Abstract:This paper applies a labour process perspective to the "chain system" in the New Zealand meat freezing industry. It traces the introduction of the chain system, contrasting it with traditional work methods and uses this historical perspective to provide a critique of Braverman 's theory of changes in the labour process.
“…In the 1930's the industry moved from solo butchering to mass production. The conditions under which this occurred and the scientific management principles that were implemented resulted in the workforce becoming heavily unionised and the relationship between processors and unions adversarial (Inkson and Cammock, 1988). Moreover, as animals are pasture-grazed all year, this creates seasonal fluctuations in processing volumes and corresponding fluctuations in employment as processors try to manage these peaks and troughs.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 92%
“…Previous involvement in the industry had emphasized how entrenched MSD were, how they were commonly perceived, and the narrow view of their causation and prevention (Slappendel et al, 1996). The embattled industrial relations history of the industry had also contributed to a general distrust of people and advice from outside the industry, including information on such a longstanding issue as MSD (Inkson and Cammock, 1984).…”
“…In the 1930's the industry moved from solo butchering to mass production. The conditions under which this occurred and the scientific management principles that were implemented resulted in the workforce becoming heavily unionised and the relationship between processors and unions adversarial (Inkson and Cammock, 1988). Moreover, as animals are pasture-grazed all year, this creates seasonal fluctuations in processing volumes and corresponding fluctuations in employment as processors try to manage these peaks and troughs.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 92%
“…Previous involvement in the industry had emphasized how entrenched MSD were, how they were commonly perceived, and the narrow view of their causation and prevention (Slappendel et al, 1996). The embattled industrial relations history of the industry had also contributed to a general distrust of people and advice from outside the industry, including information on such a longstanding issue as MSD (Inkson and Cammock, 1984).…”
“…For example, a government inquiry claimed the meat industry experienced “chronic absenteeism” and an “extremely high turnover” (Commission of Inquiry , 60, 108). Other studies found, relative to other industries, it experienced high rates of sickness, theft, sabotage, “over‐utilisation of accident compensation, neglect of quality, indiscipline, passive resistance to supervisors and tardiness at critical times” (Inkson and Cammock , 155; see also Howells and Alexander ; Inkson and Simpson ; Inkson ).…”
“…Yet, as studies have emphasized, there was considerable dissatisfaction with the monotonous, grueling, blood and guts nature of work on the disassembly line. This played a pivotal role in causing dissent (see e.g., Geare , ; Inkson and Cammock ; Turkington ). Ben Matthews () captured well the everyday experience of working under pressure in hazardous, physically demanding working conditions: one must envisage the scene of men working shoulder‐to‐shoulder, each handling a knife at speed, blood, steam, hot water, excrement, noise, urine, foremen, meat inspectors…and the chain [assembly‐line] constantly moving at eight links per minute past a given point.…”
“…Multiple examples of this can be found. For example, Inkson and Cammock (, 155) note that small departments often operated as “autonomous work groups” that controlled factors such as employment, the allocation of work and work methods within overall management procedures. It was common practice for workers to secure jobs for others, such as family members, as well to informally teach each other different jobs (Geare ; Webb , 69).…”
Section: Informal Workers' Self‐management or The Refusal Of Work?mentioning
Studies of labor struggle often concentrate on overt resistance, such as strikes, and neglect the rich variety of subterranean acts of workplace dissent. The few studies of this informal resistance that exist are largely a‐historical and Eurocentric micro‐studies that generally argue such dissent lacks radical content. Drawing on two unorthodox Marxist currents, including “autonomist Marxism”, this article presents a historical study of everyday resistance by meatworkers in Aotearoa New Zealand during the 1970s. It is asserted these struggles often hampered profits and production, complemented overt resistance, and were frequently collective rather than individualistic in nature—indeed, in many plants dissent was based on informal work groups of workplace‐whānau. These were multiethnic extended family‐like informal groupings that were influenced by Māori culture. While capital comprehensively restructured the meat industry in the 1980s and 1990s, it has not meant the “end of resistance” today.
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