Arts, Faculty of
Geography, Department of
DSpace
UBCV
Stanton, Michelle
Master of Arts - MA
University of British Columbia
During the last decade, industrial restructuring has generated significant and enduring changes in the social and economic organisation of capitalist accumulation. Such developments have stimulated vigorous discussion in the industrial geography literature around a number of controversial questions. At issue is the precise nature of the currently emerging social and economic formation. To inform such debates, studies of restructuring in specific industries and regions are required. To this end, this thesis examines the impact of restructuring in B.C.'s forest industry. With reference to Chemainus, a resource town on the east coast of Vancouver Island, and the MacMillan Bloedel sawmill located there, I analyse forest industry restructuring from a French Regulationist perspective (following the work of Aglietta, 1979, Lipietz, 1986, 1987, Leborgne and Lipietz, 1988, among others). Like much of the industrial restructuring literature, French Regulationism is andro-centric and concerned only with social relations in the workplace, thus failing to account for the more general set of processes enabling working class reproduction in the household. To rectify this deficiency, I attempt to reformulate French Regulationism to include a discussion of two processes which determine the nature and means of this broader social reproduction: participation in the informal sector and patriarchy. These processes are discussed because they provide crucial insights into both social and gender relations and thereby enable a fuller understanding of the post-recession, "flexible" regime of capitalist accumulation. I assess Chemainus' restructured economy with reference to three developments: the significant growth in the amount of informal work performed by the town's working population; the recomposition of the industrial workforce into a "skill-flexible core" and a "time-flexible periphery" (Atkinson, 1985, Jessop et al, 1987); and the development of "symbolic capital" as a circuit of capitalist accumulation (after Harvey, 1987). These three developments followed the closure of MacMillan Bloedel’s old Chemainus sawmill (an event which precipitated immediate mass unemployment in the community), and the construction of a replacement mill. The result was the restructuring of Chemainus' labour market, and the consequent decline in opportunities for "family wage earning" for men as "flexible technology" was adopted in the new sawmill. Meanwhile, opportunities for peripheral, non-unionised employment for both men and women also increased. Despite the greater labour force participation of women, and the demise of the conventional "male breadwinner-housewife" division of labour, women retain responsibility for reproduction tasks such as domestic work and child-care. This is due to the persistence of patriarchal norms which require women to undertake a "double day" of work in the flexible regime. Overall, the economic realities of flexible accumulation in resource communities such as Chemainus, are undermining the ability of the peripheral workforce to reproduce itself and its labour power. Working class interests are fragmented between core and peripheral workers, and the labour market is stratified along lines other than current gender and class-based divisions.
S O C I A L A N D E C O N O M I C R E S T R U C T U R I N G I N T H E F O R E S T P R O D U C T S S E C T O R : A C A S E S T U D Y O F C H E M A I N U S , B R I T I S H C O L U M B I A . By M I C H E L L E S T A N T O N Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in Geography, University of Wales, Swansea, Wales, 1987. A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of Geography) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 1989 © Michelle Stanton, 1989 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. 1 further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of €^&<S-gA^ VOf The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date f 0 ° l DE-6 (2/88) i i ABSTRACT During the last decade, industrial restructuring has generated significant and enduring changes in the social and economic organisation of capitalist accumulation. Such developments have stimulated vigorous discussion in the industrial geography literature around a number of controversial questions. At issue is the precise nature of the currently emerging social and economic formation. To inform such debates, studies of restructuring in specific industries and regions are required. To this end, this thesis examines the impact of restructuring in B.C.'s forest industry. With reference to Chemainus, a resource town on the east coast of Vancouver Island, and the MacMillan Bloedel sawmill located there, I analyse forest industry restructuring from a French Regulationist perspective (following the work of Aglietta, 1979, Lipietz, 1986, 1987, Leborgne and Lipietz, 1988, among others). Like much of the industrial restructuring literature, French Regulationism is andro-centric and concerned only with social relations in the workplace, thus failing to account for the more general set of processes enabling working class reproduction in the household. To rectify this deficiency, I attempt to reformulate French Regulationism to include a discussion of two processes which determine the nature and means of this broader social reproduction: participation in the informal sector and patriarchy. These processes are discussed because they provide crucial insights into both social and gender relations and thereby enable a fuller understanding of the post-recession, "flexible" regime of capitalist accumulation. I assess Chemainus' restructured economy with reference to three developments: the significant growth in the amount of informal work performed by the town's working population; the recomposition of the industrial workforce into a "skill-flexible core" and a i i i "time-flexible periphery" (Atkinson, 1985, Jessop et al, 1987); and the development of "symbolic capital" as a circuit of capitalist accumulation (after Harvey, 1987). These three developments followed the closure of MacMillan BloedePs old Chemainus sawmill (an event which precipitated immediate mass unemployment in the community), and the construction of a replacement mill. The result was the restructuring of Chemainus' labour market, and the consequent decline in opportunities for "family wage earning" for men as "flexible technology" was adopted in the new sawmill. Meanwhile, opportunities for peripheral, non-unionised employment for both men and women also increased. Despite the greater labour force participation of women, and the demise of the conventional "male breadwinner-housewife" division of labour, women retain responsibility for reproduction tasks such as domestic work and child-care. This is due to the persistence of patriarchal norms which require women to undertake a "double day" of work in the flexible regime. Overall, the economic realities of flexible accumulation in resource communities such as Chemainus, are undermining the ability of the peripheral workforce to reproduce itself and its labour power. Working class interests are fragmented between core and peripheral workers, and the labour market is stratified along lines other than current gender and class-based divisions. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix INTRODUCTION 1 SECTION ONE: THEORETICAL THEMES 8 CHAPTER ONE; FRENCH REGULATIONISM 8 1.1. Introductory Remarks 8 1.2. Regime of Accumulation - Mode of Regulation 9 1.3. The Fordist Regime 12 1.4. Fordist Crisis 13 1.5. "Post-Fordist" Regime ? 17 1.6. Flexible Technology 20 1.7. Problems with French Regulationism 23 CHAPTER TWO: FRENCH REGULATIONISM AND GENDER RELATIONS 26 2.1. Introductory Remarks 26 2.2. Feminist Perspectives 27 2.2.1. Marxist Feminism 28 2.2.2. Radical Feminism 36 2.2.3. Capitalist Patriarchy 39 2.2.4. Autonomous, Interacting Systems of Oppression 41 2.3. Competitive Regime and Patriarchy 45 2.4. Monopolistic Regulation and Gender 51 2.5. Gender Divisions and Fordism 52 2.6. A "Feminised" French Regulationism 55 CHAPTER THREE: FRENCH REGULATIONISM AND THE INFORMAL SECTOR 57 3.1. Introductory Remarks 57 3.2. Modes of Service Provision 58 3.3. Why Study Non-Waged Labour ? 61 3.4. Informal Work and Capitalism 63 3.5. Informal Work and Economic Restructuring 66 3.6. Deficiencies of Informal Analytical Tools 70 SECTION TWO: EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION 73 CHAPTER FOUR: THE BRITISH COLUMBIA FOREST PRODUCTS SECTOR 73 4.1. Introductory Remarks 73 4.2. Why Study the Forest Products Sector ? 74 4.3. The Historical Development of the B.C. Forest Products Sector 76 4.4. The Forest Products Sector in the Fordist Regime 79 4.4.1. The Role of the Provincial Government 80 VI 4.4.2. Corporate Control of the Forest Products Sector 82 4.4.3. The Role of Organised Labour 85 4.5. Divisions of Labour in Resource Communities 88 4.5.1. Gender Divisions of Labour and the I.W.A. 89 4.5.2. Gender Divisions of Labour and Corporate Capitalism 90 CHAPTER FIVE: FLEXIBLE TECHNOLOGY AND THE FOREST PRODUCTS SECTOR 93 5.1. Introductory Remarks 93 5.2. Technology and the Coastal Forest Products Sector 94 5.3. Modernisation of the Chemainus sawmill 96 5.4. Market reorientation of the Chemainus processing facility 100 5.5. The labour force implications of flexible technology 107 5.6. Summary Remarks 118 CHAPTER SIX: SOCIAL REPRODUCTION AND RESTRUCTURING IN CHEMAINUS 120 6.1. Introductory Remarks 120 6.2. Resource Communities and Restructuring 121 6.3. Background to Study 123 6.4. Irregular Work 127 6.5. Communal Work 131 6.6. Self-Provisioning 132 6.7. The Formal Employment Strategies of Households 134 6.8. Employment Opportunities in the Flexible, Resource Economy 138 6.9. Housework 147 V l l 6.10. Summary 150 CONCLUSIONS 153 BIBLIOGRAPHY 159 APPENDIX 168 viii LIST OF TAB L E S Table 1: Earnings from MacMillan Bloedel operations and MacMillan Bloedel's net earnings 1979-1886 98 Table 2: Value of Lumber Shipments by Market 103 Table 3: Percentage distribution of Chemainus sawmill lumber sales by market 104 Table 4: Percentage sales of MacMillan Bloedel wood products by market 105 Table 5: Employment change in selected MacMillan Bloedel facilities in B.C. 109 Table 6: Summary of labour force activity in North Cowichan 1981 and 1986 143 Table 7: Employment activity and income by sex in North Cowichan, 1985 144 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: B.C. Lumber Production by Region 1945-87 101 Figure 2: Relationship between U.S. housing starts and B.C. lumber production 102 Figure 3: Formal employment status of sampled households, 1982 and 1988 135-136 ix A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S I am deeply grateful to Dr. Trevor Barnes, my supervisor, for providing support and encouragement throughout my graduate studies, especially his willingness to read and contribute ideas to several earlier drafts of my thesis. I am also very appreciative of the funding provided by him and Dr. Roger Hayter, who I also thank for being my second reader. The completion of this thesis was possible only with the assistance of numerous people associated with Chemainus. The I.W.A. (local 1-80) provided valuable access to their files, and several "public figures" kindly offered me their time and knowledge. Ken, Val and Lome made Chemainus a highly enjoyable experience, but most of all, I am deeply indebtted to my survey respondents for their cooperation and time, and their readiness to share some very personal insights and feelings. Very much appreciated are my "room-mates" for helping to relieve the pressure, by providing an alternative outlook on life, and a much needed source of distraction. Above all, I would like to thank Matthias Roth for his companionship, care and understanding, and finally, my family and Lorraine for always being there, in spirit if not in person. 1 INTRODUCTION The widespread reorganisation and relocation of industry during the late 1970s and early 1980s has generated considerable debate in the industrial geography literature. At issue is whether currently developing social and economic formations represent a fundamental break with those that preceded the recession, or are continuations of earlier forms of capitalist development. Most recently, this debate has been couched in terms of a transition from a "Fordist" era of capitalist organisation, (prevalent in the post-war period until the 1970s), to an era of "flexible" accumulation, variously termed Neo- or Post-Fordist. The relationship between Fordist and flexible regimes of capitalist accumulation, however, is a point of considerable controversy. There are at least two very different schools: firstly, the MIT school or "flexible specialisation" thesis, following the work of Piore and Sabel (1984), argues that new economic strategies of flexibility are fundamentally different from those that prevailed in the pre-crisis period. Although I do not adhere to the MIT school's interpretation, their work is nevertheless informative and I refer to it on several occasions. Secondly, the French Regulationist interpretation is based on the work of Aglietta (1979), Lipietz (1986, 1987), Leborgne and Lipietz (1988), among others. They suggest that despite substantial alterations in industrial form, the contemporary social and economic organisation remains based on the invariable "operating principles" of capitalism (Schoenberger, 1989, 105), which are unchanged since at least the time Marx wrote. In this thesis I adopt a French Regulationist perspective to discuss the restructuring of the B.C. coastal forest products sector since the early 1980s. Specifically, with reference to Chemainus, a B.C. resource community located on the east coast of Vancouver Island, and 2 to the Chemainus sawmill owned by the MacMillan Bloedel forest industry corporation, I address several aspects of economic restructuring as experienced by resource dependent communities. I suggest that despite changes in the organisation of production, and sectoral changes in the economy, restructuring does not represent a radical break with past capitalist practices. Rather, capitalist accumulation remains based on Fordist principles despite significant organisational changes. The restructuring in the coastal forest products sector raises a number of questions. This thesis addresses itself to three of them: i) have current employment opportunities changed given the reorganisation of work and production by industry ? ii) has industrial restructuring generated greater participation in the informal sector ? iii) has the restructuring of the economy and employment altered conventional gender divisions of labour ? I will argue that although French Regulationism successfully tackles the first of these questions, it is unable to deal with the last two because it does not consider either the informal sector or gender relations. Like most mainstrean analyses of capitalism, French Regulationism focusses only on the "production sphere", primarily manufacturing, which predominantly employs men. But, as I hope to show in this thesis, to focus only on production relations provides only a partial understanding of capitalist accumulation and restructuring. My aim is to broaden the currently limited focus of French Regulationism to include explicitly, the role of gender relations and the informal sector in contributing to social reproduction. I will argue that a discussion of gender relations is necessary in order to understand how the division of labour between the home and workplace ensures the reproduction and 3 well-being of household members, thereby providing the necessary labour force for a regime. At present, French Regulationism investigates neither the processes which guarantee the maintenance and availability of labour to participate in the workforce, nor the conventional gender divisions of labour which are associated with reproducing an industrial labour force. Hence it is necessary to discuss the means by which work performed in the home and workplace often becomes very gender-specific. It is particularly important to analyse the social processes and norms whereby women are identified with the domestic sphere, and to assess women's role in relation to the capitalist economy. In resource communities, gender relations are particularly significant because economic restructuring has created growth in sectors of the economy which predominantly employ women, such as tourism and services. This has implications for the customary perception and experience of women primarily as "housewives" and mothers rather than wage earners. A discussion of the informal sector is necessary because the working population may undertake work in the household, or in other households. The informal sector comprises a range of work activities and constitutes an alternative means of social reproduction. The amount and type of informal work undertaken is subject to change depending on sectoral economic and employment restructuring, and is an issue particularly relevant to B.C. because opportunities in many small communities for non-forest industry employment are scarce. In the following discussion, these issues are pursued in greater detail, and I attempt to incorporate both gender and the informal sector into a French Regulationist interpretation of the capitalist economy. I suggest that the social values and norms which give rise to specific gender and work ideologies during a regime of accumulation are subject to change during periods of economic restructuring. Hence, the processes which enable social 4 reproduction in one regime may hot be the same in a different one. This claim is examined in relation to the transition from a Fordist to a flexible regime of accumulation. The issues introduced above are examined both theoretically and empirically. This is reflected in the structure of the thesis which comprises two sections: section one discusses at a theoretical level the three central themes of the thesis, French Regulationism, gender and the informal sector. In contrast, section two takes these three themes and fleshes them out empirically with reference to the restructuring of the Chemainus economy. The theoretical section comprises three chapters. In chapter one, I outline the French Regulationist school of thought. I discuss the development of a "Fordist" regime of capitalist accumulation, the generation of the "Fordist" crisis, and the rationale underlying the adoption of flexible production techniques in the last decade. In chapter two, I discuss the social and economic role of women in capitalist society, as portrayed from several feminist perspectives. I suggest that women's oppression cannot be understood solely in terms of capitalist accumulation, and that one must also consider the consequences of a social system of patriarchy.''" I attempt to reformulate French Regulationism to account for gender relations, and suggest that from this perspective, patriarchy and capitalism are two separate systems of oppression which have conjointly instituted gender inequality. I suggest that the gender divisions of labour which developed during industrialisation were based on pre-existing patriarchal relations, and acquired a specific form and utility during the post-war period which supported accumulation in the Fordist economy. Current economic restructuring, however, is creating circumstances in 1 Although I recognise the role of a social system of racism in generating additional social inequalities, a discussion of this particular phenomenon is beyond the scope of my study. 