Skills ratings and labor in the automobile industry

Abstract

In this article, an analysis is made of the structure of the skills of workers in two automobile plants in Mexico -one being of the traditional type, geared to the domestic market, and the other, a modern one, devoted to exports- for the purpose of establishing an empirical contrast in the debate over Whether workers lose decision-making abilities regarding their own work process. The author operates under the assumption that the phenomenon of automation does not necessarily involve a process of deskilling; on the contrary, it entails a change in skills and in their segmentation. The statistical tools used are log-linear models to corroborate the validity of the hypotheses porposed. Among the conclusions reached are the following: the organizational structures of the two plants are different; in te automated firm, there are modifications in the policies on promotion of workers, which are based on the worker's training rather than on his years of experience, as is the case in the traditional plant; that is to say, the criterion of efficiency becomes most relevant. These changes contribute to the centralization of control over the workers, but this control has little to do with training per se, understood as preparation for a particular occupation or trade. With the transformations implied by automation, workers are not losing their ability to make decisions regarding the way in which they work; in fact, what they are losing, according to the findings of these models, is leverage in the negotiation of labor policies.