File 14: Mechanization and the reconstructing of the workplace

Question 1

What was the dominant economic trend in the 19th century?

Answer 1

falling prices (and interest rates) from 1817-1896 (exept during crimean war 1850-1857 and 1857-1873)

Question 2

What caused falling prices in the 19th century?

Answer 2

innovation in a competitive environment

Question 3

What was at the heart of innovation in the late 19th century (when prices were falling)?

Answer 3

Mechanization

Question 4

Why did the use of mechanized production spread in the 19th century? (2)

Answer 4

1. Because power prices fell more rapidly than prices in general
2. Series of innovation made machines work better: improved lubrifications, invention of ball bearings, greater precision in manufactures of moving parts and substitution of steel for wrought iron

Question 5

What did mechanization contribute to?

Answer 5

it contributed to a set of new assembly industries: sewing machines, bicycles which contributed to improving machinery (added to existing plants, a technological innovation does not lead to scrapping of an exisiting plant)

Question 6

What is logistical strangulation?

Answer 6

local strangulation can be a consequence of mechanization and improvement in pexisting plant. If you only improve one machine, it disrupts the flow the flow of production because other machines dont work as well which creates a bottleneck.

Question 7

What did Braverman argue about machinery and how employers and managers chose to use it?

Answer 7

Employers/managers could of either used machinery to increase productivity of skilled laborers or used to replace skilled laborers. Braverman argues that managers chose to use machinery as a mean of replacing skill labour because they are distributionally motivated

Question 8

Describe the development of the assembly industries. (3)

Answer 8

1. machinery required skilled labor to operate the machine and to adjust parts that didn’t fit together (fitters)
2. As machinery improved, it became easier to operate and improved tolerances so that more parts can fit together which reduced the need for skilled laborers and skilled fitters
3. in general, machinery took over tasks assigned to skilled laborers

Question 9

Explain the steel industry in Britain and US. (relate it to what inspired the improvements of the ease of operations of machinery/ - was it along braverman’s ideology thus to weaken the bargainning power of labour?)

Answer 9

BRITAIN:
1. in the late 19th century, the british steel had a long history and small domestic market and a large but declining export market. Their industry had plants with a wide array of technological standards (some being out of date techonology) => hard to put a uniform front
USA
1. they had a rapidly growing large domestic steel market (steel rails) => large modern uniform plants.
2. steel producers were organized into effective trusts => cooperation between producers
BOTH:
at the end of the 19th century: both had a craft trade union that imposed craft exclusivity: controlled supply of labor and limited capacitiy of employers to replace skill with unskill labor
CONSEQUENCE USA:
Homestead strike at Bethlehem in 1982: caused teh destruction of the Amalgamated Iron Workers Union => lead to wages cut and reorganization along taylorism (deskilling)-> this outcome was possible because employers cooperated together
CONSEQUENCE BRITAIN
because of combination of older and newer plants, employers were not able to organize themselvf and defeat unions and craft unionism which persisted until the 20th century

Question 10

Using the example of the steel industry of britain vs usa, what inspired the improvements of the ease of operations of machinery?

Answer 10

1. at first, it seems like the improvements of ease of machinery was used as Braverman’s theory because wages were cut and work was deskilled
2. But, the british steel industry slowly went into decline yet the american steel industry was successful and ran into competition with asia
3. in the long run, even though there were wage cuts, the superior economic performance of the us meant that by the 1950s, the unskilled us laborers were making more than the skilled laborers in britain

Question 11

What does braverman’s analysis on economy and workplace neglects?

Answer 11

Even though capitalists reduces wages through reorganization and deskilling, braverman’s analysis neglects the importance of DEMAND. Unless an organization of production provides the economic effiency required to meet the competition, there will be a declining demand. Declining demand causes wages to decrease or to grow slowly (Britain). But in the US, the long time performance of the steel industry following the Homestead strike suggests that the reorganization was economical efficient => economic effiency os associated with rising wages in the long run