5 which gender relations may be restructured, and the relationship between capitalism and patriarchy renegotiated. In chapter three I discuss the informal sector. Forms of work other than formal waged employment may be a crucial component of household work strategies and contribute to the reproduction of the working class and the regime of accumulation. It is also important to establish whether the informal sector is an alternative means of making a living in the current flexible regime. In the second part of the thesis, I apply empirically these topics to restructuring in Chemainus. In chapter four, I briefly discuss the characteristics and historical development of B.C.'s coastal forest products sector. An understanding of the processes which gave rise to the industry's "Fordist", mass production structure is important to comprehend the implications of flexible accumulation at the local level. I discuss the role of corporate capitalism, the provincial government, and the forestry workers' union, the International Woodworkers of America (I.W.A.), (Canada), in establishing the gender divisions of labour prevalent in resource communities which have grown up around Fordist industries. In chapter five, I discuss the transition of the Chemainus sawmill from a Fordist to a flexible production facility. I outline the broader economic conditions underlying this transition and the resulting changes in workplace organisation, focussing on the implications for the autonomy and organisational potential of labour. I suggest that production was reorganised because of a breakdown in the Fordist regulation of labour. Nevertheless, despite the adoption of flexible technology and apparently extensive changes in the work process, the rationale for production in the British Columbia forest products sector is argued to remain based on Fordist principles. 6 In the final chapter, I present the results of an interview survey carried out in Chemainus, and address the issues of gender and the informal sector. Because flexible technology requires a smaller workforce than in the Fordist mode of production, it is imperative to examine the "getting by" strategies adopted by the households of workers displaced by flexible production. I examine whether the demise of a Fordist industrial workforce generates dependence on informal work strategies, and changes in the ability of women to generate income. In this way, I attempt to establish the implications of economic restructuring for conventional gender divisions of labour, and patriarchal norms which are widespread throughout resource communities. I also discuss the labour market and the broader social implications of the transition to a flexible regime of accumulation in communities dependent on forest industry employment. I suggest that sectoral changes in the economy associated with the flexible regime are changing the type of labour force participation of men and women. Both the "peripheral" employment of men and the labour force participation of women have increased. These trends mean there are a greater number of households with two wage earners, and have direct implications for the persistence of conventional gender ideology, and the divisions of labour associated with the Fordist regime. I argue that the situation developing in Chemainus is broadly consistent with the notion that the workforce in the flexible regime comprises a "skill-flexible" core and a "time-flexible" periphery (after Atkinson, 1985, Jessop et al, 1987). Furthermore, in contrast to the Fordist regime, which is primarily comprised of "industrial capital", the flexible regime is characterised by the development of "symbolic capital" (Harvey, 1987), a so-called second circuit of capitalist accumulation. The employment opportunities associated with symbolic capital are also peripheral and predominantly employ women. 2 For the sake of brevity, it is sufficient to define peripheral employment as employment in non-unionised production facilities which are often relatively low-paying, without benefits, insecure, and often part-time or casual. The notion of a peripheral workforce and the implications of peripheralisation are drawn out in the ensuing chapters. 7 The overall aim of the thesis is to demonstrate that the social and economic changes associated with a regime of flexible accumulation have profound implications for the employment experience and organisational ability of the working class, both men and women. Although social relations remain based on Fordist work principles and do not transcend the goal of capitalist accumulation, the application of flexible production techniques does create greater segmentation and differentation within the working class, and increases their level of exploitation. If the transition from Fordism to flexible accumulation in the forest products sector is typical of the process in industry generally, the implications for a significant portion of the labour force are unsettling. 8 SECTION ONE CHAPTER 1 FRENCH REGULATIONISM 1.1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS The French Regulationists retain a Marxist interpretation of capitalist social and economic development, and conceptualise the historical development of capitalist economies as a series of "broad epochs" where each is defined by a predominant social and economic formation. The transition from one phase of capitalist development to another is marked by a crisis period, arising from the contradictions inherent in capitalist accumulation, that is, the conflict of interests between owners of capital and wage earners. To draw out the contradictory social, political and economic forces that generate crisis conditions, the French Regulationists conceive capitalist society as comprised of two structures: the regime of accumulation, based upon a particular ensemble of production sectors (Scott and Storper, 1987, 216), and an accompanying, means of social and political organisation called the mode of regulation. The mode of regulation provides the appropriate social framework within which capitalist accumulation is undertaken, for example, political relations, social norms, values and ideology. To better understand the relationship between the mode and regime of accumulation, I discuss in some detail, Lipietz's (1987) work, "Mirages and Miracles" as the most comprehensive formulation of French Regulationism to date. 9 1.2. REGIME OF ACCUMULATION - MODE OF REGULATION Lipietz describes the regime of accumulation as "the fairly long term stabilisation of the allocation of social production between consumption and accumulation" (Lipietz, 1987, 14). Implicit in this is "a certain correspondence between the transformation of the conditions of production and the transformation of the conditions of the reproduction of wage labour." (Lipietz, 1987, 14). An understanding of this relationship is derived from Marx's division of the economy into different sectors or "departments" of production based on the requirements of reproduction and accumulation. There are two departments. Department I is the capital goods sector, and Department II, the consumer goods sector. Both require inputs of capital and labour in order to ensure the production of surplus value, and the broader reproduction of society and the economy. To guarantee conditions for long term accumulation, two conditions must be met. Firstly, output from Department I must equal the demands for inputs of capital goods, otherwise a shortfall occcurs in the availability of capital goods for investment. Similarly, output from Department II must equal workers' consumption needs, otherwise real wage requirements may not be met. This implies that the development of the two departments is interdependent: the growth of one must be linked to the growth of the other. If not, there might be an excess (shortfall) of capital goods, or an excess (shortfall) of consumer goods, which would generate crisis. Only if these two requirements are fulfilled is the long term reproduction of the regime guaranteed. The broader implication is that not all regimes of accumulation are possible, but only those that meet these specific conditions. Because there is "no reason why all individual capitals should come peacefully together within a coherent schema of reproduction" (Lipietz, 1987, 14), there must be art approporiate social framework to ensure that they do. As suggested by Lipietz (1987): 10 the regime of accumulation must..be materialised in the shape of norms, habits, laws and regulating networks which ensure the unity of the process and which guarantee that its agents conform more or less to the schema of reproduction in their day to-day-behaviour and struggles (Both the economic struggle between capitalists and wage earners, and that between capitals) (Lipietz, 1987, 14). Thus, the mode of regulation is "the set of internalised rules and social procedures which incorporate social elements into individual behaviour" (Lipietz, 1987, 15). Scott (1988) provides an even more explicit account of the mode of regulation, describing it as: a web of complementary social phenomena (that) comes into being alongside the regime of accumulation as a means of stabilising its operation through time. These phenomena consist of a multiplicitly of sociopolitical relations ranging from established patterns of consumption through private and public means of providing education, to governmental legislation (Scott, 1988, 172). We should note that the French Regulationist approach is not functionalist. As Lipietz writes: the emergence of a new regime of accumulation is not a pre-ordained part of capitalism's destiny...(n)or is the stabilisation of a mode of regulation an expression of the needs of a regime of accumulation...Regimes of accumulation and modes of regulation are chance discoveries made in the course of human struggles and if they are for a while successful, it is only because they are able to ensure a certain regularity and a certain permanence in social reproduction (Lipietz, 1987, 15). Lipietz suggests that the regime of accumulation is either primarily extensive or intensive. In an extensive regime, capitalist accumulation is a means of expanding the scale of production. An intensive regime, however, is marked by the further reorganisation of labour and capital, suggesting for example, the replacement of labour power with technology or the adoption of production techniques which intensify the productivity of labour. 11 Very generally in historical terms: the regime of accumulation which prevailed in the most advanced capitalist countries between the first industrial revolution and the First World War was primarily extensive, and centred upon the extended reproduction of means of production. Since the Second World War, in contrast, the dominant regime has been intensive and centred upon the growth of mass consumption (Lipietz, 1987, 33). The pre- and post- second world war eras are similarly differentiated in terms of their characteristic modes of regulation. Prior to world war two, the mode of regulation was a "competitive" one, in which output and wages were adjusted "a posteriori" to price movements, themselves a response to changes in demand (Lipietz, 1987, 34). In contrast, the post war period has been marked by a mode of regulation which operates to ensure an adequate demand for the products of Department II industries. Unlike the earlier period of accumulation, the rate of production and the level of consumption are linked by the development of a wage relation in which productivity, consumption and wages rise in equal proportions. This is a "monopolistic" mode of regulation in which increased productivity and consumption are incorporated "apriori" into the establishment of wage levels and profits. The changeover from a competitive to a monopolistic mode of regulation is rooted in industrial reorganisation strategies undertaken in the 1920s. During this decade, "Taylorist" forms of work organisation were adopted in North America, including Canada, and to some extent, in Europe. Taylor's principles of "scientific management" were developed still further with the adoption of Fordist techniques of production. As a result of these new forms of organising work, both labour productivity and industrial output increased rapidly. But because the mode of regulation was still competitive, "final demand (was unable) to keep pace with the rise in productivity" (Lipietz, 1987, 35), generating a 12 crisis of overproduction in the 1930s. This was subsequently resolved by Fordism, an intensive regime, to which I now turn. 1.3. THE FORDIST REGIME The Fordist regime of accumulation began developing in the 1920s and 1930s, reached maturity in the post-war period and remained in place until the late 1970s. During this regime the shortfall in demand for industrial goods that had occured prior to world war two was remedied by the development of a mode of regulation beginning in the 1950s, in which mass consumption became the social norm. This mature phase of capitalist accumulation was characterised by industrial mass production and the extensive, individualised ownership and consumption of commodities. The matching of mass production and mass consumption was regulated by "a bargain between big business and big labour to keep wages and productivity high, along with support from macroeconomic and labour market policies which ensured that this relationship was maintained as a stable one" (Gertler, 1988b, 421). In terms of industrial output the production of a large volume of goods generated substantial economies of scale, thereby reducing per unit costs of production. Founded on Taylorist work principles, the Fordist regime sought to maximise accumulation by increasing labour productivity and controlling labour. Both these objectives were met by employing the semi-automatic assembly line. On the one hand, productivity is maintained because the rate of production is maximised and the amount of downtime (inactive use of machinery due to work stoppages or inefficiency) is minimised. On the other hand, labour is controlled because assembly line production restrains the autonomy of labour, and controls and maximises workers' productivity. A process of deskiiling occurs in which workers' skills and knowledge are systemically "incorporated into an automatic system, 13 with machines dictating working methods to workers whose initiative has been expropriated" (Lipietz, 1987, 35).^ The workforce is thus predominantly composed of large numbers of un- or semi-skilled employees performing tasks that are typically broken down and fragmented into routinised, deskilled components. A minority of highly-skilled workers, however, are also employed to maintain machinery. The Fordist regime broadly comprised three major players: capitalists, labour, and the state. The activities of the three were linked together by the Fordist wage relation. As such, the wage relation was the central feature of the Fordist regime because it constituted the link between the regime and mode of regulation. In the Fordist mode of regulation, the state pursued Keynesian economic, and welfare statist policies ensuring the ability of workers to consume. In addition, a collective bargain between capitalists and workers allowed organised labour to offer "concessions to management over production strategies in exchange for guaranteed shares in productivity gains" (Scott, 1988, 173). The growth of real wages was harmonised with productivity gains, a process that ensured the compatibility of productivity gains and final demand for standardised consumer goods (Albertsen, 1988, 344). 1.4. FORDIST CRISIS Since the late 1970s the Fordist regime of capitalist accumulation has been in crisis. One popular explanation is given by the MIT school. Although I do not support their thesis, it is nevertheless useful to refer briefly to their argument and indicate its deficiencies. 3 The French Regulationist interpretation of technological change is similar to that outlined by Braverman (1974). After Marx, Braverman discusses the nature and role of technology in contributing to capitalist accumulation. He distinguishes between dead and living labour, the former being labour which is embodied in the instruments of production and the latter, human labour power. In capitalist social relations, dead labour (fixed capital) is appropriated by the owners of capital who aim to have dead labour dominate the living. 14 The MIT school suggests that economic restructuring is a response to the saturation of mass markets for standardised goods, and the complimentary growth in demand for specialised and higher quality products. The rigidity of mass production technology simply cannot meet such differentiated demands with prevailing production methods, thereby necessitating more flexible production technology. Although the composition of markets has undoubtedly changed since the recession, Piore and Sabel do not discuss the processes underlying consumption change. Pollert (1988) takes issue with Piore and Sabel's glorification of autonomonous changes in consumption patterns, suggesting that the creation of demand for greater product diversification is a marketing strategy rather than evidence of a declining mass market: The capturing of markets by the deliberate cultivation of finely-tuned consumer tastes naturally becomes more urgent as competition intensifies, but this is not evidence of a decline, but of a more sophisticated manipulation of the mass market (Pollert, 1988, 60). Authors such as Harvey (1987, 1988) and Pollert (1988) dismiss Piore and Sabel's account of economic restructuring because it is based on a "post-industrial vision of a radical historical cleavage and branching point in social development" (Pollert, 1988, 44), which ultimately "rejects an analysis of capitalism as a system based on contradictory class interests" (Pollert, 1988, 68), and is strongly normative. In contrast, the French Regulationists argue that the crisis was rooted in class conflict. They suggest that although Fordist production relations were designed to restrain overt class antagonism, a crisis nonetheless occured because of the unrestrainable contradictions inherent in the Fordist mode of production and regulation. In particular, "the crisis in Fordism is first of all the crisis of a mode of labour organisation (which) is expressed above all in the intensification of class struggles at the point of production" (Aglietta, 1979, 162). 15 At the root of Fordism's contradictions is its large labour force requirement. Mass production, assembly line techniques are highly-labour intensive and generate high rates of employment. Initially, it was beneficial to capital to have a significantly high proportion of the working population actively employed because substantial purchasing power was generated which guaranteed mass consumption. The institution of collective bargaining between capitalists and organised labour was similarly useful; workers earning a reasonable wage rather than a minimal one were better able to purchase the products of industry. Furthermore, as long as real wages, productivity, and prices were fixed in relation to each other, the owners of capital were guaranteed substantial rates of accumulation. Until the late 1970s, the mode and regime of Fordism worked together to enable capitalist accumulation to proceed rapidly. In the 1970s, however, "the very conditions which had originally supported the expansion of the model now turned into limits to its further development" (Albertsen, 1988, 346). The development of a large, organised labour force which had once guaranteed consumption now began to work against and undermine capitalist accumulation. During the post-war boom (1950-1970), a period of prolonged and rapid expansion and investment, the inflated demand for labour and the nature of work organisation allowed the workforce to gain substantial shopfloor control and demand an increasing share of surplus value. The routinised and deskilled nature of many work pocesses had unified workers "in an overall struggle against their conditions of labour" (Aglietta, 1979, 121). The confrontation between unions and management led to "rising wages, rigidification of work rules and abridgement of management's power to reorganise production processes in response to changing economic circumstances" (Scott and Storper, 1987, 225). In addition, the technical limits of expansion had been reached in the capital goods department 16 (Aglietta, 1979, 162). The expansion of labour productivity as a means of increasing surplus value was therefore no longer possible within the Fordist technological paradigm. The Fordist mode of production had reached both its social and technical limits of expansion. In response to such conditions, the owners of capital attempted to ameliorate accumulation in various ways. One strategy involved increasing the prices of consumer products, and this resulted in a fall in real wages from the mid-1970s onward. Another response was to move production offshore to cheaper sources of non-unionised labour. Ironically, in the long run, these solutions served only to reinforce capital's problems. Rising domestic unemployment and rising prices during the 1970s resulted in reduced purchasing power and declining markets, and in host countries, the advantages of low wages were offset by the inability of labour to purchase the products of industrj'. For, although the production of goods offshore made them relatively cheaper to purchase in the home country's market, higher unemployment and greater international competition dampened demand. The notion that the crisis was a "crisis in the reproduction of the wage relation..rooted in the organisation of the labour process" (Aglietta, 1979, 165), suggests that the collapse of the Fordist system was an inevitable occurence. Attacks on consumer purchasing power strained the wage relation which was so central to the Fordist regime. Because consumption was inextricably linked with productivity through the wage relation, a crisis in the labour process in which capitalists were unable to reign in the demands of labour, led to the demise of mass consumption and undermined accumulation. Nevertheless, the coincidence of a range of contingent factors also hastened the demise of the regime and aggravated accumulation difficulties, particularly in terms of declines in demand for consumer durables produced in western, industrialised countries. For example, the "(r)ise 17 of Japan on the international scene has irrevocably altered the face of capitalism" (Storper, 1987 in Schoenberger, 1989, 106). Along with competition from the newly industrialising countries for limited and increasingly saturated markets a steep decline in the profitability and scale of western industrial activity inevitably occured. In order to' survive the crisis and remain competitive, industrial capitalists reorganised work and production to remedy the deficiencies in Fordist regulation. Major changes in the mode of regulation eased the transition to a new regime of accumulation, and faciliated the regulation of labour. Specifically, the dismantling of Keynesian welfare-statism and the deepening privatisation of social life (Scott, 1988, 175), has generated an emphasis on the recognition of individual well-being at the expense of collective interests. The conditions created thus constitute the systematic removal of Fordist institutions which had allowed the formation of a powerful mass proletariat. 