This study presents an account of workplace relations in two auto assembly plants pursuant to the implementation of changes in technology, work organization and industrial relations. The focus of this in-depth case study was eight groups of workers, their managers and union representatives in the trim and hardware area. Relations in Plant X, where the major change was to automated guided vehicles from traditional drag chain assembly, were characterized by cross-cutting currents of co-operation, withdrawal of co-operation and outright conflict. In contrast relations in Plant Y, where there was a modest change toward team-working, were quite placid and opaque. The analysis highlights both the objective and subjective, or legitimating, bases of action. The former was a clear intensification of work for all participants in Plant X as a result of the technological change, while there was very little intensification associated with the work organization change in Plant Y. The subjective basis of action revolved around emergent notions of what was 'fair' in terms of work load, efforts to build a quality product, discipline, and the role of the union. The turmoil of Plant X reflected the struggle of management and workers to impose their respective rationalities of production in the new environment. In the context of broad debates about the current industrial changes, this case study exhibits few characteristics of a post-Fordist, more flexible and more co-operative industrial regime. Three areas of contradiction in the changes seem to propel relations.
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