The Europeanization of manufacturing and the decentralization of bargaining: multinational management strategies in the European automobile industry

Abstract

In their search for productivity and quality improvements, multinationals increasingly make use of their integrated operations in order to win agreement in local bargaining, on issues such as machine running time, the shift system and flexible working practices. In this situation, local bargaining between the industrial relations actors takes on a strategic role. A common multinational strategy is to link success in local bargaining to investment policy. National differences in industrial relations systems only seem to affect the mode of local negotiation, rather than the trend towards decentralization. Convergent forces in the shape of the globalization of markets, European legislation and common product standards, as well as the easing of cross-border shipments of components or half-finished products, have led to the emergence of remarkably similar operational requirements in management policies in various countries. This new dimension of multinationals' corporate strategy has not yet been sufficiently explored in the literature. It appears that it has particularly relevant consequences for the German national bargaining system, where national and regional employer solidarity may become modified by local bargaining, induced by strategic decisions on corporate level. It is a matter of debate how far this trend in European motor manufacturing, the subject of this paper, will be reflected more widely. It is argued that industries characterized by comparable technological and cost constraints and product market pressures are likely to develop convergent patterns of employee relations at the plant level irrespective of national location.