1.5. "POST"-FORDIST REGIME ? The characteristics of the post-crisis regime are not explicitly addressed by the French Regulationists but have been widely discussed in the geographical literature. There remains, however, considerable disagreement over the nature of the regime and the significance of its major economic characteristics. For many, though, the fundamental defining characteristic of the new regime is its flexibility: "flexibility with respect to labour processes, labour markets, products and patterns of consumption" (Harvey, 1987, 260), and production techniques, machinery and equipment. Flexible means of production organisation are being adopted to create a "flexible" workforce, and to overcome the output limitations of Fordist production technology. 18 In terms of a flexible workforce, flexible production is segmenting the labour force (both blue and white collar), into a relatively small "skill-flexible" core, and a "time-flexible" periphery. On the shop-floor, the former retain the advantages of collective bargaining whereas the latter are denied access to workplace and marketplace rights.'* Flexible production techniques are restructuring the industrial workforce and undermining the autonomy and unity of organised labour that developed in the Fordist regime. The differentiation of tasks and employment positions is therefore generating internal stratification within the working class and undermining collective interests. Secondly, dependence on the working class for mass consumption is being eroded. Whereas the Fordist regime was centred on the mass consumption of consumer durables by as large a proportion of the working population as possible, "(t)he Post-Fordist mode of accumulation places a lower value on mass individual and collective consumption and creates pressures for a more differentiated production" (Jessop et al, 1987, 112). Instead of standardised goods, industries are manufacturing a greater variety of products which meet the demands of specialised and niche markets. The differentiation of production is possible because the flexibility of new production systems allows a wider range of goods to be manufactured. The labour force and marketplace requirements of flexible production are thus creating greater social polarisation in which higher income groups are targetted as major markets due to their greater purchasing power. ^ In contrast to the Fordist regime whence the 4 The precise nature and implications of a core and peripheral workforce are drawn out in the forthcoming chapters. 5 Schoenberger (1988), for example, suggests "the social composition of markets is changing...former mass consumers are becoming relatively poorer and thus less interesting as a market compared with upper income strata, who, though numerically small, are economically weighty" (Schoenberger, 1988, 103). See also Sassen Koob (1986) for a discussion of changes in consumption because of social polarisation. 19 exploitation of labour was possible because organised labour was willing "to give up its rights in the realm of production in return for enhanced rights in the marketplace" (Harvey, 1988, 102-3), capitalists appear, in the new regime, to be seeking to remove marketplace rights as well as workplace ones. In addition, the supposed erosion of mass markets is partly due to sectoral changes in the regime's dominant ensemble of industries. Flexible accumulation is found pre-eminently in three major industrial groupings: artisanal and design intensive industries, various high technology industries, and service functions (Scott, 1988, 175). The major consumers of the products and services provided by these sectors are not "mass consumers" but other industrial sectors, producer services, or higher status consumer groups. However, the impact of flexibility in traditional mass production industries should not be underestimated. Despite relative declines in their sectoral significance, traditional Fordist-based industries remain major economic sectors employing a substantial percentage of the industrial workforce. Hence it is important to understand the implications of the transition to a flexible regime for a former, mass production labour force. ^ Despite the contrary positions of the MIT school and the French Regulationists with respect to the nature of economic restructuring, the two schools broadly agree that the post-crisis industrial economy is characterised by "flexible" technology. Although I disagree with the MIT school's broader perspective, the school has generated much interesting literature on the issue of flexible technology which I will now examine. 6 The forest products sector, particularly lumber production, is an example of a traditional Fordist mass production industry. Although lumber is not a consumer durable as such, it is used in the housing market which is significant because home ownership was a central feature of working class mass consumption in the Fordist regime. Indeed, along with automobiles, housing was "the very foundation of mass consumption under the conditions of Fordism" (Aglietta, 1979, 163). 20 1.6. FLEXIBLE TECHNOLOGY At the heart of flexible technology is computer-numerically-controlled machinery. In contrast to Fordist technology which comprises long runs of standardised products using dedicated machinery, under a regime of flexibility versatile computerised equipment is used "to adapt equipment to the production of individual products through changes in the software without physical adjustment in the machinery itself (Piore, 1986, 158). Piore and Sabel suggest flexible technology operates most efficiently in small enterprises and for short production runs, a requirement that is met by those industries that are vertically disintegrated. Vertical disintegration means that production is fragmented into its constituent elements and undertaken by small, independent, though closely allied, companies. Extensive inter-firm linkages then develop, giving rise to specialised industrial districts and regional conglomerations comprising competitive and complementary small firms, interlinked by short term contracts. In contracting arrangements, the parent company treats suppliers as collaborates rather than subordinates, and the latter retain considerable autonomy (Piore and Sabel, 1984, 268). In addition, a range of inter-firm linkages involving activities such as distribution, marketing and the sharing of suppliers have been identified (eg. Cooke, 1988). Piore and Sabel portray flexible specialisation as a return to pre-industrial, artisanal, craft forms of production. In contrast to Fordism, flexible technology reskills labour, bringing to an end "the dominion of specialised machines over un- and semi-skilled workers". It restores "human control over the production process (and) machinery again is subordinated to the operator" (Piore and Sabel, 1984, 261). Despite the seductiveness of 21 such arguments, two facts are overlooked by Piore and Sabel. Firstly, the new technology is labour saving and its adoption creates substantial unemployment. Secondly, "the technology of small firms is not developed (over a period) of artisanal existence but is more likely acquired from the corporate organisational sector" (Solo, 1985, 833). Furthermore, large companies are more likely than small firms to have the financial resources necessary to invest in such equipment (Pollert, 1988, 61). Although subcontracting arrangments and vertical disintegration are undoubtedly widespread, their proliferation cannot therefore, be conflated with a return to artisanal production (Pollert, 1988, 58) The rationale underlying vertical disintegration is more accurately assessed by identifying some of the advantages of contracting out in terms of production relations and product differentiation. ^ For example, the fragmentation of the workforce into smaller groups, and its division among a number of different companies, means labour has fewer common interests, is less able to organise effectively, and faces reduced autonomy. In addition, workers in small companies frequently lack the protection and benefits of a union contract. The owners of capital are able to reduce labour costs while workers are guaranteed neither a full working week nor the security of long term employment. The workforce is "flexible" only because it is powerless to resist. Vertical disintegration also contributes to product differentiation in a number of ways. Small companies may produce specialised goods or components which cannot be economically produced in large volumes or require the demand of several contractors to render production economically viable. It is important to note, however, that vertical disintegration is not necessarily based on the adoption of flexible technology. For example, in the case of labour intensive operations which are unsuited to automation, homeworkers 7 See Holmes (1986) for a comprehensive analysis of the reasons for subcontracting. 22 may be employed. Such arrangements provide flexibility because workers can be easily laid-off and re-hired according to demand (Sassen-Koob, 1986). In contrast to the MIT school, the French Regulationists emphasise the utility of flexible technology to capitalists in exploiting labour (see Aglietta, 1979). Computer numerically controlled machine tools are able to "control and monitor their own operations" (Aglietta, 1979, 124), with the result that workers have no control over the production process or their pace of work. In terms of product differentiation, flexible machines are reprogrammable and can be rapidly changed between different operations, thereby reducing the downtime between production runs for different products (Gertler, 1988a, 3). Leborgne and Lipietz (1988) explain the difference between Fordist and flexible technology. In the classical Fordist model....the profitability of large rigid automatic machinery requires constant and long-run production of the same product, for mass markets. On the other hand, flexible techniques....also require continuous and long run utilisation, but not necessarily of exactly the same product....The profitable operation of a flexible plant is now possible with several short runs within a range of differentiated products, aiming at smaller segmented markets (Leborgne and Lipietz, 1988, 267). The French Regulationists emphasise continuity between current work organisation practices and those of the Fordist regime. Despite recent changes and transformations in production and consumption, the continuing organising force in both spheres remains Fordist. Although economic restructuring has resulted in the decline of Fordism's two major characteristics, mass production and mass consumption, this is only a change in external characteristics. Fordist principles of production, that is, rapid accumulation through increasing the productivity and control of labour, remain in place. Only the means of achieving these ends (productive gains and labour control) has changed, not the ends themselves. For this reason, the flexible regime retains Fordism's fundamental logic of organising production and is more accurately described as Neo-Fordist rather than Post-Fordist. Fordism has simply changed form, while its substance continues unaltered. 23 1.7 PROBLEMS WITH FRENCH REGULATIONISM Despite the value of the French Regulation school in understanding temporal and spatial changes in the organisation of capitalist accumulation, there are several drawbacks with the approach. As indicated in the introduction, the deficiencies of French Regulationism lie in its failure to theorise all the different facets that ensure the social reproduction of a particular capitalist regime of accumulation. Although the regime of accumulation is defined as a schema of reproduction, French Regulationism does not explain the mechanisms which generate reproduction at the societal level nor at the micro-level in households. Here, I address three problems with French Regulationism which are associated with its focus on only a narrow range of formal economic sectors. Firstly, the French Regulationists recognise only a single regime of accumulation. The dominant ensemble of production sectors in each regime is perceived as the on\y mode of production organisation undertaken during that epoch. However, this is clearly not the case. The French Regulationists' concern with only this dominant ensemble means they neglect other modes of goods and service provision, both in the formal and informal sectors. For example, in terms of the formal economy, during the Fordist regime, not all industries belonged to the dominant industrial ensemble or were organised according to the mass production model. Harvey (1988) more accurately portrays the Fordist capitalist economy as comprised of two sectors: the monopoly and competitive. The monopoly sector comprises the dominant industrial ensemble (mass industrial production), and is characterised by high productivity, vertical integration, strong unions and collective bargaining. In contrast, the competitive sector comprises service industries in which Q employment is generally low-paying, non-unionised, and low in labour productivity. 8 A third sector, the state, can be added to this division (Armstrong and Armstrong, 1984). 24 Typically, the employment tasks associated with the service industry are "feminised" occupations. Hence, the competitive sector labour force is largely composed of women. Because French Regulationism focusses on the monopoly economic sectors, which predominantly employ men, the perspective is unable to account for the processes which generate sex segregation in the labor force. As part of my attempt to broaden French Regulationism, the issue of women's labour force participation is raised in chapters two and six.^ Secondly, the French Regulationists do not consider the role of the informal sector in contributing to the reproduction of a regime. Although formal wage earning and domestic work are the dominant forms of work enabling reproduction, both ideologically and in practice, men and women perform other forms of work in the household which ensure their reproduction. As well as meeting households' needs for goods and services, these activities indirectly reproduce the labour force and contribute to the stability of the regime. Finally, closely bound up with both points, is the French Regulationists neglect of gender relations. As currently formulated, the perspective provides no insights into the rationale underlying conventional gender divisions of labour. However, the social (patriarchal) norms and values which maintain gender relations and inequalities are undoubtedly a major component in the mode of regulation. The internalisation by society's 9 The recognition that there are economic sectors other than the predominant ensemble suggests it is mistaken to expect a regime of accumulation to comprise only one mode of production and one particular set of industries. As suggested by Schoenberger (1989), the significance of a regime of accumulation is better measured by the prevalence of the regime's regulatory influence rather than the dominant production mode. For example, "the social and economic features that characterised what is called the "Fordist" regime of accumulation permeated the advanced industrial countries of North America and Europe to a much greater degree than its sectoral or quantitative representation indicates" (Schoenberger, 1989, 101). Indeed, "Fordism has to be seen..less as a mere system of mass production and more as a total way of life" (Harvey, 1988, 102-3). 25 members of the mode's gender ideology is crucial in enabling the reproduction of a capitalist regime. Overall, the French Regulationist approach is typical of andro-centric social and economic models in failing to consider the role of women, the household, and forms of work other than "value producing" waged employment. In the following two chapters I attempt to redress these deficiencies, and incorporate gender and the informal sector into French Regulationism. In the second half of the thesis, the same themes are examined empirically. I attempt to show that restructuring generates changes not only in the formal economy but may also restructure the gender and work norms which enable reproduction. 26 CHAPTER TWO FRENCH REGULATIONISM AND GENDER RELATIONS 2.1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS In this chapter, I address French Regulationism's neglect of gender relations. The failure to theorise gender means it is not possible to understand the divisions of labour between men and women which enable social reproduction. In order to stabilise and reproduce the prevailing regime of accumulation, a division of labour between production, reproduction and consumption tasks is necessary. To this end, despite the increasing participation of women in the labour force during the Fordist regime, women were identified primarily as home-centred wives and mothers, and performed three particular roles. They were responsible for reproduction, were consumers, and constituted a "reserve army of labour". Economic restructuring and the transition to a flexible regime of accumulation, however, are changing the social norms and processes responsible for women's position in society, and thereby the nature of social reproduction. In addition, despite the increasing labour force participation of married women, a growing trend in the flexible regime is for the combined income of two working people to fall short of their household's accustomed needs. The details of this trend are examined closely in chapter six. In this chapter, I try to understand the processes wherebj' women are ascribed their particular roles under Fordism. To do so, I examine the general position of women within capitalism and review feminist theories on this issue. Women's role in capitalist society is not, however, a function of accumulation needs. Capitalism per se is not responsible for gender inequality. Rather, to explain the division of labour along gender lines as opposed to 27 any other criteria, it is necessary to recognise the prevalence of a social system of patriarchy. Using feminist theories I show that a pre-industrial gender division of labour based on patriarchy was maintained and deepened during the transition to an industrial economy, and acquired a specific form which enabled capitalist accumulation. During the Fordist regime, patriarchal values were internalised through the incorporation of patriarchally dominated institutions, notably the state and labour unions, into the mode of regulation. The institutionalisation of gender relations in this manner was of crucial importance in contributing to the stability of the Fordist regime, but has not been considered by French Regulationists. This discussion of gender relations provides a starting point from which to examine the transition to a flexible regime of accumulation, and the implications for gender relations therein. 