On 12 October, 600 workers in three assembly departments of the Case New Holland (CNH) agricultural machinery plant in Zaventem held a strike at protest of high work pressure, after the unions had spread a leaflet questioning the effects of the World Class Manufacturing (WCM) system that CNH introduced some years ago. The workers argued that WCM goes at the expense of health and safety, and frustrates taking days-off. Moreover, it was argued that CNH was using temporary unemployment as a cheap form of flexibility. Negotiations between unions and management resulted in extra staff for the three departments at stake.
For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.