‘Under the Clock’: Trade Union Responses to Cmputerised Control in US and Australian Grocery Warehousing

Abstract

In contrast to optimistic interpretations of contemporary work reorganisation, the example of computerised work monitoring in US and Australian grocery warehousing highlights a far more negative picture of work intensification, job stress and low trust relations. Despite significant variation in trade union response, the article argues such examples reinforce the need for strong and independent trade union regulation to limit the worst excesses of workplace rationalisation.The workplace implications of new computerised technologies and job redesign has been the subject of significant debate. Despite critiques of the potential control implications of such technologies[1], an alternative and far more optimistic interpretation of new workplace technologies has developed, based upon increasing employee involvement and 'high trust' employment relations. Examples of such a view have varied from post-Fordist visions of socio-technical work reorganisation, to the recent advocacy for 'high involvement' or 'best practice' models of workplace governance which emphasise increased trust and commitment between employers and employees [2].

Fordism in the fast food industry: pervasive management control and occupational health and safety risks for young temporary workers

“…The adverse health effects of reward/economic pressures associated with subcontracting and direct work intensification associated with lean production, engineered standards and the like, have increasingly been recognised (see, for example, Wright 1986, 1994, Wright and Lund 1996, 1998 and Landsbergis et al 1999). The same cannot be said for disorganisation – a concept developed by French researchers, building on earlier research in the 1950s and 1960s, linking additional risks of injury to abnormal tasks and work group disintegration (Dwyer 1994: 6–8).…”

“…While most studies of new work systems ignore precarious employment (see Landsbergis et al 1999), several have argued that contingent workers have been used to intensify already pressured work regimes. For example, Wright and Lund (1996, 1998) argue that work intensity and OHS problems (largely manual handling), accompanying the introduction of Taylorist engineered standards in warehousing/distribution in the US and Australia, were exacerbated by the use of temporary workers. In their desire for further work and the prospect of a permanent job these workers acted as ‘rate‐busters’, reinforcing performance standards that two NIOSH studies found to be unsustainable (Wright and Lund 1996, 1998).…”

Integrating the supply chain: industrial relations implications in US grocery distribution

“…Such 'work preservation' language is legal in the US and is quite common in the retail industry. Additionally, unions may also be able to blunt the effect of labourmanagement systems (LMS) by negotiating contract language governing how production standards are established, how they are enforced or tied to incentive pay and placing other safeguards in effect (Wright and Lund, 1998).…”

“…For example a variety of studies have examined the need within increasingly inter-related and flexible enterprise relations to promote a customer orientation amongst employees, increase job flexibility, and develop workplace cooperation through the use of teamworking and quality management techniques (Hopkins, 1989;Inman and Mehra, 1989;Johnson and Manoochehri, 1990;Finkel, 1991;Hiltrop, 1992;Im et al, 1994). Second, a more critical body of literature has developed around the workplace implications of increasingly 'lean production' and the potential for such new forms of work organisation to intensify work effort and increase managerial control over the labour process (Sayer, 1986;Parker and Slaughter, 1988;Berggren, 1991;Altmann and Deiß, 1998;Wright and Lund, 1998). Finally, a third group of literature has focused upon the implications of closer relations between enterprises within a supply chain and how this might affect human resource and other organisational practices.…”

State Regulation and the New Taylorism

“…While much of the rationalization undertaken in the industry during the 1990s concentrated on micro-level changes to warehouse operations, through the introduction of computerized warehouse management systems and work monitoring technologies such as engineered standards (Wright and Lund 1998), in the last few years the focus of change has shifted to a broader macro strategy of "supply-chain management." These reforms have sought to integrate all elements of the grocery supply chain, starting with the producer, the wholesaler, retailer, shipper and ultimately the customer (Narayanan 1996).…”