2.2. F E M I N I S T P E R S P E C T I V E S The precise nature of the relationship between capitalism and patriarchy in generating gender divisions of labour is a highly controversial issue. Much feminist literature tends to focus on either capitalism or patriarchy as responsible for the under-valuation of work performed by women, whether in the domestic sphere or labour market. Walby (1986) identifies five categories into which feminist perspectives on the role of capitalism and patriarchy in generating gender divisions of labour may fall. i) A position which perceives gender inequalities as theoretically insignificant or non-existent, as prevalent in mainstream (malestream) academia. ii) A Marxist feminist position in which gender inequalities are derived from capitalist relations. 28 iii) A radical feminist position in which gender inequalities are due to an autonomous system of patriarchy. iv) A position in which gender inequalities due to patriarchy are so intertwined with capitalist relations that a single sj'stem of capitalist patriarchy is formed. v) A position in which gender inequalities are the consequence of the interaction of autonomous systems of patriarchy and capitalism, an ultimately dualist perspective in which the two social systems nevertheless interact and affect each other despite being analytically separate. In the following pages I briefly outline the key arguments associated with these categories, except for the first one, and demonstrate that from a French Regulationist perspective, an understanding of gender divisions is best informed in terms of proposition 2.2.1. MARXIST FEMINISM Attempting to outline a Marxist feminist "perspective" is highly problematic due to the numerous positions that fall within this category. For this reason, I summarise only selected aspects of the literature. In particular, I first discuss some of the issues and problems raised in the Domestic Labour Debate, and secondly, review the work of one of the most influential recent theorists, that of Barrett (1980, 1984, 1988). The domestic labour debate (DLD) which began in the early 1960s constituted a focus for much of the earlier Marxist feminist work. The debate endeavoured to situate women's 10 The author is aware of the criticism directed at much of the following literature for being based on the experiences of white, middle class, heterosexual, Euro-American women which falsely universalises the category of "women" (Tigar McLaren, 1988). Nevertheless, the material reviewed is satisfactory in the context of this study. 29 domestic work in relation to waged emplos^ment, and the dynamics of capitalist accumulation. While Marxist feminism generally seeks to analyse women's oppression in relation to the prevailing mode of production, the central theme of the D L D was to establish the relative value of women's domestic labour vis-a-vis paid employment. The debate arose in response to Marx's labour theory of value which distinguishes two types of work: productive and non-productive labour. The former is labour which contributes to the creation of surplus value and is based on wage earning. Because "(l)abourers sell their labour power as a commodity in return for wages" (Harvey, 1985, 22), productive labour has exchange value. Other forms of work which are not remunerated may have a use value in that they produce goods and services which possess "certain qualities that relate to different kinds of human wants and needs" (Harvey, 1985, 5). But, because such labour does not contribute to the production of surplus value, it is, in Marxist terms "unproductive". In contrast to the classical Marxist position, many contributors to the D L D (such as Seccombe, 1974, Gardiner, 1975) suggested that the domestic work performed by women does contribute to surplus value: housework can be seen as actually producing surplus value...as enabling capitalists to pay wages at a level below that of the value of labour power thereby...depressing the value of labour power essentially by reducing the amount that the proletarian household needs to spend on commodities (Gardiner, 1975, in Middleton, 1983, 12). The separation of home and workplace and the division of labour between these two spheres means that in a conventional division of labour, two people are required to produce labour power on a daily basis, but only one is actually rewarded by being paid a wage. Capitalists are able to benefit from the unpaid provision of domestic services by women, thus reducing the wages and costs needed to reproduce labour power. On a daily basis, the 30 work performed by women in the home ensures the day-to-day reproduction of the labour force. On a longer term basis too, women's child-bearing and rearing roles ensure the generational maintenance of the labour force. For these reasons, the D L D established that domestic labour is productive labour, and as such is central to the workings of the capitalist system. ^ ^ Despite the utility of an approach which recognises the value of domestic labour in relation to capitalist accumulation, there are a number of problems associated with a Marxist interpretation of women's position in society. One of the criticisms of a Marxist approach is the use of "sex-blind" class categories to explain women's oppression. Class categories as formulated by Marx were arguably only designed to explain the employment experience of male members of the working class: Marx's analysis of the capitalist mode of production is indifferent to the sexual division in the sense that the fact that the positions could not be occupied indifferently by men or women is not even perceived as a problem...it takes the sexual division as given (Delphy, 1984, 160). From this position, it is insufficient simply to add a Marxist analysis of the oppression of women to the oppression of workers. There is a counter-argument to this perspective which suggests that although Marx was undoubtedly referring to a workforce predominantly composed of men, Marx's method is not gender specific. In the labour theory of value, profit-making is based on the payment to workers of wages below the value of the product of their labour. This arrangement constitutes the exploitation of labour and can refer equally to men and women in the labour force. As members of the proletariat, the exploitation of women, like men, is defined in terms of their class position in relation to accumulation. For this reason, "Marx perceived the exploitation of women as 11 A n opposing view is that domestic labour is not directly exchanged on the market and cannot therefore produce exchange value. Instead, domestic labour has only use value. 31 deriving from the same source and assumed that their oppression could be understood in the same structural terms" (Eisenstein, 1979, 11). However, because women are perceived as primarily responsible for domestic work, their experience of labour force participation is subject to constraints not experienced by men. Women are responsible for reproduction, that is, household tasks and child-care, and their access to employment is thus restricted. Hence, women's experience of class is different from that of men, and Marx's class categories, ownership of means of production or sale of labour power, are insufficient because they do not allow for the "structural position of women without paid employment, whether they are the wives of the bourgeoise or proletariat" (Brittan and Maynard, 1984, 51). This is a crucial deficiency of Marxist feminism, and was recognised as an issue because many contributors to the D L D attempted to explain domestic labour in terms of class categories which do not allow for the differential experience of women in relation to capitalism. A further criticism of Marxist feminism is the inability to explain "the widespread identification of housework and child-care as women's work" (Middleton, 1983, 13). Marxist categories do not explain why particular genders fill particular places in the labour market and "give no clues about why women are subordinate to men inside and outside the family and why it is not the other way around" (Hartmann, 1981, 10). Even the D L D took the sexual division as given: the fact that it is women who perform most of the domestic labour had within the terms of the debate to be taken for granted...The D L D failed to question the relation between the nature of the domestic work and the family form taken by the household (Mackintosh, 1988, 394). 32 This problem arises largely because of the nature of Marxist feminism, which emphasises the relationship of women to the economic system, rather than that of women to men (Hartmann, 1981, 3). For this reason, Marxist analysis is also criticised for being reductionist and functionalist, for it attributes social divisions and relations to a single explanatory cause, the interests of capitalist production. As Brittan and Maynard (1984) write: to consider from the start the position of outgroups primarily in relation to capitalism and class, precludes the possibility of explaining their relationship to other factors which may lie outside of a capitalist or class framework (Brittan and Maynard, 1984, 39). This is essentially a criticism of Marx's base-superstructure model of society in which social relations and institutions are derived from the economic base. From a Marxist feminist perspective, gender divisions are located in the superstructure of society and are thus determined by capitalist economic needs alone. As a result, women's oppression is analysed only in terms of the material basis of society, and thus reduced to exploitation and the relationship of women to the generation of surplus value. However, "oppression and exploitation are not equivalent concepts" (Eisenstein, 1979, 22): (Whereas) exploitation speaks to the economic reality of capitalist class for men and women...oppression refers to women and minorities defined within patriarchal, racist, and capitalist relations (Eisenstein, 1979, 22). As argued below, women's oppression cannot be explained solely in terms of their class position or their role as "reproducers". Women's oppression can only be understood by reference to a social system of patriarchy, and women's subordination to men. A final point about the D L D and Marxist feminism is the inconsistent assertion, frequently expressed by some Marxist feminists, that women's oppression is a derivative 33 of capitalism and yet, at the same time, pre-dates capitalism (Walby, 1986, 19), This position undermines the central tenet of Marxist feminism that women's oppression is explicitly attributable to capitalist social relations. ^ The recent work of Barrett (1980, 1984, 1988), is designed to overcome many of the problems above and "represents what may be considered an emerging Marxist feminist •I Q consensus" (Brenner and Ramas, 1984, 40). Barrett adheres to a materialist perspective but rejects the notion that women's oppression is functional to capitalism. Although gender divisions have become necessary for the reproduction of capitalism, the oppression of women is not "pre-given" by capitalist development. Barrett suggests that gender categories, that is, the characteristics ascribed to men and women, are constructed at the level of ideology. In particular, the rationale underlying conventional gender divisions is attributable to an ideology which posits women's natural connection to domesticity (Brenner and Ramas, 1984, 35). This ideology was incorporated into capitalist relations of production and is crucial in explaining the gender inequalities associated with capitalism. Ideology is responsible for constructing the categories of masculinity and femininity. Furthermore, the ideological reproduction of these categories maintains gender relations in capitalist society. 12 Attempts to overcome this dilemma have led many Marxist feminists to adopt "naturalist" explanations of gender relations (eg. Hugh and Pat Armstrong, 1987, Brenner and Ramas, 1984). Radical feminists have also strongly adhered to biological explanations of women's oppresion (eg. Firestone 1979, O'Brien, 1987). Other Marxist and radical feminists recognise the social construction of biological reproduction (Barrett, 1980, 1988, Hartmann, 1979, 1981). Although naturalism constitutes an important debate among feminists, I do not discuss the issue in this literature review. The identification of the ultimate root cause of women's oppression is not necessary to understand the development of contemporary divisions of labour, as perceived from a French Regulationist perspective. 13 Many of Barrett's earlier arguments as they appeared in the original version of Women's Oppression Today (1980), are tempered in the introductory section to the 1988 edition. Nevertheless, the content of the much of rest of the volume remains unaltered. 34 The material expression of this ideology, and the key to women's oppression is the "family-household system". The family constitutes "the ideological ground on which gender divisions and women's oppression are constructed" (Barrett, 1980, 211), while the household is based on the material relations in which women are differentially engaged in wage labour and the class structure (Barrett, 1980, 211). The family-household system is predominantly a bourgeoise construction that fitted with bourgeoise family relations and was imposed upon and accepted by the industrial working class in the nineteenth century (Barrett, 1980, 215). For the bourgeoise, the material rationale of the family-household system was to protect the transmission of private property and to ensure the inheritance of capital .^ In addition, the family-household system "divides and weakens the working class and reduces its militancy" (Barrett, 1980, 222). The male breadwinner - dependent wife arrangement generates a division within the working class which "maximises motivation to work on the part of the wage labourer and reduces the likelihood of militancy that might jeopardise the maintenance of non-labouring household members" (Barrett, 1980, 211). Thus, the family-household system is an effective arrangement by which labour power is reproduced. The family-household is not, however, "the only possible form for an efficient reproduction of labour power in capitalist relations of production" (Barrett, 1980, 249). Neither the family-household system nor women's oppression are functional needs of capitalist relations. Rather, the family-household system "is the product of historical struggles between men and women, both within the working class and the bourgeoise" (Barrett, 1980, 249). Male-dominated craft unions for example, adopted bourgeoise domestic ideology in order to protect their employment and to eliminate the low waged competition of women. 14 Barrett's notion that the family-household system is associated with private property follows the work of Engels. 35 Barrett's approach is useful because it indicates that women's oppression as manifest through the family-household system is not "pre-given by the logic of capitalist development (but) has become necessary for the ongoing reproduction of the logic of production in its present form" (Barrett, 1980, 249). However, Barrett does not express clearly the extent to which she perceives ideology as autonomous from, or materially grounded in, the economy. Barrett rejects the notion that women's oppression is solely ideological (Barrett, 1988, 40). She adopts a "modified form" of some of the ideas of Althusser (Barrett, 1988, 253), in which ideology is a practice enjoying relative autonomy from the economic level (Barrett, 1988, 30). The economy nevertheless remains determining in the last instance. The ideological construction and meaning of gender in contemporary society is recognised to have "concretely and historically..some material basis" (Barrett, 1988, 252), but "no clear separation can be made between the economic and the ideological" (Barrett, 1980, 40). Barrett summarises her position as follows: The relations of production and reproduction of contemporary capitalism may operate in general according to exploitative capital accumulation processes that already are technically "sex-blind" but they take the form of a division of labour in which ideology is deeply embedded (Barrett, 1980, 252, emphasis added). Barrett's discussion is confusing. Although ostensibly "pseudo-Althusserian", Barrett's portrayal of ideology appears, at times, more materially grounded than that of Althusser. Her work has been interpreted as suggesting "precisely that ideas are the product of the social structure" (Delphy, 1984, 173). In addition, Barrett's rejection of patriarchy as an autonomous social system means she is unable to account for gender struggles within the working class or for pre-industrial 36 gender divisions of labour. For example, she is unable to offer any reasons or advantages gained by men, in pre-industrial society, in subordinating women. Although the ideological construction of gender is certainly crucial in determining gender relations, the nature of ideology remains a controversial issue. Barrett's analysis resolves few of the afore-mentioned problems associated with Marxist feminism and creates a number of additional problems besides. A more satisfactory approach is one that tempers the Marxist feminist perspective with a recognition of the role of patriarchy in generating gender divisions. 2.2.2. R A D I C A L F E M I N I S M There are a number of positions in the radical feminist category. In contrast to Marxist feminists, radical feminists reject the use of class categories and conceptualise women's oppression as independent of the mode of production. A system of patriarchy whereby men dominate and control women is argued to determine gender relations. ^ The basis of feminist radicalism is that through the relegation of women to the domestic sphere, men, rather than capital, are the immediate appropriators and exploiters of the unpaid labour of women. Patriarchy is defined as "a system of interrelated social structures through which men exploit women" (Walby, 1986, 51). Exploitation is based on the advantages that accrue to men in being able to dominate women. For example, Hartmann (1979, 1981), recognises the material advantages which men gain by controlling women's labour: 15 Many radical feminists explain gender divisions in terms of biological differences between men and women, and utilise psycho-anaytical accounts of male-female behaviour. These are not discussed in this context. 16 In a discussion of patriarchy, it is useful to bear in mind Eisenstein's suggestion that "(a) man's sexual power is not within his individual being alone". Rather, men have internalised the relations of sexual hierarchy which allow men to express their power on a daily basis (Eisenstein, 1984, 51). 