Travail et identités : la portée de l’impératif technologique. Une étude de cas

La dynamique de transformation de l’organisation du travail dans un contexte de changements technologiques et organisationnels dans une organisation industrielle de haute technologie a conduit à la fragmentation de la communauté technicienne et à la refonte de son identité professionnelle historique. Cette dynamique n’apparaît pas comme le résultat d’un quelconque déterminisme technologique. Les changements technologiques ont été, en dernière instance, un enjeu stratégique autour duquel se sont cristallisés les rapports de force dans l’organisation. Ils ont fait l’objet d’une instrumentalisation sur laquelle se sont appuyées les instances de l’entreprise pour légitimer leurs choix stratégiques en matière d’organisation du travail.The goal of this research is to study the impacts of technological changes on the professional identity of a specific category of workers: technicians. This research is based on a case study of a major high-tech organization working in the telecommunications sector. This group of “technical workers” establishes itself both as a key social actor and also as a professional category weakened by a deep identity malaise.This malaise itself can be attributed to its own specific social history and to the recent technological changes that have had a major impact on the production structures of its “natural” activity space. The study, carried out in a factory in a suburb west of Montreal, started just after the beginning of a complex process of technological and organizational change. The study has a dual goal. The first goal is to understand the dynamics of change brought about by these transformations, which have led to a new distribution of qualification spaces and a redefinition of negotiation powers for the members of the community. A second goal is to analyse the mechanisms which were in place for the remaking of the technician position and which make up the basis for the reconstruction of her social and professional identity. It is the deconstruction of this process which lies at the basis of this research which also set out to question the explanatory impact of the controversial notion of technological determinism as related to the recent transformations which have affected industrial work. The analysis model calls on three notions. The first notion is that the dynamics of the social work space within the enterprise set up a transformation process that leads to a structuring of new disqualification and requalification spaces. The second is that these dynamics are not the result of technological change alone; other factors much be taken into consideration in the redefinition of the technician’s identify and function. The third notion establishes a structural relation, of cause and effect, between the transformation process of the qualification spaces, their respective zones of uncertainty, and the technician identity through its technical, professional, and social components.The case study of this work sets up a constructivist and inductive approach, which takes the form of a long-term study, based on direct observation, personal conversations, and use of the organization’s documentary sources.The research results bring out two major phenomena. The first is the homogenization of the production space. The research is presented in two parts: first the bringing together of manufacturing operations into a single ad hoc space linked to the function rather than the product but in line with the same methods of task distribution; and thereafter, the definition of identical tasks, with the constraint of operation automation and equipment computerization. The second phenomenon is that of the fragmentation of the technician community. This is based on a transversal fracture of the technical population as a socioprofessional community and on the division of the technician’s function. The result of this phenomenon has been the disappearance of the largest of the sub-groups which previously made up the technician collective and which defined professional and collective identities; and the reconstitution of the community around two differentiated components: production technicians, and “specialized” technicians. The first group is by far the largest and includes, from this point in time on, operator technicians who have been greatly disqualified. Our results associate the second group with a redefined identify as a technician, a new collective group characterized by the appropriation of power spaces and technical means of authority, all of this to the detriment of both technical support (engineering) and hierarchical support (management).Each group draws its resources from the same formerly homogenous population for which the enterprise’s social space allowed a “long maturation period”—from the 1960’s—and an identity affirmation based on professional function and on a technical mastery which were institutionally recognized in the industrial space. This global transformation dynamic also led to the restructuration of the organization’s professional and social system.The results show that technological changes did not play an exclusive or overly developed role. The determinism attributed to the changes is, all things considered, relative when these are part of a complex dynamic with which other factors are associated, among which the enterprise’s strategy as an actor plays a decisive role. This is not because this role is more or less decisive than the dynamic stemming from technological changes, but rather because the former acts as a catalyst creating the conditions favourable to such an action. The technological changes appear, in the final analysis, as a strategic issue around which the power relations between different actors crystallized, particularly between technicians and leadership. Parallel to the irrefutable impacts of the “technical logic”, other strategic issues contributed to creating the social conditions for the institutional and collective action. The conduct and strategy of the leaders within the business are evident in a decisive manner at the very source of the main social transformations brought into focus by this study.This transformation dynamic cannot be seen as the sole result of some technological determinism, or of an unavoidable logic over which actors have no control. Research shows that technological changes are the focus of an instrumentalization as a contextual platform which leaders use as a basis to legitimize their strategic choices in the field of work organization.La dinámica de transformación de la organización del trabajo en un contexto de cambio tecnológico y organizacional, en una organización industrial de alta tecnología, ha conducido a la fragmentación de la comunidad de trabajadores tecnicos y a recomponer su identidad profesional histórica. Los cambios tecnológicos han sido, en última instancia, un desafío estratégico alrededor del cual se han cristalizado las correlaciones de fuerza en la organización. Esto ha sido objeto de una instrumentalización sobre la cual se apoyan las instancias empresariales para legitimar sus opciones estratégicas en materia de organización del trabajo

