Social Reconstructions of the World Automobile Industry: Competition, Power and Industrial Flexibility (International Political Economy)

This book assesses the varying ways in which automobile assemblers in several countries of East and Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas have sought to enhance their efficiency and flexibility in response to heightened global competition during the 1980s and early 1990s. It then explores the implications of such managerial strategies for workers and trade unions, and the responses of unions in seeking to preserve or enhance worker welfare and voice under industrial restructuring.

This book examines the origins and diffusion of flexible production systems, the basis for enhanced competition in the global auto industry. It is one of the few texts which presents a comparative cross-nation discussion of the labor implications of efforts to introduce flexible production systems in industry.