In Search of Competitive Efficiency: Labour Process Flexibility in Canadian Newsprint Mills

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Abstract
This paper focuses on the strategies for production and work reorganization pursued in the Canadian newsprint industry during the 1990s. Many newsprint mill managers view new pulping technologies and increased labour process flexibility as the important keys to success in their never‐ending quest to remain competitive in the U.S. market. These strategies are discussed in the context of two underlying themes: the nature of the particular competitive pressures faced by Canadian newsprint producers in the early 1990s and the specific nature of the labour process in newsprint mills. Evidence points to the central importance of achieving functional labour flexibility in newsprint mills and to the fact that numerical labour flexibility is not a viable strategy, given the continuous‐process nature of the industry.The Economics of Production, Technological Change, and Cost Competitiveness in the Newsprint IndustryWork Practices and Labour Conventions in the Newsprint IndustryFlexibility and the Quest for Competitive Efficiency in Canadian Newsprint Mills