In June and July 1998, the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) engaged Flint General Motors workers in one of the longest strike to take place lately in United States. Officially, the strike was launched on Health and Safety issues, as globalisation and relocation of the company were non strikeable...

This paper discusses the introduction and implementation of ISO 9000 qualitystandards in the German and French car industry. Rather than a transfer of a set ofconcrete, well-understood rules, which are ready to be implemented, the paperargues, the quality standards have to be reconstructed and...

Groupwork is a particular form of work organisation typical for German factories that has been strongly influenced by union views. Management and trade unions present it as a radical innovation that calls into question the principles of the former Taylorist organisation on the one hand, and the...

This paper discusses the development of shop floor industrial relations and industrial restructuring in France in the 1980s. It argues that French companies appeared to have found a way out of their Fordist spiral, into a form of flexible mass production, but that they managed to do so only...

The paper examines the relationship between supplier network organization and regional economic development. A distinctive feature of the German economy is theexistence of a large and productive base of small and medium companies,commonly called the Mittelstand. Chambers of Commerce, trade...

This paper deals with the situation in the European car industry since the crisis of the early 1990s. After a short review of the structural problems of the industry and the main responses by car manufacturers, the discussion shifts to a detailed analysis of labour union responses. The paper...

Der Automobilmarkt in China boomt. Das anhaltende chinesische Wirtschaftswachstum und die fallenden Fahrzeugpreise in Folge des Beitritts zur Welthandelsorganisation führen zu einem erheblichen Anstieg der privaten Nachfrage nach Automobilen. Prognosen gehen davon aus, dass China bis Ende...

Im Hinblick auf die vieldiskutierte „Sandwich-Position“ Ostdeutschlands – zwischen den traditionellen Automobilzentren des Westens und den neuen Wachstumszonen und Niedriglohn-Standorten in Mittel- und Osteuropa – befindet sich die ostdeutsche Automobilindustrie weiterhin in einer...

Das Paper untersucht Standort- und Beschäftigungssicherungsvereinbarungen in der deutschen Automobilindustrie im Zeitraum zwischen 1993 und 2006. Untersucht werden die Ursachen, die Kerninhalte und die Folgen der Beschäftigungssicherungsvereinbarungen. Im Hintergrund steht die allgemeine Frage...