In light of debates about advanced manufacturing and concepts like Industrie 4.0, this article compares labour‐use strategies in highly automated automotive supplier plants in a high‐wage country (Germany) and a low‐wage region (Central Eastern Europe). It shows considerable differences regarding skill requirements on the shop floor and the use of precarious employment contracts and examines three potential factors that explain them: national institutional frameworks, the power of employee representatives and the role of the plant within the companies and value chains. The analysis shows that the labour‐use strategies depend less on process technologies per se, but rather on the institutional framework and the role of the factory in the rollout and ramp‐up of new products and new process technologies. Such a role requires close cooperation between employees in the manufacturing areas and in product development, which in turn requires particularly high skills. The role of employee representatives in influencing labour‐use strategies proves less important. The article uses quantitative data from a survey of employee representatives, as well as qualitative data from in‐depth company case studies.

Discussion papers of the WZB serve to disseminate the research results of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas and academic debate. Inclusion of a paper in the discussion paper series does not constitute publication and should not limit publication in any other venue. The discussion papers published by the WZB represent the views of the respective authors and not of the institute as a whole.

The term "crowdwork" describes a new form of digital work that is organised and regulated by internet-based platforms. This article examines how crowdwork platforms ensure their virtual workforce's commitment and control its performance despite its high mobility, anonymity and dispersion. The findings are based on a case study analysis of 15 microtask and macrotask platforms, encompassing 32 interviews with representatives of crowdwork platforms and crowdworkers, as well as an analysis of the platforms' homepages and community spaces. The article shows that performance control on crowd platforms relies on a combination of direct control, reputation systems and community building, which have until now been studied in isolation or entirely ignored. Moreover, the findings suggest that while all three elements can be found on both microtask and macrotask platforms, their functionality and purpose differ.Overall, the findings highlight that platforms are no neutral intermediaries but organisations that adopt an active role in in structuring the digital labour process and in shaping working conditions. Their managerial structures are coded and objectified into seemingly neutral technological infrastructures, whereby the underlying power relations between capital and labour become obscured.

The article deals with the impact of the emerging new division of labour between Western and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) on work and employment, both in the Western and CEE countries. Major points of discussion will be the hypothesis of a `hollowingout' of the Western European auto industry, and the hypothesis of a `regime flight'; that is, the claim that companies use CEE locations to escape the collectively regulated work models of Western Europe. The article draws from our own empirical research, including company case-studies in Western and Eastern auto plants, and on statistical analysis. The main conclusions are: in CEE countries, an upgrading process of production sites can be observed, which challenges the view of an emerging `high end/low end' division of labour between the West and the East.While relocation has led to some losses of low-skill jobs in Western Europe, the overall effect of the expansion of the automotive industry to CEE on growth and employment in Western Europe was positive.The impact of low-cost component imports from CEE countries has increased the competitiveness of the German firms, which are by far the main investor in CEE countries. Our case-studies reveal no trend towards regime flight from Western European work models, but management threats of relocation have become commonplace and have led to a renegotiation of work models in Western European countries. In CEE countries, the work models of automobile companies more and more are oriented at a high-road path.This development is fostered by the companies' responses to the problems of migration and the increasing shortage of skilled labour.

Despite severe membership losses after the transformation of 1989, trade unions in Central Eastern Europe were slow to develop methods to recruit new members. This article examines how Solidarność in Poland has adopted American organizing approaches, and analyses how an emerging group of young trade union organizers and activists changed the self-understanding of the union. The article ends with a comparative discussion of the conditions which may promote the development of organizing activities in Central Eastern Europe.