Economic Restructuring and Work Regulation: Beyond the Institutional Approach

Examines the interaction between economic pressures & changes in the workplace & the implications of these structural changes for the management of labor. It is argued that the study of economic forces should not be limited to the logic of the market but should also consider wider institutional forms of labor regulation & the study of shopfloor relations, which evolve "below" the collective argument. Institutional aspects are discussed in relation with the decline of Fordism & the globalization of economic relations, to stress emerging ways of organizing work with respect to efficiency. Drawing on fieldwork material collected in a large Canadian factory that manufactures transport equipment, it is concluded to be an exaggeration that North American employers are not free to organize production & manage labor under the collective agreements that have developed on the basis of the Fordist compromise; the real challenge is to move beyond the Taylorist principles of work organization while maintaining the essential elements of the collective bargaining regime. Modified AA