The Evolution of Fordism and Post-Fordist Production

Mass Production and Mass Consumption

• Mass Production and Consumption: Under the requirement of high-output mass production, labor received higher incomes to support a mass consumption market.
• The Symbolic $5 Day: Henry Ford used high salaries to enable workers to become potential customers of the products they manufactured.

Impacts on Labor

• Worker Alienation: Increased fatigue and the definition of the worker as a mere component of the machine.
• Workplace Reform: From the 1940s, alienation in the labor process was attributed to surging strikes in the U.S. automobile industry.
• QWL Programs: Quality of Working Life programs introduced worker participation, including joint committees, task forces, and problem-solving groups.
• Unionized Labor: Welfare benefits and union power made Fordism an expensive agenda.
• UAW Success: Despite Henry Ford's 1933 resistance, the UAW eventually gained recognition as the bargaining agent for autoworkers following court orders.
• Bargaining Power: The UAW's success relied on the ability of workers to exploit their position within the complex division of labor. A small number of activists could halt an entire plant's production (Silver 2002: 47).

Post-Fordism

• Fordism in Crisis: Driven by increased labor costs from unions and competition from the Japanese industry.
• A New Era: The emergence of flexible accumulation, Post-Fordism, globalization, and deindustrialization.
• Shift in Strategy: U.S. and Western European automobile companies abandoned the Fordist style starting in the 1980s.
• Microtechnology: The application of personal computers allowed managers to monitor performance, increase productivity, and reduce payroll costs.
• Lean Production: In the 1980s and 1990s, Japanese lean production methods spread globally as companies sought to imitate these practices or compete with transnational Japanese corporations.