Global Management, Local Labour

Global Management, Local Labour

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Global Management, Local Labour Turkish Workers and Modern Industry Theo Nichols and Nadir Sugur

Theo Nichols and Nadir Sugur 2004 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004 978-1-4039-1750-8 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-51341-3 ISBN 978-0-230-50457-8 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230504578 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nichols, Theo. Global management, local labour : Turkish workers and modern industry / Theo Nichols and Nadir Sugur. p. cm Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-1-349-51341-3 1. Labor Turkey. 2. Working class Turkey. 3. Industrial relations Turkey. 4. Industrial management Turkey 5. Industries Turkey Case studies. 6. Globalization Economic aspects Turkey. I. Title: Global management, local labor. II. Sugur, Nadir. III. Title. HD8656.5.A5N53 2004 331.09561 dc22 2003064651 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04

Contents List of Tables, Figures and Boxes Acknowledgements vi viii Introduction 1 Part I Hello to the Factory 23 1 A General Account 25 Part II Specificities Gender and Ethnicity 43 2 Women Workers in Textiles 45 3 Muhacir Bulgarians 59 Part III The World of TQM 77 4 Management and its Practices 79 5 TQM from Above 94 6 The View from Below 121 Part IV Trade Unionism 141 7 State, Law and Trade Unionism 143 8 Union Autocracy, Mechanisms and Contradictions 165 Part V Signs of Change 183 9 Modernity and Younger Workers 185 10 The Future of Workers in the Modern Sector 201 Bibliography 207 Index 217 v

List of Tables, Figures and Boxes Tables 1.1 Good job for someone like me 29 1.2 Satisfaction with physical working conditions 38 1.3 Indicators of physical discomfort at work: reporting physical discomfort for half the time or more in the last month 39 3.1 Earners in Turkish and Muhacir Bulgarian households 69 3.2 How they got present job: Turks and Muhacir Bulgarians 71 3.3 (a) Education of Turks and Muhacir Bulgarians 72 (b) Education of Turks and Muhacir Bulgarians Women only 72 4.1 Managers level of education, by industry 82 4.2 Fathers occupation of managers, by industry 82 4.3 Some age-related social characteristics of managers 83 4.4 Managers familiarity with management methods 88 4.5 Managers sources of knowledge about management methods 90 4.6 Workers familiarity with management methods 91 5.1 Managers views on particular problems with Turkish workers 99 5.2 Workers views on particular problems with managers in Turkey 101 5.3 Managers job training in the last 12 months, by industry 108 5.4 Duration of workers job training in the last 12 months, by industry 109 5.5 Content of courses attended by workers in the last 12 months 110 5.6 Quality circles and their characteristics, by plant 115 5.7 What would you do if you found a way to do your job that was easier or faster than the specified way? 119 6.1 BoluWG and BursaText2 compared to other plants on various criteria 126 6.2 Changes over the last five years 132 8.1 Workers evaluations of management and trade union 168 8.2 Source of support for workers in case of grievance 169 9.1 Social characteristics of workers, by age 187 vi

List of Tables, Figures and Boxes vii 9.2 Workers satisfaction with physical working conditions, by age 188 9.3 Satisfaction with pay, by age 190 9.4 Good job for someone like me, by age 191 9.5 Perceived job influence over various aspects of work, by age 191 9.6 How workers describe relations between management and employees, by age 192 9.7 Workers evaluation of trade union and management, by age 193 9.8 Aspects of support for management, by age 194 9.9 Descriptions of self, by age 196 9.10 Whether workers would like their sons/daughters to do this job, by age 197 Figures 1.1 Ideal typical corporate sector advantages 33 1.2 Company brochure for employees 37 4.1 The seven plants, level of technology and modern management 92 6.1 The seven plants and climate percentage good and very good 125 7.1 Strikes by Türk-Is and DISK 1970 80 148 7.2 (a) Real non-agricultural wages in Turkey 1970 79 152 (b) Real non-agricultural wages in Turkey 1980 89 152 7.3 (a) Strikes 1984 2001 155 (b) Workers on strike 1984 2001 155 (c) Days lost by strikes 1984 2001 155 7.4 Minimum wage and wage in 500 largest enterprises 1987 2001 156 Boxes 2.1 (a) Descriptions of self Men 56 (b) Descriptions of self Women 57

Acknowledgements Our thanks are due to Erol Kahveci, especially for his contribution to the initial design of the project on which this book is based and for reading it in draft; to Erol Demir for his contribution to the interviews conducted in white goods and car plants and for his work on imputing quantitative data; to Cevat Tasiran for his contribution to the analysis of age-related differences and his knowledge of Turkish political economy; and not least to Serap Sugur for her interviewing in textiles and an all-round contribution to what is written here on textiles and women. At various points we have benefited from the help of Fatih Gungor, most especially with reference (and references) to trade unions, and of Engin Yildirim. Special thanks are due to Ufuk Aydin for his valuable help with respect to Turkish Labour Law. Other Turkish academics who spared us their time and helped in various ways include Sencer Ayata, Hacer Ansal, Surhan Cam, Lale Duruiz, Veysel Bozkurt, Tanel Demirel and Mehmet Ecevit. In no case of course do they have any responsibility for what we have written. We are also indebted to Engin Atac, Rector of Anadolu University, for his support of Nadir Sugur during the project that led to this book and to the British Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for financial support received under Award R000237766. We owe a great deal to the officials of Chambers of Commerce for their guidance and information about Istanbul, Izmit and Bursa, and to the trade unionists and members of employers organisations we have interviewed. Our greatest debt is clearly to the 700 or so workers and managers upon whom the study is primarily based. Partial or preliminary versions of some of the material have been published in academic journals. Chapters in Part II draw upon Nichols, Sugur, and Sugur (2003) Muhacir Bulgarian workers in Turkey: their relation to management and fellow workers in the formal employment sector, Middle Eastern Studies, 39(2). Chapters in Part III are prefigured in Nichols, Sugur and Demir (2002a) Globalised management and local labour: the case of the white goods industry in Turkey, Industrial Relations Journal, 33(1). Chapters in Parts IV and V had their origin in viii

Acknowledgements ix Nichols et al. (2002b). Beyond cheap labour: trade unions and development in the Turkish metal industry, The Sociological Review, 50(1) and Nichols, Sugur and Tasiran (2003) Signs of change in Turkey s working class: workers age-related perceptions in the modern manufacturing sector, British Journal of Sociology, 54(4).