37 The material base upon which patriarchy rests lies most fundamentally in men's control over women's labour power...Men exclude women from access to a living wage in capitalist society and restructure their sexuality (Hartmann, 1981, 15). The identification of women with the domestic sphere releases men from performing housework and protects them from low wage competition in the labour market. Patriarchal oppression is often perceived to be rooted in familial relationships. In this respect, patriarchy is a system whereby "relationships of male supremacy are located in the socio-cultural significance of familial relations as the organising principle of societies" (Lown, 1983, 30). These family relations often have a material basis. Delphy (1984), for example, roots gender divisons in a "domestic mode of production", in which men benefit from the gender divisions inherent in this arrangement. Furthermore, this system of patriarchal exploitation is institutionalised and maintained through the marriage contract: the marriage contract is a form of labour contract which ensures that domestic work has no value...marriage results in the total appropriation of (women's) labour power, and it is this material exploitation within marriage which constitutes the oppression common to all women (Delphy, in Middleton, 1983, 12). In many instances of radical feminism, patriarchy replaces capitalism as the system of oppression, and the material realities of women's economic existence in specific societies are ignored. Although "(t)he division of labour appears to have been universal throughout human history" (Hartmann, 1979, 206), the portrayal of patriarchy as "transhistorical" overlooks variation in the construction and experience of sex roles in different societies and economic circumstances. Hence, radical feminism has been criticised as insensitive "to the substance of historical change" (Middleton, 1983, 13). Despite being a widespread criticism, some radical feminists, nevertheless, do recognise that the nature and form of patriarchy is generated by circumstances specific to the period in question (eg. Delphy, 1984). 38 The identification by Marxist and radical feminists of two very different sources of oppression has given rise to a feminist literature which tends to be dualist. Although I accept a dualist approach in which capitalism and patriarchy are recognised as independent systems, much feminist literature rejects one at the expense of the other. Marxist feminists often wholly reject patriarchy. Radical feminists, on the other hand, portray social relations as relevant to the capitalist market economy while patriarchal relations are responsible for inequalities in the domestic sphere. The two systems are autonomous in their respective spheres and do not overlap. Within the geographical literature, for example, Foord and Gregson (1986) have argued for patriarchy as a structure of oppression separate from capitalist production. Their position is based on a realist analysis in which the necesary and contingent relations associated with patriarchy are distinguished in order to establish the relative autonomy of 1 7 men's exploitation from capitalist relations of production. Foord and Gregson's conclusion is that "capitalism and patriarchy..are contingentlj-related structures" (Foord and Gregson, 1986, 200). Patriarchy is defined as a form of gender relations in which men oppress women, whereas social relations are determined by the prevailing mode of production. As independent structures "gender relations..are not necessary to a conceptual understanding of social relations within specific modes of production" (Foord and Gregson, 1986, 200). Rather, "gender relations are critical to capitalism..only at the level of empirical analysis" (Foord and Gregson, 1986, 201). The autonomy of each system leads Foord and Gregson to reject the attempt to analyse the combined effects of capitalism and patriarchy. The approach is deficient as a "variant of 17 See Johnson (1987) for a critique of Foord and Gregson's attempt to establish a "mega theory" of women's oppression which is based on the "sex-blind" logic of realist analysis. This criticism is directed at the use of andro-centric socio-economic models to understand gender inequalities. Some feminists argue that women must develop their own models to explain society. These models would be immediately concerned with gender relations, as opposed to "adding in" gender as an afterthought. 39 dual systems theory" because, as separate structures, capitalism and patriarchy cannot be theorised conjointly. A radical feminism which restricts the influence of patriarchy and capitalism to separate spheres is deficient in two ways. Firstly, it is not possible to explain why women remain in the household rather than escaping patriarchal oppression by becoming wage labourers. Secondly patriarchal relations outside the household, especially in the workplace, which may push women back into the domestic economy are not recognised (Walby, 1986, 42). A more satisfactory approach is one that recognises the impact of both systems in both the home and workplace, retains their independence, yet enables them to be theorised conjointly. 2.2.3. C A P I T A L I S T P A T R I A R C H Y In this third category of approaches, I outline two perspectives which although very different, go some way toward bridging the impasse between radical and Marxist feminist scholars. Although these perspectives recognise the need to theorise capitalism and patriarchy together, they are insufficient because they do not maintain the autonomy of patriarchy. Knopp and Lauria (1987) suggest that gender, biological reproduction and heterosexuality are socially constructed phenomena, and cannot, therefore, be understood independently of a more general set of social relations. Patriarchy is argued to have an historically variable form depending on the prevailing mode of production. Hence, for example, capitalist patriarchy is different from feudal patriarchy. For this reason, they suggest that "(w)e may not need "patriarchy" or "gender relations" to understand 40 capitalism (but) we certainly need capitalism to understand gender relations" (Knopp and Lauria, 1987, 50). The major drawback of this approach is that gender relations are subsumed to, and portrayed as, a subset of material relations, rather than having an independent basis. Although the form and content of patriarchy is shaped by the prevailing mode of production, there is no indication that patriarchy may influence the organisation of capitalist accumulation and reproduction. Knopp and Lauria differ significantly from the "classical" Marxist feminist perspective outlined in category i) because they recognise patriarchal gender relations. Nevertheless, they ultimately reduce gender relations to production relations and retain a base-superstructure model of capitalist society in which patriarchy is determined by the mode of production. In contrast, Eisenstein (1979, 1984) develops a perspective in which capitalism and patriarchy are symbiotically related, and have become fused into a single system of women's oppression. Capitalist patriarchy is defined as "the mutually reinforcing dialetical relationship between capitalist class structure and hierarchical sexual structure" (Eisenstein, 1979, 5). "Capitalism and patriarchy are neither autonomous nor identical: they are, in their present form, mutually dependent" (Eisenstein, 1979, 22). Eisenstein argues strongly for the need to differentiate between the patriarchal construction of gender and biologically determined sexual differences, suggesting that "men have chosen to interpret and politically use the fact that women are the reproducers of humnanity" (Eisenstein, 1979, 25) so as to order society according to sexual differences. Women's child-bearing capacity has been used to define them as mothers rather than "workers" and has led to the creation of motherhood as an institution (Eisenstein, 1984, 41 242). Motherhood confers on women, economic dependence on men and secondary wage earning status. In capitalist society, patriarchal power is institutionalised through the nuclear family. Not only is the nuclear family the site of women's oppression but it also provides capitalism with the order and control necessary for accumulation. The sexual division of labour prevalent in capitalist society is thus maintained and defined in a capitalist context while not deriving specifically from capitalist needs (Eisenstein, 1979, 46). The major drawback with Eisenstein's approach is the portrayal of capitalism and patriarchy as a single and unified system of oppression. The very fact that she recognises two social systems confounds the attempt to depict oppression as due to one system. The nature of the fusion of the two systems is not drawn out, and the historically variant form of patriarchy implies that while it is adapted to production relations, it remains a separate system. It is misleading to compress the two into one system because capitalism and men have very different interests in subordinating women. Nevertheless, except for Eisenstein's portrayal of the two systems as one, the approach is similar in content to the final category of perspectives in which the two systems remain autonomous but are mutually reinforcing. 2.2.4. AUTONOMOUS, INTERACTING SYSTEMS OF OPPRESSION This fifth category of approaches is favoured because capitalism and patriarchy are retained as separate structures which are, nevertheless, closely intertwined and modify each other's form rather than one being dominant over the other. Although "patriarchal relations are generally regarded as being of a different order than capitalist relations and 42 as being more pervasive both historically and cross culturally" (Lown, 1983, 33), the two systems may act in concert in particular historical contexts. The fundamental difference between this perspective and the dualist perspective previously attributed to radical feminism is that the operations of capitalism and patriarchy are not confined to separate spheres of oppression. Rather, both capitalist and patriarchal relations generate oppression in both the home and workplace, not one or the other. I suggest the approach is consistent with a French Regulationist interpretation of social reproduction in which the subordination of women because of patriarchy was deepened and utilised to sustain capitalist accumulation. The notion that capitalist and patriarchal relations may co-exist in the same sphere, whether, for example, the household or the labour market, makes it difficult to distinguish the effects of each system. However, Walby (1986) suggests capitalism and patriarchy are distinct because of the social relations they generate: patriarchy is distinctive in being a system of interrelated structures through which men exploit women, while capitalism is a system in which capital expropriates wage labourers. It is the mode of exploitation which constitutes the central difference between the two systems...The actual pattern of gender inequality should be seen as the outcome of the interaction of these two systems together with that of racism (Walby, 1986, 46/50). An example of feminist work in which the interdependency of patriarchy and capitalism is drawn out is that of Hartmann (1979, 1981). Hartmann suggests women's oppression is due to a sexual division of labour which is the material basis of male power. She argues gender divisions to be patriarchally defined as well as social constructs. The characteristics attributed to men and women respectively allow the former to dominate the latter. 43 Men are argued to have "learned the techniques of hierarchical organisation and control" in a patriarchal system that preceded capitalism in which men "controlled the labour of women and children in the family" (Hartmann, 1979, 201). Whereas men's domination previously lay in the family, this power has been transferred, in industrial capitalist society, to the labour market. Job segregation by sex maintains men's superiority because the domestic division of labour undermines women's role in the labour market and ensures their economic dependence on men. Hartmann argues that the development of industrial capitalism accomodated itself to a pre-existing patriarchal social structure and perpetuated and exacerbated these gender divisions in order to facilitate accumulation. Whereas "(c)apitalism grew on top of patriarchy" (Hartmann, 1979, 230), patriarchy has in turn been "capitalised" and "assumed a peculiarly capitalist form in the present" (Hartmann, 1981, 3). Although patriarchy is evident in all social classes, patriarchy has been deepened by capitalism and used as a means of class division in order to stratify society and divide and weaken the working class. Walby's (1986) work essentially follows that of Hartmann's in suggesting that "when the patriarchal mode articulates with the capitalist mode, the primary mechanism which ensures that women will serve their husbands is their exclusion from paid work on the same terms as men" (Walby, 1986, 54). The mechanisms of exclusion are patriarchal relations in the state, the household and the workplace. With respect to the latter, patriarchy is enforced by, for example, male dominated trade unions, and prejudiced employers. This analysis of patriarchal and capitalist interaction is compatible with the notion that the mode of regulation comprises a set of patriarchally-dominated institutions which have 44 generated gender divisions alongside class relations, and have been incorporated and used by capitalism in order to stabilise and support accumulation. This is not to suggest that capitalism and patriarchy always have a common interest in maintaining gender divisions: (the) common presumption that capital benefits from the subordination of women by men and that men utilise capitalist relations in the subordination of women...underestimates the conflict between patriarchy and the capitalist mode of production..the relations between patriarchy and capital should be seen as historically and spatially variable and riddled with conflict (Walby, 1985, 160). That the two systems have contradictory interests may be particularly apparent during periods of economic crisis and restructuring. This issue is discussed in further detail in chapter six with reference to the recent Fordist crisis. Having examined these feminist theories, the task at hand is to insert gender into French Regulationism. To do this, I outline the formation and composition of gender relations under Fordism. This enables us to understand the implications of restructuring for patriarchy in the flexible regime. I begin with an historical account of the development of social and gender relations prior to Fordism, to draw out the processes whereby conventional gender divisions of labour were instituted during Fordism. The period I discuss spans the early-industrial period to the 1930s. As indicated in chapter one, the early industrialisation period encompassed by this time frame comprises a regime of extensive accumulation in the Canadian economy. During the 1910s and 1920s, however, the reorganisation of the workplace by capitalists signified the beginnings of a transition to an intensive regime of accumulation. The full blown development of an intensive regime occurs only in the 1950s with the development of a monopolistic mode of regulation. 45 After Hartmann (1979, 1981), I suggest that the gender divisions of labour which developed during industrialisation were based on pre-existing patriarchal relations. These gender divisions were intensified in the early twentieth century and contributed to the transition from an extensive to an intensive regime of accumulation. Throughout this discussion, I examine developments in both unionisation and consumption. The patriarchal policies of organised labour and the need for consumers were crucial in deepening pre-industrial gender relations. I then discuss the development of a monopolistic mode of regulation in the post-war period, and the processes which maintained and deepened gender divisions of labour under Fordism. During the 1930s and 1940s, labour movements were incorporated into the mode of regulation as a means of containing and regulating class interests. The patriarchal policies pursued by many labour unions contributed to the institutionalisation of patriarchal norms during Fordism. These gender divisions acquired a specific meaning and utility in the regime which enabled capitalist accumulation. The aims of this review are thus, firstly, to indicate the deficiencies of current French Regulationism, and secondly, to outline an interpretation of gender relations which is compatible with French Regulationism, and which helps remedy the limitations of the perspective by broadening its focus. 2.3. COMPETITIVE REGIME AND PATRIARCHY The gender divisions of labour which developed during industrialisation are argued by several authors to be rooted in a pre-industrial system of male domination (eg. Stansell, 1986, Scott and Tilly, 1982, 1988, Hartmann 1979, 1981, Mackenzie 1988, Seccombe 1986). In pre-industrial society, "the crucial unit of organisation is the family" (Scott and 46 Tilly, 1982, 50). The household is a unit of both production and consumption, and its members engage simultaneously in self-provisioning activities and the production of goods for the market economy. "Sex role differentiation" in pre-industrial society, however, is clearly evident (Scott and Tilly, 1982, 50). Women had "a strong, visible..role in family subsistence and commodity production, while their husbands were on site managers of the household as a productive enterprise" (Seccombe, 1986, 61). Women were primarily responsible for child care, but due to the spatial integration of the home and workplace were able to combine market-oriented activities and domestic work (Scott and Tilly, 1988, 124). During the early stages of the transition to an industrial economy "the household retained its dual character, producing goods for home consumption and for the market economy under the cottage system" (Bose, 1982, 229). However, with the rise of the factory system in the 1870s and 1880s, large scale production began to dominate productivity in Canada (Rinehart, 1987, 34), thus eroding the production function of the household and "leaving the home as a center of consumption and socialisation" (Bose, 1982, 229). The late-nineteenth century in Canada was marked by a significant upsurge in class struggle and formally organised labour activities (Rinehart, 1987, 42). The labour movement was concerned to protect union members from exploitation by employers but capitalists were opposed to the existing craft unions because of their control over union membership and hence the available supply of labour. In order to undermine the power of the craft unions, which rested on the exclusive nature of their members' skills, employers sought to cheapen and subordinate labour. Employers began to rationalise and de-skill labourers in the workplace, thereby increasing the number of un-skilled and semi-skilled employees, especially women and children (Rinehart, 1987, 35). 47 The reorganisation of production by employers became particularly significant in the early-twentieth century. The means of production were increasingly concentrated, through mergers and acquisitions, into the hands of large, integrated, often American-owned, companies. Taylorist work principles of scientific management and Fordist asembly-line techniques began to be applied to industry, generating substantial increases in productivity. Not only did Fordist and Taylorist production techniques increase accumulation and profitability but they also undermined the power and prerogatives of unionised craft workers which had impeded reorganisation of the labour process (Rinehart, 1987, 48). During this period, the family acquired new significance in the capitalist economy. The productivity increases associated with Taylorist and Fordist production organisation meant the family became important not only as a source of labour supply but as a consumption unit (Scott and Tilly, 1988, 176). To sustain high productivity rates, sufficient market demand was necessary. To some extent, an "open door" immigration policy between 1900 and 1920 met this need, for immigrants added significantly to Canada's population. Ultimately, however, the consumption needs of industry entailed the deepening of prevailing gender divisions. Women were identified as consumers, and organised labour was paid a "family wage". Men increasingly became the primary if not the sole wage earners, while women became more concerned exclusively with the home and children (Scott and Tilly, 1988, 205). If a second wage was needed to support the household, employment was sought by children, or single women (Connelly and MacDonald, 1987, 56). Moreover, occupational growth during the early twentieth century was mostly in "men's job" such as construction and mining (Connelly and MacDonald, 1987, 57) and the demand for this labour was met by immigrants. 