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Building on the work of labor historians, industrial relations scholars, and institutional labor economists, this book offers not only a comprehensive analysis of the changing nature of shopfloor labor-management relations in the large manufacturing firms of this century, it also supplies empirical evidence of the effect of these institutional changes on labor productivity growth and injury rates. No other study has dealt with the broad sweep of shopfloor governence during the twentieth century, paid as careful attention to the process by which shopfloor institutional arrangements changed over these years, or offered hard evidence on the relationship between changing shopfloor institutions and changing shopfloor outcomes.
List of contents
INTRODUCTION A brief account of Shopfloor Matters; The contributions of Shopfloor Matters 1 FROM EXIT TO VOICE IN SHOPFLOOR GOVERNANCE 2 THE AMOSKEAG PLAN OF REPRESENTATION 3 THE RISE OF AN EMPOWERED SHOPFLOOR VOICE 4 LABOR-MANAGEMENT DISPUTES IN MEAT PACKING, 1936–41 5 INSTITUTIONALIZATION AND DECLINE IN WORKERS’ SHOPFLOOR POWER 6 POSTWAR COLLECTIVE-BARGAINING AGREEMENTS 7 CONTEMPORARY EXPERIMENTS WITH NEW SYSTEMS OF SHOPFLOOR GOVERNANCE 8 A VISIT TO SATURN 9 THE FUTURE OF US SHOPFLOOR GOVERNANCE
About the author
David Fairris is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California, Riverside. He has published widely in professional journals on the subject of working conditions and shopfloor labor-management relations.
Summary
This book offers not only a comprehensive analysis of the changing nature of shopfloor labor-management relations in the large firms of this century, it also supplies empirical evidence of the effect of changes on productivity.
Additional text
'Fairris' thesis is both powerful and provocative...It should be high on the reading list of researchers examining work place change.' - Journal of Economic Literature'This book is rich in analytical scope, creativity and insight. It deserves to be read and pondered by any serious student of American shopfloor relations' - Industrial and Labour Relations Review'During the past fifteen years, economists and other researchers have begun to relate industrial-relations practices to organizational-performance measures. The present volume well demonstrates the applicability of that methodology to historial analysis...this book provides ample grist for the mills of those who study long-term trends in productivity and injury rates. - Sanford M. Jacoby The Journal of Economic History Vol 59, No 1, March 1999'Shopfloor Matters is essential reading for those teaching labor economics or labor history and for anyone interested in understanding the nature of labor-management relations today. - Paulette Olson Journal of Economic Issues Vol XXXII, No. 4, December 1998
