Tod D. Rutherford

Labour in 'lean' times: Geography, scale and the national trajectories of workplace change

In this paper we argue that far from being surpassed by globalization, the nation-state remains a key space for organized labour. However, labour geographers’ focus on patterns of union organization and strategies of ‘internationalism’ underplays the enduring role of national institutions. Moreover, while labour geographers have recognized the significance of new forms of work organization, such as just in time and lean production, with some exceptions they have not examined how unions both formally and informally determine the trajectory of workplace change. Based on case studies of unions in the Canadian and German auto industries, we stress that the linkage between national and workplace scales remains critical to understanding how unions are responding to the challenges being presented by lean and just in time production. Finally, while there is a re-scaling of bargaining in the automobile industry to the firm or enterprise scale, the outcomes of decentralization depend largely on the national regulatory context.

Subcontracting flexibility? Recruitment, training and new production relations

Explores the changing nature of the relationship between buyers and suppliers in the UK automotive industry, using research evidence from two major companies in this sector, Nissan and Lucas Industries, and incorporates these changes into wider debates on the social relations of production and changing work practices. Illustrates these changes in work practices through transformations in recruitment and training practices in large automotive companies.

The Local Solution? The Schumpeterian Workfare State, Labour Market Governance and Local Boards for Training in Kitchener, Ontario

RUTHERFORD T. D. (1996) The local solution? The Schumpeterian workfare state, labour market governance and local boards for training in Kitchener, Ontario, Reg. Studies 30, 413–427. This paper examines the concept of local labour market regulation within the context of the restructuring of training provision by federal and provincial governments in Canada as part of the development of what Jessop, 1993, terms the Schumpeterian workfare state (S WS). In particular, drawing on Cox and Mairs, 1988,1991, concept of local dependence, it will emphasize the need to examine the institutions regulating labour markets at different spatial scales — especially at the local level. The paper examines the development of local boards for training and adjustment in Ontario with special reference to preliminary findings from a case study of the implementation of one such local board in the Kitchener region. An important feature of these boards is that, at both provincial and local levels, labour and management are given e...

Local Representations in Crisis: Governance, Citizenship Regimes, and UK TECs and Ontario Local Boards

In this paper I critically examine new forms of state–civil-society arrangements via a case study of non business stakeholder representation in UK Training and Enterprise Councils and in Local Boards for Training and Adjustment in Ontario, Canada. Drawing on insights from both poststructural and regulationist approaches, I situate their development and crises in what Jenson and Phillips term ‘citizenship regimes’. Local representation of labour and equity groups could be effective and reflected struggles over both recognition and redistribution. However, representation often depended on resources drawn from other scales and especially on the relationship of stakeholders with the provincial and national state. Local representation has some autonomy from macroshift in citizenship regimes, but in both cases there is strong evidence that the state is able to incorporate stakeholder representation into what Jessop terms ‘metagovernance strategies’, although it cannot necessarily control it.

New directions in Canada’s Japanese-owned automobile plants

New directions and opportunities are emerging in Canada’s automobile industry as Japanese firms continue to shift production overseas and adapt to local conditions. Japanese investment in three major assembly plants in Canada totals over four billion dollars and automotive trade between the two countries is valued at over three billion dollars annually. the Japanese-owned automobile assembly plants in Canada were examined through a series of interviews with senior managers to gain insights into the processes of globalizaton and localization. While some researchers assert that Japanese automotive investment in North America represents a ‘triumph of organization over culture,’ we argue for a more complex process of mutual adaptation in which national differences are still very influential. Overall, Japanese producers have adapted their labour relations, buyer-supplier practices and delivery systems to the North American environment leading to the development of a ‘hybrid’ industrial system. the series of 1997-98 plant expansions have increased opportunities for workers and suppliers while also increasing the range of value added functions undertaken in Canada.

Overturning Italy’s Article 18: Exogenous and endogenous pressures, and role of the state

Since 1970 Article 18 provided important employment protection for workers in larger firms in Italy. Its core aspect (i.e. reinstatement in the case of unfair dismissal) was recently overturned by the Jobs Act for employees hired after its approval. To explain Article 18’s abolition, the authors assess the explicative power of (1) stronger exogenous pressures from economic international institutions, and (2) weaker endogenous pressures from unions and business organizations. Documentary analyses and semi-structured interviews with key informants reveal that while these two forces are critical, they tend to ‘read off’ the state policy decision making role, which, the authors argue, is central to explaining the overturning of Article 18.

State accumulation projects and inward investment regimes strategies

ABSTRACT State accumulation projects and inward investment regimes strategies. Regional Studies. Based on Kitchener–Waterloo, Ontario, and Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, case studies, we link inward investment regimes (IIR) to the strategic relational approach to the state. The state continues to be significant in (1) selecting multinational enterprise (MNE) value-chain segments; (2) policies maximizing foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers; (3) empowering IIR participants; and (4) managing the institutionalized compromises underlying these policies. Quebec’s developmental state (QDS) reflects labour’s greater power and has stronger levers to maximize FDI spillovers than Ontario’s competition state (OCS); however, both confront significant FDI challenges.

Unions, Innovation and Scale

In the following paper, I explore the role of unions in workplace and regional innovation. I link this to the learning region or cluster approach which stresses learning through interaction and its facilitation by social capital. While these approaches are insightful, it is less focused on internal firm organization (see Martin and Sunley, 2002) and in particular, how labor-management relations play a critical role in firm learning and innovation strategies. The literature on unions and innovation has two principal approaches. The first is an equity oriented and industrial relations literature, which finds positive associations between unions and innovation (Freeman and Medoff, 1984; Eaton and Voos, 1992). The second is econometric research, which is generally more mixed in its findings of union impacts on innovation (see Menezes-Filho, 1998; Addison and Hirsch 1989).