Lecture on the interaction between labour relations and specific industry restructuring in the motor vehicle industry - discusses recent trends and factors such as technological change, and high quality standard, role of trade unions, institutional framework, efficient internal labour market, flexible work organization, decentralization, proper skill and training systems. References.

This book, originally published in 1967, takes the automobile industry experience as a basis for a wider view of industrial relations, trends and developments of the 1950s and 60s. The study also analyses the emergence of new institutions and systems of labour-management relationships. It contains chapters on the effects of automotion and technical change, on the impact of fluctuations in the market for cars and on wage trends. There are detailed surveys of some of the biggest post-war disputes and especially of trade union organization, the shop steward system, the experience of individual firms, such as Austin, Ford and Fiat. There is also a comparative survey of labour relationships in other major car manufacturing countries such as the USA, Germany and Japan.

Cover page -- Halftitle page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ABBREVIATIONS -- INTRODUCTION BETWEEN EROSION AND TRANSFORMATION: INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS SYSTEMS UNDER THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE -- Part One TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND LABOUR RELATIONS -- Chapter One TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION, ORGANISATION OF WORK, AND UNIONS -- Chapter Two CHANGING SKILL REQUIREMENTS AND TRADE UNION BARGAINING -- Chapter Three TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE, LABOUR MARKET, AND TRADE UNION POLICY -- Part Two THE POLITICS OF RATIONALISATION: THE CAR INDUSTRY -- Chapter Four RATIONALISATION AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: A CASE STUDY OF VOLKSWAGEN -- Chapter Five THE POLITICS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AT BRITISH LEYLAND -- Chapter Six CHANGES OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AT FIAT -- Part Three CRISIS AND RATIONALISATION: IMPACT ON UNIONS -- Chapter Seven BUREAUCRACY, OLIGARCHY, AND INCORPORATION IN SHOP STEWARD ORGANISATIONS IN THE 1980s -- Chapter Eight SHOP STEWARDS AND MANAGEMENT: COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AS CO-OPERATION -- Chapter Nine SOME CURRENT STRATEGY PROBLEMS OF THE ITALIAN TRADE UNIONS* -- Chapter Ten CENTRALISATION OR DECENTRALISATION? AN ANALYSIS OF ORGANISATIONAL CHANGES IN THE ITALIAN TRADE UNION MOVEMENT AT A TIME OF CRISIS -- Chapter Eleven SOCIAL CHANGE AND TRADE UNION MOVEMENT IN THE 1970s -- Chapter Twelve LABOUR CONFLICTS AND CLASS STRUGGLES -- Chapter Thirteen WORKERS' REACTIONS TO CRISIS -- NOTES ON EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS -- TRANSLATORS -- INDEX

Nearly every country that produces cars views the automobile industry as strategically important because of its direct economic significance and because it serves as a bellwether for innovation in employment conditions. In this book, industrial relations experts from eleven countries consider the state of the industry worldwide. They are particularly interested in assessing whether the loudly heralded model of lean production initiated by Toyota has become pervasive.The contributors focus on employment practices: the way work is organized, how workers and managers interact, the way worker representatives respond to lean production strategies, and the nature of the adaptation and innovation process itself.

This penetrating study of labor-management relations at General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler investigates whether recent pay and work rule concessions and cooperative programs adopted in the auto industry are a temporary response to economic problems or a new pattern of behavior. It combines historical, case, and statistical analysis, to look at past and contemporary events, and to indicate the likely future course of auto bargaining. Harry C. Katz is Associate Professor of Industrial Relations, Sloan School of Management, MIT.