48 The increasing association of men with the workplace, and women with the home is explained in terms of capitalist and patriarchal accomodation, and was integral to the transition from a competitive to monopolistic mode of regulation needed to support intensive accumulation. In the following section, I outline the advantages gained by capitalists and organised labour in deepening pre-industrial gender divisions. In terms of capitalist accumulation, a gender division of labour between home and workplace, and the ideological institution of a home-centred housewife and mother, promised to fulfil, as suggested above, the consumption requirements necessary to support productivity. Taylorist principles of scientific management were applied in the domestic sphere as well as in industry, and bourgeois ideology (a la Barrett, 1980, 1988) "glorified the housewife as an efficient consumer, skilful operator of household appliances, and a professionally trained mother" (Sangster, 1985, 62). Domestic work was developed as a science aimed "to raise the "ideal" of housekeeping by making it a modern science based on business methods" (Riley, 1984, 168). During this period, household and child-care responsibilities came to demand a new expertise and were more time consuming than in the past (Scott and Tilly, 1988, 213). Indeed, motherhood as an institution and the concept of "housewife" were established during the early-twentieth century. The ability to consume also required payment of adequate wages, hence the development of a system of family wage earning. The family wage is based on the notion that "an adult man ought to earn enough to enable him to support a wife and children" (Barrett and Mcintosh, 1980, 71), and is crucial in accounting for the relation between the family and production and the marginal position of women in relation to industrial production" (Barrett and Mcintosh, 1980, 72). As well as enabling consumption, the family wage system is important to capitalists because it constitutes a defeat for the working class by splitting "the interests of working class men and women" (Brenner and 49 Ramas, 1984, 36), and creates divisions between those with and without access to family wage earning employment. As for organised labour, two factors explain their support for gender divisions of labour and the family wage system. Firstly, the early craft unions were faced with a struggle against capitalists to retain their privileged employment position, and were fearful of the "threat which the widespread employment of women constituted to the job security and wage levels of skilled tradesmen" (Brenner and Ramas, 1984, 42). Although the employment and organisation of women was not opposed by all unions at all times (Bradbury, B., 1987, 33), women were excluded from certain employment categories by i ft many labour movements in order to protect men's jobs. Hartmann (1981), points out that the problem of cheap labour competition could have been resolved by organising wage earning women. This option, however, was often not pursued because of the persistence of patriarchal norms. In the pre-industrial system of patriarchy, the role of married women was defined "within the framework of the family economy" (Scott and Tilly, 1982, 59). The continuation of this system meant women rather than men were deemed responsible for child-care. This was significant during the development of intensive accumulation because the factory system of production had "shattered the unity of home and work" (Mackenzie, 1988, 17). "(T)he long and exhausting hours of wage work demanded by the capitalist employers (meant) the survival of (working class) children was jeopardised when both parents worked" (Brenner and Ramas, 1984, 51). Employers were reluctant to make provision for the needs of pregnant women and infants which made it logical "for the 18 The Knights of Labour, a North American labour movement, is a significant exception in this context. The movement wanted to unite all workers "in pursuit of societal transformation" (Rinehart, 1987, 44). This movement, however, was centred in Ontario, and was not particularly influential in B.C. 50 woman to stay home if the family could afford it" (Brenner and Ramas, 1984, 51). Pre-industrial norms thus meant women were granted responsibility for reproduction tasks, as well as for consumption. Organised labour, meanwhile, sought to monopolise productive labour for men, and women's productive labour was undermined both by their domestic orientation, and the production by industry of consumer goods. "(W)omen were unable to capitalise on the new possibilities (offered by capitalist production) because their surplus labour was being systemically drained off by their husbands and fathers" as household labour (Middleton, 1983. 26). Rather than argue for equal wages, men preferred to "retain their wives' services at home" (Hartmann, 1981, 21). Support by many labour movements for a system of family wage earning was crucial in maintaining patriarchal ideology and is indicative of the advantages gained by men in subordinating women. Cheap labour competition was removed and men were able to enforce the dependency of the household on their labour. Indeed: (the) possession of the wage, made as a payment to him for his work, while her unpaid work at home went unrecognised is..a key basis for reproducing patriarchal relations in working class families (Seccombe, 1986, 71). Although the family wage system and male breadwinner norm are often argued to be mythical phenomena (eg. Morgan and Taylorson, 1983, Sangster 1985), the ideology of the family "supported by the family wage (nevertheless) allows the control of women's labour by men within and without the family" (Hartmann, 1981, 25). ^ From this discussion, it is clear that during industrialisation "patriarchal interests were at the very centre of the struggle reshaping the class and gender hierarchies" (Lown, 1983, 43-4). A division of labour between home and workplace, and between production, 19 According to Hartmann, the family wage does more than segment the labour market along gender lines for it implies the acceptance by men of lower wages for young people, and socially defined inferior men as well (Hartmann, 1981, 22). 51 reproduction and consumption activities, was necessary to reproduce households and to fulfil the requirements of capitalist accumulation. That these divisions were along gender lines was due to the persistence of a pre-industrial system of patriarchy, and the adherance of organised labour to patriarchal norms. Only by recourse to patriarchy is it possible to explain the development of divisions of labour along gender lines rather than in accordance with some other criteria. Gender divisions are not inherent in capitalism. Rather, capitalism encountered patriarchy as a pre-existing form and adapted patriarchy to meet accumulation needs. Hartmann (1981), for example, suggests the material base of patriarchy has shifted from being family-based in pre-industrial society, to being industrially based. In turn, patriarchy provided a set of criteria along which the divisions of labour implicit in capitalism, were organised. As a result, women's labour force participation is structured through a system of family wage earning, occupational segregation, and wage earning differentials. 2.4. MONOPOLISTIC REGULATION AND GENDER Although by the 1930s the Canadian economy had developed the production capacity necessary for intensive accumulation, the appropriate regulatory mechanisms needed to ensure the stability of the regime were still lacking. Despite the family wage earning capacity of organised labour, union membership was limited and many unorganised employees were paid much lower wages, thus restricting their ability to consume. The incongruity between production and consumption levels culminated in the 1930s Depression. Only with the establishment of a monopolistic mode of regulation and a norm of working class mass consumption were demand levels sufficient to meet productivity levels. 52 The characteristics of monopolistic regulation began to form during world war two. During the war, "(l)abour shortages and the wartime emphasis on productivity (had) intensified the drive toward industrial unionism" such that "union membership nearly doubled during the war years" (Rinehart, 1987, 64). Such increases in unionisation meant organised labour became much more influential in determining the organisation of work and production. To restrain the overt expression of conflicting interests between labour and capitalists, labour unions were "integrated with other institutions into a "ruling apparatus" (or mode of regulation) through which the harmonious development of the capitalist economy could be organised" (Campbell, 1980, 168). Alongside the state, capitalists and organised labour became the major players in the Fordist regime. The incorporation of patriarchally dominated organisations into the mode of regulation meant patriarchy became institutionalised as a social norm, while simultaneously providing conditions which supported and reproduced the Fordist regime. In the following section, I outline the value of patriarchal gender relations to capitalist accumulation under Fordism. 2.5. GENDER DIVISIONS AND FORDISM In the Fordist regime, the subordination of women by patriarchy is adapted to meet the needs of capitalist accumulation in three ways: to ensure the reproduction of a labour force on a daily and generational basis, as a source of reserve labour, and to fulfil consumption requirements. The first of these has already been outlined in the discussion of the DLD Of) and will not be pursued further. 20 Throughout society, women have virtually universally been held responsible for the reproduction of the species. However, their role in reproducing the labour force and indirectly contributing to surplus value is specific to capitalist society, particularly during an intensive regime. 53 With respect to the second point, Beechey (1977), explains women's labour force participation in terms of Marx's reserve army thesis. She suggests married women constitute a reserve army of labour, that is, a source of labour which is flexible, cheap and can be "hired and fired" as required. Because of their domestic orientation, married women are presumed to be supported by their husband's wage, to have "somewhere to go" and "something to do" if laid-off (Beechey, 1977, in Walby, 1986), and are consequently not perceived to require reasonably paid, secure employment. The notion that women are supported by the husband's wage also means women can be paid a lower wage than men. The value of women's labour power is thus undermined to greater extent than that of men because of their financial relationship with their husbands. The role of women as a reserve labour force has a specific character in the Fordist regime. Hugh and Pat Armstrong (1984) use the reserve army of labour thesis to explain women's labour force participation predominantly in the competitive sector of the Fordist economy and men's domination of employment in the monopoly sector. Women continue to be perceived as a reserve labour force despite their increased labour force participation in the post war period. In 1931, only 3.5% of married women participated in the labour force (Seccombe, 1986). Since the 1950s, however, changes in the industrial and occupational structure have led to married women becoming an important source of labour power. Between 1951 and 1971, the percentage of married women participating in the labour force increased from 11.2% to 50.5% (Seccombe, 1986). However, a higher standard of living and the longer education of children means women are portrayed as working for "extras" rather than as breadwinners (Connelly and MacDonald, 1987, 58). Women who are employed or seeking work are described as an "active" reserve labour force, while 21 The notion that Fordism broadly comprises a monopoly and a competitive sector was raised in the previous chapter with reference to Harvey (1988). 54 women not participating in the labour force are an "inactive" labour reserve (after Connelly and MacDonald, 1987). The major criticism of the reserve army thesis is its failure to explain why women, if they constitute a cheap labour force, are not always employed by capitalists in preference to men. Indeed, rather than confining women primarily to the domestic sphere, Braverman (1974) suggests the tendency inherent within capitalism is to undermine the family and push women into the labour market as an exploitable labour force. This is one instance in which the articulation of capitalism with patriarchy arguably generates "a tension between the interests of capital and patriarchy in the allocation of women's labour time" (Walby, 1986, 68). Whereas capitalists may seek to employ women in the labour market, men may prefer women at home to service them. Arguably, the participation of women in the labour force in the competitive sector is an example of a capitalist and patriarchal resolution of this tension. The third argument, often overlooked in feminist literature, involves the consumption needs of capitalism which may render employment of a cheaper labour force superfluous. Capitalist accumulation, particularly when of an intensive nature, such as Fordism, requires a sufficient level of demand and the availability of consumers in order to maintain output levels. Galbraith (1973) underlines the consumption role of women in the household. As summarised by Clark and Stephenson (1986): Galbraith's thesis is that housewives are an essential part of the economy to the extent that they administer a household, and thereby create the possibility for affluent households to possess, maintain and use the many consumer goods available. Without this household manager, the consumption of consumer items would not be so great...In the interests of maintaining the status quo therefore it is advantageous to convince all members of society that women's place is in the home...In this way, the economy is maintained at minimum costs (Clark and Stephenson, 1986, 216). 55 In the Fordist regime, consumption is privatised and individualised within the household, and is internalised as a social norm through the Fordist mode of regulation. Furthermore, Fordism is predicated on the production of consumer durables, particularly household goods and appliances. In Britain, for example, between 1954 and 1974, "the category of personal expenditure showing the largest increases was that of "domestic machines "..which enable people to self-service themselves" (Urry, 1985, 15). Thus, a privatised nuclear family, comprising a home-centred woman, was compatible with the requirements of Fordism and heightened the consumption of consumer durables. 2.6. A "FEMINISED" FRENCH REGULATIONISM A brief summary of this chapter is necessary in order to show how gender has been situated within French Regulationism. I have argued that French Regulationism neglects gender relations and is consequently unable to explain the regulatory mechanisms which ensure the social reproduction of a regime of accumulation. To rectify this deficiency, I have attempted to introduce the gender relations implicit to this schema of reproduction. To this end, I outlined several feminist theories of women's role in a capitalist economy. Using these theories, I argued for a perspective in which women's role is the result of the interaction between patriarchal and capitalist interests. On the basis of this argument, I examined the role of women in the Fordist regime. That role is one in which women are granted responsibility primarily for reproduction and consumption, and also constitute a reserve labour force. Men, meanwhile, are primarily expected to provide productive labour in the formal economy. I have shown that this division of labour according to gender, as opposed to any other criteria, is due to the prevalence of a social system of patriarchy. 56 A second feature of my argument is that regulation crises, which are due to a lack of fit between the mode and regime of accumulation, generate circumstances in which the prevailing patriarchal order is renegotiated vis-a-vis capitalist development. The transition from a competitive to a monopolistic mode of regulation, for example, saw patriarchal norms being carried over to and applied in the labour market and formal economy, having previously been rooted in family relationships. In chapter six, I return to the issue of gender relations and restructuring and attempt to extract the implications of the transition to a flexible regime of accumulation for patriarchy. A crisis in the Fordist mode of regulation has been underway since the late 1970s and is generating conditions for the potential reshaping of gender relations and patriarchal forms. In contrast to the crisis which occured in the 1930s, which was resolved in the 1950s by allowing organised labour to gain strength and earn family wages, the resolution of the late 1970s and early 1980s recession involves the undermining of organised labour and family wage earning. In terms of patriarchal relations, the issue I address is whether changes in the employment experience of men due to economic restructuring "herald a breakdown in patriarchal structures and enhance wives' spheres of authority" (McKee and Bell, 1986, 137). 57 CHAPTER T H R E E F R E N C H REGULATIONISM AND T H E INFORMAL SECTOR 3.1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS The second omission of French Regulationism which I address in this study is its failure to consider forms of work other than formal, monopoly sector employment, in the capitalist system. To provide a fuller understanding of the reproduction of social and economic organisation prevalent during a particular regime of accumulation, I suggest the currently narrow focus of French Regulationalism needs to be broadened to incorporate a discussion of the informal sector. The informal sector refers to "the sum total of income earning activities with the exclusion of those that involve contractural and legally regulated employment" (Portes and Sassen Koob, 1987, 31). Such work activities may be paid or unpaid, and "are not regulated, mentioned, audited or counted by any official agency in the society" (Hoyman, 1987, 65). Although the definition encompasses criminal activities "the term is customarily reserved for such activities...that are not intrinsically illegal but in which the production and exchange escape legal regulation" (Portes and Sassen Koob, 1987, 31). As suggested by Bradbury (1987): to understand how the working class survives and reproduces itself, all kinds of work must be considered, not simply wage labour, but non-wage labour, self employment, home production and domestic labour, involvement in informal as well as formal economies (Bradbury, B. 1987, 41). In Canada, the extent of informal work has been estimated to be worth 50% of GNP (Ross and Usher, 1986, 98), clearly indicating that an understanding of the strength of informal support networks and other means of getting by is necessary "if a full assessment of the 58 socio-structural implications of the restructuring of capital are to be explored in detail" (Pahl, 1985a, 244). Several issues are addressed in this chapter. Firstly, I define the types of work undertaken in the informal sector and discuss in greater detail the need to study these. Secondly, I explore the notion that the formal and informal sectors are inter-related rather than separate spheres of activity. To this end, I refer briefly to the work of Gershuny (1983, 1985, 1987, 1988). Thirdly, I discuss the nature of the relationship between the capitalist economy and the informal sector. After Sharpe (1988), I outline two positions on this issue: the predatory and the benign. From a French Regulationist perspective, I argue that participation in the informal sector is subject to the broad structural constraints of the prevailing regime and mode of accumulation, including patriarchal gender relations, but is mediated by individual choices and preferences. Fourthly, I outline two opposing positions on the implications of economic restructuring for informal sector participation, and pay particular attention to the work of Pahl (1984, 1985, 1988) and Pahl and Wallace (1985, 1986). Finally, I indicate some of the problems associated with the use (and misuse) of the concepts introduced in this discussion. The issues raised here are examined empirically in chapter six with reference to an interview survey undertaken in Chemainus. 