French-style flexibility: workers at the Brazilian Peugeot Citröen plant

Abstract

The article discusses the effects of the recent process of flexibilization in industrial (automobile) production on labour relations, on workers and their unions. As an example, the authors examine the first Brazilian plant to be opened by the French manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroën, installed in Porto Real, Rio de Janeiro, in 2001. They argue that the construction of a 'shrunk' and restructured plant - a project designed to move beyond Fordist organization as an integral part of a global productive chain - reconfigures the relations with workers (and with the union) in the factory space by creating the demand for higher levels of schooling, a greater capacity to adapt to new technologies, and new forms of organizing production. However, these relations maintain authoritarian practices while preventing the reproduction of previous forms of worker resistance. The debate benefits from the research on the same company conducted by Michel Pialoux and Stéphane Beaud, who have analyzed its managerial transformations over the last few decades and the impact on the lifestyles of different generations of workers.