From work to society: the "effects" of lean production outside the factory in this period of globalization

As is suggested in La Lettre du GERPISA of December 1996, one of theorientations that should be introduced to the debate on the second programme concerns the destabilization of wage relations and its consequences at the level of the different countries. Therefore, introducing the theme here in a schematic way for the group "Productive Organizations and Work Relationships", seems to me to be a way of stimulating and widening our field of reflection within GERPISA. Moreover, I feel that the varied, scattered notes that we discussed from the text during the International Steering Committee Meeting in November (Freyssenet and Lung, 1996), would find a research problematic which with this line of reflection would have much more coherence.

In fact, whether it is by the reduction of work which has contributed to the accentuation of social dualism resulting from the destabilization and the deregulation of wage relations, or the pressure on salary costs, by reshaping work relationships, as much outside the factory as inside by the intensification of work, regions find themselves subjected to a threat on two fronts: relocation and externalization.

This thematic and problematic approach takes us from work relationships to wage relations, to concrete (and more complete) social training. To do this, a first step would consist in reconstructing the whole production process, the procedures and the chain of stocks and shares. A second would consist in observing what changes take place in society, after these productive transformations.

In this perspective, the new organization (let's say lean production) is not studied in just one "company" as this would distort the vision of everything that did not fit in with this image of the "Sunday worker". It goes without saying that it is necessary to follow the various externalizations and sub-contracting, etc. But, especially, this perspective leads us to see that local communities pay for many of these externalized expenses in the form of traffic, pollution ecological problems: community costs, private profit, and consequently not recorded in the accounts. Production which is lean inside the factory becomes greedy outside. It is also outside our research approach.

But, especially, this transfer of costs on the community has an effect, which still has not been sufficiently evaluated, on people, concerned - ironically? - by so called "plans sociaux" (rationalization) , those on early retirement, those who have escaped the logic of the internal intensification of work, and the unemployed.

From a quantitative point of view, as we can deduce from the study of cases, we can be faced with a community of ex-workers who outnumber those working in the "new productive models". That is the case for Spain.

Of course the research methods and the documentation on regional or national society must now include other data which, although included in our approach, was not at all at the center of our analysis (see the excellent discussion and presentation of problematic in Billiard, 1995): health, family, social structure, forms of piloting and public policy for arranging production...

With this approach, as we have started to apply it, our research and even production is benefitting greatly from following up on those fired from the factory. For example, in the first place, interviews with ex-workers give us a distant (but recent) picture of the reorganized work inside the factory, and also a better approach to their image and actual experience of work. That nicely supplements our direct on site studies.

But, above all, following up on ex- workers leads us to understand what has happened in the lives of the people, how that affected a whole population, a whole region, what has become of them as people. And, finally we are led to understand the changes in the social structure as a whole: what has become of these workers who are not yet old enough as a social category?

Thus we believe that we can say something founded not only on the future of the automobile, but also on the future of our locally globalized societies.

Références :

Billiard, Isabelle (coord.): Identités. santé, insertion sociale et nouvelles formes d'emploi, Paris, MIRE (Mission Interministérielle Recherche-Expérimentation), Groupe de Travail, 1995, 313 p.

Castillo, Juan José: "A la búsqueda del trabajo perdido. Y de una sociología capaz de encontrarlo", en Estudios Sociológicos, México, 1997 (en prensa).

Castillo,Juan José; MÉNDEZ, Javier: "Ex-trabajadores: del trabajo a la sociedad en contextos de reorganización productiva en et sector del automóvil", IV coloquio internacional GERPISA, Paris, 19-21 de junio de 1996.

Freyssenet, Michel; Lung, Yannick: "Entre mondialisation et régionalisation: quelles voies possibles pour l'internationalisation de l'industrie automobile", en Actes du GERPISA, n^o 18, 1996, pp. 7-35.

Heseler, Heiner; Roth, Bernhard: "The Impact of Deindustrialisation and Reindustrialisation on Local Labour-market Processes: the Case of the Shutdown of the Shipyard AG Weser", en Labour and Societv, Genève, vol. 13, n^o 4, octobre 1988, pp. 375-386.

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