The Cooperative Labour Strategy in the US Auto Industry

The possibility of the end of Taylorism and Fordism is increasingly taking a central stage in the sociology of work. Such arguments imply that the increasing use of flexible technology, allied to changes in product markets, requires flexibility within the workforce. This paper concentrates on the US auto industry, where commentators on the recent industrial relations scene tend to stress a move from a system of antagonism to one of cooperation. The author suggests that the worker participation schemes in the industry appear to have taken on an enduring quality in the 1980s with the intensification of Japanese competition, usage of new production methods and transition to higher levels of automation. Yet the production methods remain within the mass production regime and any increased flexibility demanded is limited. The 'new' industrial relations is more about the intensified internationalism and competition in the industry, and less about a new multiskilled worker precipitated by the new technology. Many of its aspects are concerned with increased managerial control which may in themselves become a source of conflict.