3.2. MODES OF SERVICE PROVISION As a means of analysing the informal sector, I discuss the various types of work undertaken by households to meet their needs. The household is generally the unit within which the working population organises its work and employment activities in order to ensure its social reproduction. To this end, the work strategies adopted by households can 22 See Redclift and Mingione (1985) for a discussion of earlier analyses of the informal sector, generally related to Third World studies, in which different sectors of economic activity were perceived as analytically separate and independent. 59 be defined as "the processes of inheritance of values, adaptation to changed circumstances, and decision making, which determine both how households get the things they need and how work responsibilities are allocated among households" (Gershuny, 1985, 129). Work strategies may embrace several types of work, both formal and informal, as outlined below. 1) Formal employment refers to the exchange of labour for monetary payment in the form of a wage or salary within the conventional market economy. Such transactions are reported to, and regulated by, the state. For Gershuny the relationship between formal employment and the market economy is one in which "(h)ouseholds put labour into the formal production system, and receive in exchange money wages...each commodity flow, be it labour, good or service, in one direction is balanced by a money flow in the opposite direction" Gershuny, 1988, 580). Included in this category is self-employment. 2) Irregular work (also referred to as shadow wage labour, the black or underground economy) involves "working on the side" (Pahl and Wallace, 1986, 119). Work is undertaken in exchange for cash but is not reported to or regulated by the state (Sharpe, 1988, 318). Because the income earned from irregular labour and the wages paid to irregular workers are not reported, such activities escape legal regulation. 3) The self-provisioning or domestic work sphere comprises a range of activities undertaken in the household. Such activities combine unpaid labour with materials and equipment installed in private houses to produce final goods and services for household consumption (Gershuny, 1988, 580). Examples of household based activities are "housekeeping, child care, home repair, maintenance and DIY building activities" (Hoyman, 1987, 65). 60 Although housework is often included in the broader category of self-provisioning, it is debatable whether this is a viable categorisation. Delphy (1984) suggests all unpaid work performed in the household is better defined as "domestic work" whether comprised of housework or self-provisioning tasks. She portrays housework "as a certain work relationship" in which "work (is) done unpaid for others within the confines of the household or the family" (Delphy, 1984, 90), a criteria which is equally applicable to self-provisioning tasks. Nevertheless, the social, and particularly the gender relations within which housework is embedded render this type of work distinct from self-provisioning tasks. Women (or men) performing unpaid, domestic tasks on a daily basis are socially defined as housewives (or house husbands) and are often financially dependent on the income earning capacity of their partner in formal employment. This relationship of dependency differentiates housework from other self-provisioning activities. Although housework and other domestic work may ultimately serve the same purpose (maintaining and improving the circumstances and environment in which household members are reproduced), housework should be recognised as a distinct category of work. 4) The communal sphere also comprises the home-centred provision of goods and services but in this case, to meet the consumption needs of other private households. This category of work is distinct because "real money is not used as an indicator of exchange of value for value" (Gershuny, 1988, 581). Communal work is not rewarded by cash payments, but is instead based on relationships of reciprocity and mutual exchange. Bartering and favours are included in the communal category. An additional category of work referred to by Pahl and Wallace (1986) is "scavenging" and refers to work which is undertaken outside the household to obtain food and materials 61 without involving anyone else, or necessarily being illegal, for example, fishing (Pahl and Wallace, 1986, 119). 3.3. WHY STUDY NON-WAGED LABOUR ? Because of the nature of capitalist employment and economic organisation, andro-centric socio-economic models tend to analyse only formal sector employment. During the Fordist regime, wage labour was the predominant means of generating income. This domination of waged labour at the expense of other types of work (except housework) has generated an "unprecedented cultural dependence on one form of work and..a failure to recognise the importance that other work has had in the past in confirming and creating social identity" (Pahl, 1984, 41). To overcome the dichotomy between the home and workplace, it is necessary to draw out the inter-relationships between the formal economy, the household and participation in the informal sector. The work of Gershuny (1985, 1988) is useful in this respect. Gershuny's work is concerned with the changing mode of provision of goods and services to meet peoples' needs. He suggests that "(m)ost needs are satisfied by a combination of formal and informal production activities" (Gershuny, 1988, 581). Moreover, at any one time the provisioning of a particular commodity is subject to the prevailing circumstances "of technology, labour supply, public regulation and organisation" (Gershuny, 1988, 585), ) conditions which differentiate between regimes of accumulation. Gershuny portrays economic development "in terms of its changing techniques for the provision and distribution of services" (Gershuny, 1985, 158). During Fordism, the mode of service provision was dominated "by the consequences of a wave of innovations in the modes of provision for a particular range of service functions - transport, domestic services 62 and entertainment" (Gershuny, 1985, 158). In terms of domestic services, Gershuny suggests that during the 1930s, "new technologies such as valves, small electric motors and plastics, were embodied in consumer durable goods - washing machines, vacuum cleaners and the like" (Gershuny, 1988, 596), the type of goods characteristic of the predominant ensemble of Fordist industries. The production and availability of consumer durables had a profound effect on the distribution of labour time. As the relative cost of "domestic" capital goods declined (due to the efficiencies of scale of mass production), the virtual universal ownership of standardised domestic technology (due to mass consumption), facilitated and reduced the unpaid labour time necessary to perform domestic work in the home. The reduced demands of housework enabled the greater labour force participation of women. Also, the growth in demand for consumer durables created greater employment opportunities in the formal sector, both in manufacturing and related service sector activities. These trends induced greater demand for informally provisioned "domestic service functions" (Gershuny, 1985, 153), for example, the hiring of home-helps, domestics and housekeepers. Informal labour became all the more attractive prior to the Fordist crisis because of the relative decline in 9 *3 real wages and the rising costs of formally purchased services and labour. This extract from Gershuny's work demonstrates that different spheres of work are not autonomous but are closely interdependent depending on the availability and organisation of prevailing technology and labour time. Although Gershuny's work is 94-arguably simplistic and technologically determinist, it nevertheless demonstrates that 23 It should be noted that this argument is intended merely to illustrate the interaction between the "formal" capitalist economy, informal and domestic labour, and is not explicitly related to my findings on this issue. 24 For example, Gershuny does not consider the impact of the oft-cited trend in which the availability of domestic consumer durable equipment created higher standards of hygiene and cleanliness, and offset the time and labour saved by having such equipment available. 63 the nature of social and economic organisation within the prevailing regime clearly has implications for the rate and type of informal work undertaken. 3.4. INFORMAL WORK AND CAPITALISM Although the formal and informal sectors are closely inter-related, it is necessary to assess the nature of the relationship between informal work and the organisation of the capitalist economy. There are two major interpretations of this issue referred to by Sharpe (1988) as the predatory and benign. The predatory interpretation suggests informal work is sustained by the imperatives of capitalism and is a mechanism of social control. The approach is essentially a Marxist one in which the informal sector is "subsumed by, though subordinated to capitalism, and is essential for its continued evolution" (Redclift and Mingione, 1985, 3). From this perspective, all types of work are concerned with either production or the reproduction of the capitalist system. Pahl is critical of the notion that "capitalism, has "needs" that determine the nature of households' composition and behaviour" suggesting that this is an "unsubtle, functionalist fallacy" (Pahl, 1984, 329). He argues that "the social relations of, for example, domestic labour or social reproduction pre-date capitalism and are qualitatively different from the class domination associated with capitalist relations of production" (Pahl, 1984, 128). This realisation is consistent with the notion that there are social systems other than capitalism, as argued in chapter one with reference to patriarchy. A benign approach offers a more voluntaristic interpretation of informal work and suggests informal activities are a form of self-reliance needed to fulfil basic demands not 64 met in the formal sector (Sharpe, 1988, 326). In the extreme case, informal work is interpreted as the "vanguard" of an alternative lifestyle to that offered by the capitalist market economy (Redclift and Mingione, 1985, 3). For example, informal work has variously been portrayed as a "release from the alienation of work", an "individualistic search for creative alternatives" and as having the "liberating potential ...to escape capitalist relations of production" (Redclift and Mingione, 1985, 4). In my study of household work strategies in Chemainus, I adopt an interpretation of informal work in which Chemainus households are perceived to be severely constrained in the choice of work strategies available to them. Nevertheless, despite structural constraints, households retain some autonomy particularly with respect to non-waged labour such as communal work and self-provisioning. The relationship between capitalism and the household is "symbiotic" (Pahl, 1984, 330), rather than purely predatory. The household has needs which can be met by consuming the products of capitalist production, while the organisation of work in the household helps reproduce the system. In addition, because society is patriarchal as well as capitalist, the types of work undertaken by household members are often sex segregated, and similarly feed back into and maintain this social system. In this way, participation in the informal sector contributes to the stability of a regime, and maintains both social and gender relations. As well as reproducing gender relations, the various institutional policies and social norms prevalent in the mode of regulation may influence the rate of informal sector participation. Although it is impossible to accurately quantify or verify the influence of various regulatory mechanisms on the extent of informal sector participation, several feasible processes are described in the literature. 65 For example, the nature, range and style of state intervention and provision" are argued to "crucially determine the potential for household work strategies" (Pahl and Wallace, 1985, 199). This is clearly evident in terms of the availability of child-care facilities. In the absence of day care, working parents may use informal sources of labour, whether the paid or unpaid work of friends, family or neighbours, to obtain child-care services. Furthermore, the state may actively promote and ideologically support "communal self-help activities" (Redclift and Mingione, 1985, 9) in order to reduce public expenditure. In addition, state involvement in labour relations and taxation may generate greater shadow wage labour participation. For example, the need to contribute to pension plans, unemployment insurance and so on, raises labour costs and may "encourage employers not to give full accountability of their employment practices" (Pahl, 1985a, 247). With specific regard to the transition to a flexible regime of accumulation, the dismantling of the welfare state and the withdrawl of state-provisioning of services have been suggested to create greater reliance on self-provisioning or informal networks. The likelihood and extent of home ownership may be an important determinant of informal sector activity too. This is particularly significant in the Fordist regime in North America because home (and automobile) ownership were the culturally instituted aspirations driving mass consumption. The ownership of private housing increases the desirability of, and need for, home maintenance and improvements, services which are available in both the formal and informal sectors. However, the production and availability for consumption of the appropriate tools and resources, indicated by the proliferation of DIY equipment and stores, and the rising costs of formally provisioned tasks, increases the likelihood of such activities being informally provisioned. 66 3.5 INFORMAL WORK AND ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING The nature of informal sector participation vis-a-vis formal employment is a similarly contentious issue. Much informal sector literature advocates one of two opposing positions on this issue. On the one hand, a frequently expressed notion is that informal work is in some ways a substitute for formal employment. This opinion is summarised by Gaughan and Ferman (1987). Gaughan and Ferman suggest that among relatively affluent populations in North America and western Europe, the failure of manufacturing to create employment has led to resources being "more fruitfully re-invested in family and domestic production" (Gaughan and Ferman, 1987, 23). In addition, increased service sector employment does not replace jobs lost in manufacturing and is "commonly supplemented by informal activity, with a household and community base" (Gaughan and Ferman, 1987, 24). From this perspective, two processes can logically be expected to generate greater informal work during industrial restructuring. Firstly, the reduced wage earning capacity and higher unemployment caused by the reorganisation of production might reasonably be expected to generate a proliferation of alternative income earning and cost-reducing strategies. Secondly, increased labour costs in the formal sector generate greater demand for less expensive services and goods available in the informal sector. A major drawback of this portrayal of the informal sector as an adequate substitute for formal employment is its use by neo-conservative politicians to justify reduced state expenditure on social support services, and to downplay the impact of higher unemployment caused by economic restructuring. 67 Portes and Sassen Koob (1987) relate the resurgence of an informal economy in developed countries to the adoption of flexible production strategies. The work organisation strategies of vertically integrated industries are argued to be inconsistent with the "new economic circumstances induced by the crisis" (Portes and Sassen Koob, 1987, 53). Higher unemployment and the need for a "flexible" workforce enable companies, when faced with a profit squeeze, to decentralise their work arrangements and employ irregular labour. Portes and Sassen Koob perceive greater informal activity not as a temporary phenomenon but as related to changes in the organisation of the economy, indicating widespread participation in the informal sector in the flexible regime. Indeed, they suggest that "(w)e ignore these activities only at our own peril because they are likely to form part of a major ongoing process of economic transformation" (Portes and Sassen Koob, 1987, 57). In contrast, the conclusion reached by Pahl (1984) and Pahl and Wallace (1985, 1986) in their Isle of Sheppey study was that informal work and formal employment went hand in hand: there appeared to be a process of polarisation, which resulted in those in formal employment being more likely to do more self provisioning and informal "black" work as well (Pahl and Wallace, 1986, 120). While some households are busy and partake in both formal and informal work, others are denied access to regular, full-time, formal employment. "(A)ccess to employment provides more access to employment (for other household members) and other forms of work as well" (Pahl, 1988a, 257). Formal employment also provides access to the resources necessary to perform informal work. For example, Pahl suggests the unemployed may lack tools, transport and contacts, and are less likely to own their own home and cars, and to be less skilled (Pahl, 1988a, 250). This is a somewhat negative portrayal of the unemployed, 68 which fails to consider the circumstances surrounding the loss of employment and their existing resource base, a criticism reinforced by my own findings. Although I agree with Pahl that informal work is not a substitute for formal waged employment, my reasons for reaching such a conclusion are somewhat contrary to Pahl's. I suggest that formal and irregular work are likely to be inversely related, although the relationship may not necessarily hold for other informal activities. Not only is irregular work a strategy for "getting by" during periods of economic hardship (Harvey, 1987), but during restructuring, informal work is the crucial mechanism of social reproduction due to the scarcity of formal employment opportunities. It is useful to briefly outline some more of the results obtained by Pahl in his study of informal work on the Isle of Sheppey as his work, provides significant insights into communal and self-provisioning work, and the relationships between different categories of informal work. Pahl's findings suggest that while a few households performed reciprocal, communal work, and a few worked irregularly for cash, most informal unpaid work was undertaken by household members for themselves and other household members (Pahl and Wallace, 1985, 210). Self-provisioning was more widespread than either communal or irregular work to the extent that "most people who do work outside employment do it for themselves and their families and receive no extra money for what they do" (Pahl, 1985b, 334). All forms of informal work were found to be "highly gender specific" (Pahl and Wallace, 1985, 209), with women overwhelmingly performing routine domestic tasks, for example, babysitting and cleaning. 