Territoires et migrations du travail à l’épreuve des chaînes de valeur régionalisées des entreprises : le cas de l’industrie agroalimentaire au Québec

Introduction Cette communication livre les résultats d’une recherche consacrée aux impacts économiques, sociaux et territoriaux du recours accéléré, ces quinze dernières années, au travail migrant temporaire par l’industrie de transformation agroalimentaire au Québec. Quel bilan dresser de ce phénomène au Québec et de ses impacts différenciés sur le plan territorial et sur le développement local ? Dans quelle mesure la reconfiguration à tendance monopolistique de l’industrie agroalimentaire –..

L’action internationale des organisations syndicales québécoises

Cet article présente les résultats d’une recherche qualitative sur les activités internationales des deux plus importantes organisations syndicales québécoises (FTQ, CSN) et de leurs syndicats affiliés. Son modèle d’analyse articule trois dimensions emblématiques de l’action syndicale internationale : les structures et les dispositifs organisationnels; les modes de représentation et de coopération syndicales; les stratégies de «solidarité internationale». Ces activités sont portées dans chaque centrale par une logique et une logistique distinctes. Leurs projets internationaux se sont multipliés, mais les structures sont demeurées inamovibles. Jusque-là ces organisations ont toujours fait «cavalier seul». Quel bilan en dresser aujourd’hui? Les résultats de cette étude livrent des réponses nuancées et parfois inattendues. Ces organisations déploient des activités internationales qui démontrent leur engagement résolu en matière d’action internationale et de… développement international. Les enjeux du travail et de sa régulation internationale y sont peu couverts. Et pour cause. Les logiques de financement conduisent les organisations syndicales à intégrer dans leurs projets les critères des bailleurs de fonds, des organismes d’État priorisant leurs propres orientations politiques en développement international, d’où les difficultés pour les syndicats à faire converger leurs préoccupations, liées aux problématiques du travail, aux stratégies des entreprises et à l’action syndicale, avec celles de leurs sources de financement. Enfin, la «gestion» des activités internationales semble cristalliser un déficit de démocratie interne pour lequel est examinée une hypothèse explicative : la prédominance exercée par les exécutifs sur ces activités grâce à l’intermédiation des cadres salariés. Et-ce à dire que cette hypothèse doive être systématisée aux autres sphères d’activités syndicales? La question demeure entière.The results of a qualitative study on the international activities of the two largest Quebec labour unions (FTQ, CSN) and their affiliates are presented. One of the goals is to examine the impact of the founding of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in 2006 on those activities. The analysis model uses three dimensions of international union action: organizational structures and measures; union representation and cooperation methods; and international solidarity strategies. In each union, the foregoing activities are undergirded by distinct patterns and logistics. Although the unions have multiplied their international initiatives, their structures have remained immovable. To what extent have the unions, which had been functioning independently, been influenced by the consensus adopted by the ITUC? How do matters stand today? This study yields qualified and sometimes unexpected answers. The unions carry out international activities that demonstrate their absolute commitment to international action and development, yet pay scant attention to labour and international regulation issues. And for good reason: funding scenarios dictate that union initiatives take into account the criteria set forth by financial backers and government organizations that have their own political strategies for international development. This fact makes it difficult for unions to converge their concerns, primarily labour issues, corporate strategies and union action, with those of their funding sources. Lastly, as “management” of international activities seems to have crystallized the deficit in union democracy, a hypothesis is posited whereby the executive’s predominant influence on international activities is brought about by management intervention. Can this hypothesis be applied systematically to other spheres of union activity? This question remains to be resolved

Zones grises du travail au Nord et au Sud : dynamique de globalisation ou logiques locales ?

Introduction Ce numéro thématique est consacré à la notion de « zone grise du travail » conçue comme un outil d’analyse et de comparaison des transformations des relations d’emploi et des mondes professionnels. Cette notion renvoie à la multiplicité et à l’hétérogénéité des relations d’emploi où les rapports employés/employeurs devenus complexes, parfois illisibles, ont changé de nature dans de nombreux espaces du travail en ce sens qu’ils se sont émancipés des formes traditionnelles de régul..

Zones grises du travail au Nord et au Sud : dynamique de globalisation ou logiques locales ?

Introduction Ce numéro thématique est consacré à la notion de « zone grise du travail » conçue comme un outil d’analyse et de comparaison des transformations des relations d’emploi et des mondes professionnels. Cette notion renvoie à la multiplicité et à l’hétérogénéité des relations d’emploi où les rapports employés/employeurs devenus complexes, parfois illisibles, ont changé de nature dans de nombreux espaces du travail en ce sens qu’ils se sont émancipés des formes traditionnelles de régul..