Unionization and Job Design Under Programmable Automation

Abstract

New findings from an original national survey indicate that machining jobs include major computer programming responsibilities far more commonly than received labor process theory would lead us to expect or predict. In unionized plants, workers are less likely to program their machines, perhaps because of management's desire to avoid the constraints imposed by collective bargaining agreements. Among recent adopters of the technology, informal bargaining through joint labor‐management problem‐solving committees neutralizes this negative union effect.