Artifacts of workers' knowledge: Finding worker skill in the closing and restructuring of a furniture manufacturer

Abstract

The closing of and restart of a furniture factory provided a unique opportunity to interrogate worker skills. As part of the bankruptcy sale, workers and managers ‘discovered’ a large number of worker-made jigs that had been integral to production. I argue that these are artifacts of workers’ implicit knowledge over generations of workers, troubling the notion of skill as only the explicit static attributes of individuals. Despite being seen as deskilled workers, the creation and use of these jigs are sites of worker agency suggesting that workers were more integrally engaged in production and not simple appendages to machinery. After the firm was bought, start-up proved difficult without either experienced workers or the physical artifacts of knowledge in the jigs. As several workers from the shuttered facility came to train new workers, they brought not only an implicit knowledge but a habitus that had gone unrecognized in the old facility.

How Much to Invest and What Degree to Get? Education As a Strategy on the Labour Market Scale

“…In the final decision of workers regarding education, our results show that the worker decides to train (study) by predicting a low audit by the company and that in addition to the incentive granted by the company (additional 7-8%) in the long term could suit the worker. In this sense, Juravich (2017) analyses what happened with the closure and restart of a furniture factory. When it was sold, the new owners valued the skills learned for years by the workers of the old factory and not only re-hired them but used them as trainers for new workers.…”

Imaginarios laborales de la clase obrera electricista de Necaxa. De la empresa pública a la empresa privada: rupturas y continuidades

“…Estos textos se refieren a los cambios que han sufrido las empresas, los cuales implican modificaciones en los esquemas laborales (como la flexibilidad laboral y la reconversión industrial); y/o en el estatus de las empresas (el tipo de iniciativa). En este sentido, se pudieron encontrar trabajos en los que las empresas privadas han sufrido sólo transformaciones en sus procesos productivos y relaciones contractuales (Yücesan-Özdemir, 2003;Tittoni, 2009;Garabito, 2011;Quiroz, 2014;Sánchez, 2016); en los que las empresas privadas han sido absorbida por otras empresas con el mismo tipo de iniciativa (Juravich, 2017); o bien, aquellas que han modificado el tipo de iniciativa al transitar de públicas a recuperadas (Huerta, 2011), y de públicas a privadas (Várguez, 1996;Figari, 2010;Bergesio y Castillo, 2013;Albanese, 2017;Rodríguez, 2010). Finalmente, hallé lo que denominé contexto de desempleo de las clases obreras; en este contexto se ubicaron estudios que abordan el cierre de las empresas públicas, debido a que se declararon en quiebra (Estrada, 1996;Bazán, 1999;Frassa, 2008;Belmont, 2013).…”

“…Respecto al contexto de transformación se hallaron cinco trabajos en torno a distritos industriales; tres de ellos en torno a la cotidianidad fabril y extrafabril (Yücesan-Özdemir, 2003;Garabito 2011;Quiroz, 2014) y dos exclusivamente en torno a la cotidianidad fabril (Sánchez, 2016;Juravich, 2017). El primero de ellos, es el realizado por Gamze Yücesan-Özdemir Hidden forms of resistance among Turkish workers: "Hegemonic incorporation or building blocks for working class struggle?"…”