Bargaining over New Technology: Possible Effects of Removing Legal Constraints
In viewing the potential impact of recent technological change upon the economy and the labor market, the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) recently concluded that "the United States-indeed every industrialized nation-is undergoing a scientific, technological, economic revolution every bit as significant as the industrial revolution itself" [quoted in Bamber and Lansbury 1989, 41]. Similarly, the widespread application of microelectronics led Harley Shaiken [1984] to claim that we are moving from the "first generation" of automated equipment to the "second generation." The first generation entailed automation of single work processes, allowing workers to perform individual tasks at a faster rate. The second generation ties separate work processes into integrated systems, creating entirely new work processes. The effects this new technology will have on workplace organization and employment patterns have been hotly debated. Some authors have suggested that microelectronics may facilitate the individual's control of work by decentralizing production, eliminating boring and dangerous jobs, enhancing skills, and increasing leisure time.1 For example, Isaac Asimov once wrote that it "will leave to human beings the tasks that are intrinsically human, such as sports, entertainment, and scientific research [quoted in Friedrich 1980, 83]. Others have insisted on differentiating between the potential of microelectronics and the reality of its use. In this view, integrated production systems transfer control of the work process from the shop-