Between a rock and a hard place: US industrial unions, shop-floor participation and the lean, mean global economy

Utilising historical and contemporary studies of metalworkingplants, a review of current trends in labour-management relations,and observations from 15 years as a machinist and local unionofficer, the author describes the efforts of US workers andtheir local unions to play a positive role in shop-floor productionmatters in the post-Second World War period, only to be rebuffedby corporations intent on gaining hegemony on the factory floor.This history is juxtaposed to contemporary efforts by managersto kindle interest among workers in participating in variousshop-floor continuous improvement schemes, in the context ofthe implicit and explicit threats to employment security thatglobal production flexibility provides to corporations.     

Work systems,corporate strategy and global markets: creative shop floors or ‘a barge mentality’?

In the US, corporate restructuring of financial and physical assets as well as work systems has been widespread. Our study examines the inter-relationship between ‘creative’ work systems and ‘destructive’ markets, using a sample of US manufacturing firms in the metalworking, jet engine production and steel processing industries.