Work viewed from below

Abstract

This paper approaches a particular type of work organization called production cells. That model is analized in its application through plants in the garment industry, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It focused on the working women experience under that work model, from which some aspects are stressed in this paper such as the payment system, the regulation of work by/of the worker's group, the training and its skill features, the productive flexibility, and the meaning of the geographical plant de-localisation to the worker group itself. Such aspects appear to be a counterpoint to the collective experience that moulded class identity in the past and that is, nowadays, being destroyed. One of the reasons for that fact is supposed to be the well-established private initiatives made by companies related to their workforce. This kind of strategies, among which production cells are a good example, circumscribe the labor contest to the inner space of the company level. The detailed report of cases discussed here intend to contribute with some elements to a comprehensive appreciation of the work organization debate as well as its further theoretical inferences in terms of the social class paradigm.