PRODUCTIVE RESTRUCTURING, UNION ACTION AND WORKERS RESPONSES IN THE WHITE GOODS INDUSTRY

Abstract

This article discusses the process of recent changes in management techniques and organization of labor process in a firm of the white goods sector and assesses the relationship between such changes and the workers' responses with regard to union organization and action. The central question is to understand how the new forms of labor management and especially the higher degree ofthe workers' involvement with the firm's objectives influences their relationship with the union and their disposition to collective action. The research, conducted in a stove factory, originally belonging to a Brazilian firm and recently acquired by a muItinational group, shows that the adoption of strategies of workers' involvement was not enough to break the ties between workers and union. We found that factorslike age, seniority and workers' perception ofthe labor market conditions and oftheir own real possibilities of obtaining a better job, have a significant influence on their good will as to the firm's new demands and objectives, as well as on their degree of satisfaction both with their jobs and wages. This may explain the seeming contradiction among workers involvement and satisfaction with the firm, the high degree ofunionization and their explicit support of union organization and action.