than the organisational degree of blue collar workers.

*Introducing it* Spencer: “want to get a reaction out of people?” “When’s the last time you sharted yourself?” *laughing* “It’s funny because everyone knows the last time they sharted themselves” Myself: “I honestly don’t know that I do” Other Roommate “aw, yeah you do man, yeah you do” Spencer: “Yeah I can tell you mine vividly” “I was working in a fucking flip house, kay, back in California. It was a beat up old ass house I was working in to restore it” *answering interjections* “So I was working in that shit all by myself doing demo, okay? I was fucking ripping out like sheetrock and bullshit like that. And then… Like I’m there all by myself, and I’m like ‘my stomach hurts’ *giggling trying to talk* “there was like no bathrooms in that place cause they were all just freakin’… We tore ‘em all out already. ‘N so I’m just like ‘Damn my stomach hurts a lot now’ like after twenty minutes I’m just like ‘okay this is uncomfortable.’ BUT THEN I’m like ‘okay, I gotta go!’ So I start driving to the nearest McDonald’s, okay, and I’m like halfway there, and...” *holding back laughs* “It’s bad, it, it all just let’s lose bro, so I like waddle my ass into this McDonald’s, and freakin’ try and clean out my shorts” *laughing stops it for some 10 seconds* “and then I just finish my day, just like stained, and it’s just like, it’s a McDonald’s, so they got that like one-ply freaking toilet paper, that you can’t clean shit up with, it just –Smears- “ Myself: “So did you like, throw your underwear away or…?” Spencer: “No so I’m like trying to clean off my underwear” *roommate gagging, dry heaving, trying not to laugh* Roommate: “So you just free-balled it…?” Spencer: I was at… So then I go to work, and I like work for another couple hours in freaking shitty ass underwear, and then I like go home” *interjecting* Roommate: “HOW DID NOBODY like ‘like what is that smell?!” Spencer: “WELL, like I was, working by myself, so It didn’t really matter. I’m pretty sure I was in like Stockton too, so it was like, it was like a forty-minute drive home” … “But anyways it was like bad bro”