CHRIS BROOKS' report of the work in the local economy By Philip Garrahan and Paul Stewart Reviewed by a Car Worker HE NEW managemen echniques (NMT) affect or soon will do, nearly every working person. But where is the big debate about the implications? Where are the questioning academics and the investigative documentaries on TV?
In fact the silence is almost deafening, and this is no accident. Sirong vested interests resent any idea of a critical debate about these 151 sues.
hece vested interests and the lack of any serious questioning are well explained in this book in relation to the in Sunderland. They were part of the sottlement for building the Nissan plant in Sunderland rather than The local and national meata sere untoruuy ycophantic, the local coun huge area around the plant. Every hint of criticism was trol outwards from their own workforce. And an important part of this control is to stop criticism.
Garrahan and Stewart sec themselves as initiating a debate, one which is important for all of us. Breaking thew wall of silence is a vital first step towards combatcing the attack on workers which we new mangonens echniques represent.
Most workers will recog lise something in the book teamwork', 'quality led', For any of the other fashionable parts of NMT.
In the academic world, so far NMT has meant tame writers and pro-NMT 'experts' boosting their research grants by proselytising in favour of NMT.
Passive acceptance Breaking the pro-NMT monopoly in the academic of breaking down the passive acceptance of NMT in the unions across a wide spectrum from new realists to plain reformists who accept the ideology of prontibuity and competitiveness' The book explains that not all Nissan workers are happy with the NMT regime; that the claims of democracy in NMT mean in Japanese workers are already under the hammer fact 'participation without without control'.
It shows now workers are disciplined via 'quality. how in order to carry out an operation in a standard way they have to have their thinking controlled. Workers have to be simulown task, while checking their suppliers and on the tasks of others who are part of their 'team'.
Thus peer pressure in team working is part of what the authors call a 'regime of subordination'. Garrahan and Stewart quote a company training manual which explains that 'where there is no consensus' the to be done. So in reality the plete control.
In this system there is no room for dissent. vonkers who don't fir in are shown dividual workers, in the future it can be whole groups.
The 'Company Council" where workers sit in is just a stooge body. Nissan have solved the union 'problem' by having a singie union deal with the AEEU, in which the union plays no role in the factory except colJecting subs; the company asks workers to join the U880888 The authors argue the importance of ideology in the They say: It is the absence of an alternative world view that allows company notons to prevail.
Where individual workers feo isolated and see the world other than there can be no counter-cuiture in which alternative views can develop.
Vissan started from scratch and is thus not thel norm. In other places, where NMT will be introduced, unions already exist with established agreements. But Nissan shows us where we will end up if NMT is not fought.