25 In Pahl's study, only 4% of respondents participated in irregular work (Pahl and Wallace, 1986) 69 Mackenzie (1987) suggests that economic restructuring has significantly heightened the importance of the informal work performed by women. She argues that the withdrawl of the formal economy, and the decreasing availability and reliability of wage employment, particularly for men in full-time, permanent jobs, has created greater dependence on the informal activities performed by women in the home and community: As the jobs which men used to do disappear, and the possibility of having one primary breadwinner recedes, the strategies that women have always used to gain resources for households...become increasingly central to household survival. For a growing proportion of the population, conditions for a traditional industrial gender division of labour have virtually disappeared (Mackenzie, 1987, 154). As well as economic considerations, the amount and type of informal work undertaken is influenced by the structure of the household, particularly the number of household members, their age and formal employment activity, and the stage of the household in the domestic cycle. The latter is especially significant. Pahl (1984) describes a self-provisioning cycle in which the amount of self-provisioning undertaken is determined by stage in the domestic cycle. For example, households containing several young children require more tasks to be done but "because of a reduction of income owing to the number of dependents in the household, are obliged to do more work for themselves" (Pahl, 1984, 235). Furthermore, age "makes a difference to the amount of work that is needed, and people do less of all kinds of work as they grow older" (Pahl, 1984, 222). Overall, "what needs doing differs throughout the life-cycle and the source of labour varies substantially between youth and old age" (Pahl, 1984, 227). Other variables examined by Pahl such as home ownership, the skills of household members, and social class, are raised in chapter six with reference to my study of Chemainus. The need to consider variables relating to household composition and structure suggest that the relationship between the regime of accumulation and the extent and nature of informal work undertaken is not a straightforward one. Nevertheless, the range of choices available to households in terms of the provisioning of goods and services is broadly 70 constrained by the mode and regime of accumulation. At an aggregate level, it is possible to discern, during periods of economic restructuring, some of the inter-relationships between different spheres of work, and to make a preliminary assessment as to whether the emerging regime, and its technology, labour market, and regulation characteristics heighten the importance of informal work during the new regime. 3.6. DEFICIENCIES OF INFORMAL ANALYTICAL TOOLS Despite the need to study informal work and my use of the household as the unit within which to measure such activities, these conceptual tools are not unproblematic and it is important to recognise their potential deficiencies. To speak of the "household", a common enough term, is not as straightforward as first appears. The household is an ethno-centric concept which tends to homogenise the organisation of micro-level economic and human activity into a standard form, generally based on the nuclear family. Households, however, are far from universally organised on this basis. The results of research, such as my own, which comprise this type of household organisation, are not necessarily applicable to societies in which households usually have a very different structure. In addition, even if similarly structured households reveal similar work and employment experiences, this does not mean their organising strategies are based on the same rationale or determined by the same forces. A second problem is the "gender blind" usage of such concepts. Redclift (1985) is critical of the informal economy as "a gender neutral term which covers the work of both sexes but which conceals an internal sexual division of labour" (Moser, 1980, in Redclift, 1985, 112). In similar vein, Wolf (1988) suggests household analyses are typically inherently sexually biased as the "individual orchestrating this strategy is implicitly assumed to be male" (Wolf, 1988, 10). For this reason, Wolf argues that the concept of household 71 strategies does not unveil the decision-making processes which generate divisions of labour but "may actually misrepresent intrafamilial behaviour and obscure concrete social and cultural differences in intra-household gender inequality and stratification" (Wolf, 1988, 2). For example, although household strategies "embody relationships of power, domination and subordination", the "authoritarian way in which household decisions are imposed upon more vulnerable household members is usually not studied" (Wolf, 1988, 5). The failure to study intra-household relationships arises because of the assumption inherent in the household work strategy concept that the activities of individual household members are motivated by the "collective interests" of the household (Wolf, 1988, 6). Not only do "social actors lose their individuality in a sea of collective goodness", but the "collective interest" is premised on economic rationality. Hence, it is necessary to open up the "black box" of the household and analyse the psychological, emotional, social, cultural as well as economic basis of intra-household relationships. In chapter six, I examine a number of the issues raised in this chapter with reference to a study of household work strategies undertaken in Chemainus. Although I derived little evidence of overt conflict between household members, I hope to elucidate the rationale underlying divisions of labour beyond the realm of economic needs. The loss of formal income in Chemainus households drew together the resources and efforts of household members but the composition of work strategies was highly influenced by patriarchal norms and the structure of the household, as well as broader economic constraints. The transition to a flexible regime of accumulation created sudden and extensive unemployment, and generated significant growth in the amount of informal work performed. For this reason, I suggest it is important to study participation in the informal sector as a necessary means of social reproduction during adverse economic conditions. 72 To establish the context for my study of informal sector participation and divisions of labour, the following two chapters are concerned with the coastal forest products industry, specifically, its development during the Fordist regime, its role in generating divisions of labour in resource towns, and the consequences of the adoption of "flexible" production techniques in the processing sector. The composition of work strategies undertaken by Chemainus households is shown to be broadly constrained by the changes which have occured in the organisation of production in the forest products sector, and by sectoral changes in the economy. 73 SECTION TWO CHAPTER FOUR T H E BRITISH COLUMBIA FOREST PRODUCTS INDUSTRY 4.1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS To comprehend fully the changes wrought by the transition of many B.C. forest products manufacturers to using a flexible production system rather than a Fordist one, it is essential to outline the characteristics and historical development of the industry. To this end, several issues are discussed in this chapter. Firstly, I briefly outline the early history of the B.C. coastal forest products sector. I then discuss the development of this sector into a typically Fordist industry during the post-war period. I argue that the development of the forest products sector into this form was supported by, and was in the interests of, the three major players in the Fordist regime: corporate capitalism, the state and organised labour. Furthermore, because of the nature of Fordist industrial organisation, the forest industry has become dominated by large corporations on which numerous resource-based communities are dependent for employment. For this reason, it is important to outline the social organisation and divisions of labour in single industry, resource communities. This task is necessary to understand the impact of forest industry restructuring beyond the workplace. Throughout its development, the B.C. forest products sector has comprised two very different organisational forms, coastal and interior production. Because Chemainus is located on the east coast of Vancouver Island, the discussion focusses on the coastal forest products sector. The interior forest products sector is also examined in so far as its rapid growth during the post-war period played a major role in generating restructuring in the coastal forest products sector. 74 4.2. WHY STUDY THE FOREST PRODUCTS SECTOR ? Before discussing the historical development of the forest products sector, it is important to outline two reasons for studying the forest products sector. The first is theoretical and the second is empirical. Firstly, in terms of the current literature, studies of flexible accumulation in the manufacturing sector focus on a limited range of activities which are characterised by relatively high capital mobility, for example, the automobile industry (see Holmes, 1987, Schoenberger, 1986). The location of forest products facilities, in contrast, is severely spatially constrained by dependence on the availability and occurence of a natural resource. Because the forest products sector is unable to restructure by relocating production, the reorganisation of production is consequent '^ undertaken in situ. Unlike many manufacturing sectors which were free to escape local sources of hostile, unionised labour, and seek cheaper, more flexible alternatives elsewhere, the forest products sector had to develop "internal solutions" to the problem of flexible industrial development, and reconstitute the employment relation at the point of production and in the community (Scott and Storper, 1987, 228). A case study of the resource sector is informative, therefore, because investigation focusses on "the internal, variegated nature and dynamics of particular segments of the labour market" (Barnes and Hayter, 1988, 4), as determined by the needs of flexible capital. Secondly, the provincial economy is highly dependent on the forest products sector (even though the industry does not always provide a secure employment or financial base). This dependence is most visible in employment terms. In 1987, the forest industry as a whole directly employed 82,500 British Columbians in manufacturing and processing facilities. Fifty one percent of this workforce (42,300), was employed in wood products 75 manufacturing; comprising the production of lumber, plywood, shakes and shingles, and re-manufacturing. In addition, much secondary manufacturing in B.C. is dependent on the forest industry. Through economic linkages and multipliers, each job in the forest industry is associated with two jobs elsewhere in the economy, creating an additional 165,000 jobs. In sum, in 1987, the forest industry directly or indirectly accounted for 247,500 jobs in B.C., representing almost 20% of the provincial labour force (Council of the Forest Industries of B.C., 1988, 7). The forest industry is also singularly important in terms of exports. Forest products typically comprise approximately 60% of the province's exports, and 50% of the value of B.C.'s manufacturing shipments (Financial and Economic Review, 1987, 987). Wood products alone constitute 25-30% of the value of products exported from B.C. with lumber accounting for approximately 60% of this amount. Despite the extensive export revenues and employment generated by the forest products sector, the forest industry is unstable as an economic sector. Through its linkages and multipliers, a downturn in the forest industry is immediately translated into a complete recession for the entire province (Marchak, 1983). In particular, the export-oriented nature of the forest industry renders B.C. highly susceptible to the vagaries of world demand for forest products. To use Innis' (1954) terms, the forest resource is a classic example of an "export staple", and the B.C. economy, a staples economy. Such an economy "relies on the export of raw and semi-processed materials for its economic health (and is) highly vulnerable to boom and bust cycles, dependent always on markets elsewhere for (its) unprocessed materials" (Marchak, 1988, 180). In B.C., processing of the forest resource is based on the export of a limited number of raw or semi-processed products. Hence, the province has not developed an integrated, diverse economic structure based on secondary manufacturing. The major products of the forest industry are 76 construction grade lumber and kraft pulp, both mainly destined for the U.S. market (Hayter, 1987, 226). Dependence on such a narrow range of products and markets undoubtedly heightened B.C.'s economic difficulties during the 1980s crisis. This point is underlined by Norcliffe (1987). In his analysis of the regional unemployment impacts of the early 1980's recession, Norcliffe (1987), highlights the vulnerability of resource-based export economies to external economic conditions. He explains the occurence of a particularly severe recession in B.C. compared to all other regions of Canada in terms of the exceptional sensitivity of B.C.'s resource industries to cyclical variations in the demand for and prices of their products (Norcliffe, 1987, 154). The exploitation of B.C.'s forest resources as an export staple for large scale, commercial use developed only in the post-war years. Prior to that period, the forest industry predominantly comprised small and medium-sized companies and was regulated by ineffective and experimental timber licensing arrangements. The following section deals with this early period in which the industry as presently structured is rooted. 4.3. T H E HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF T H E B.C. FOREST PRODUCTS SECTOR Although B.C. was the last timber frontier in Canada to be exploited (Gillis and Roach, 1986, 129), the province contains approximately 50% of Canada's softwood (coniferous) inventory, and soon developed the largest forestry sector. Because the early colonial administration of B.C. was concerned with establishing agricultural-based communities, forestry production was not an important early influence on the province. The earliest alienation of land expressly for lumbering occured only in 1862 (Gillis and Roach, 1986, 131), but during the late-nineteenth century the forest products sector quickly became established on the coast with "the largest sawmills increasingly concentrated in and around Chemainus on Vancouver Island and in the Vancouver-New Westminster area on 77 the mainland" (Gillis and Roach, 1986, 132). The early dominance of the B.C. forest products sector by coastal manufacturers was initially based on accessibility. Accessibilty was important because prior to the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1886, water provided the major means of transport for timber. During this period, coastal mills were oriented to Pacific markets such as Australia and Hawaii, and relied on building booms to guarantee a demand for their lumber. With the completion of the C.P.R., however, the mills obtained access to a major domestic market, the Canadian Prairies. Although the B.C. forest products sector was stagnant during the latter part of the nineteenth century due to a depressed Canadian economy, the growth of the city of Vancouver and "the arrival (in 1898) of significant numbers of settlers on the Prairies finally created an expanding demand for west coast lumber" (Gillis and Roach, 1986, 133/4). The expansion of the Prairies market generated rapid growth in the industry in both the interior and on the coast but despite the greater proximity of the interior to the Prairies, the coastal mills dominated the market for three reasons. Firstly, coastal producers benefitted from the availability of larger, better quality logs which allowed them to produce higher grade lumber; secondly, coastal producers were favoured by preferential rail tariffs; and thirdly, an assured demand meant coastal producers could invest in larger-scale, more-efficient production, and generate greater economies of scale. This, and the substantial presence of American-owned capital in coastal production were early indications of future potential in the sector. Between 1900 and 1913, the Canadian Prairies was virtually the only out-of-province market for B.C. lumber. Its availability detracted from the need to develop foreign markets. As a result, overseas exports declined considerably and several potential markets were allowed to wane. By 1914, the forest industry dominated the B.C. economy but with the coming of war, the Prairie market dried up, mills were shut down and numerous workers were laid-off. 78 The industry's outlook improved somewhat during world war one for two reasons. Firstly, the provincial government had established an export corporation to help the industry access new markets, and secondly, sitka spruce lumber, which was abundant in the coastal area, was widely used in aircraft construction. These developments regenerated coastal production, and the industry was able to fare reasonably well. Production in the the interior, meanwhile, continued to languish until the 1940s. During the inter-war period, overseas markets and the U.S. demand for lumber expanded rapidly although the export of forest products continued to be subject to unsettled economic conditions. The 1930s Depression and world war two greatly inhibited the expansion of lumber production, and set-back many producers. Only in the post-war period was significant growth generated in the forest products sector by rapid accumulation. The development of the Chemainus sawmill between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries is representative of the processes occuring throughout the forest products sector during this period. 1862 was the earliest known shipment of lumber from the Horseshoe Bay mill, located on a site later to become known as Chemainus. Chemainus was blessed with a deep water harbour, a substantial timber supply which "crowded down to tidewater in almost every direction" (Olsen, 1981, 34), and hydrological features which made possible the development of a water powered sawmill. As "the site of continuous sawmill operation longer than any other place on the Pacific coast" (Olsen, 1981, 34), Chemainus has been the natural focus of the coastal forest products industry since that . early period. Such a heritage is undoubtedly important in understanding the community's reaction to the imminent closure of MacMillan BloedeFs production facility in 1982. 79 Between 1889 and 1950, lumber production at Chemainus was directed by the Victoria Lumber and Manufacturing Company. During this period, the mill did not always operate profitably (Olsen, 1981). During the two wars, for example, the mill continued to operate but production and profitability were severely hampered by shortages of labour and materials. It was during this period that the Chemainus site first gained status as a foremost producer of wood products. With the destruction by fire of the existing mill in 1923, a replacement mill valued at $2,500,000 was built in 1925, and marks the advent to the Chemainus mill of large scale production. The decision to reconstruct the Chemainus mill on a grand scale was largely due to the entreprenurial attitude of the mill's management, which included H.R. MacMillan. MacMillan's association with the Chemainus mill began in 1916 when he became assistant manager of the V.L. and M. company. MacMillan had already been appointed B.C.'s first Chief Forester in 1911, but resigned in 1919 in order to found the MacMillan Export Company, a trading agency for B.C. lumber. Despite his long-lasting management role at Chemainus, MacMillan acquired ownership of the mill only in 1950. In that year, the mill was known first as The Victoria Division of H.R. MacMillan Export Company Ltd and was later renamed H.R. MacMillan Export Company Limited, Chemainus Division. 4.4. THE FOREST PRODUCTS SECTOR IN T H E FORDIST REGIME The development of the coastal forest products sector in the post-war period was an outcome of the policies of the three major actors in B.C. in the Fordist regime: the provincial government, corporate capitalism, and organised labour. The activities of each are now considered in turn. 80 4.4.1. THE ROLE OF THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT The provincial government has long been central in establishing and controlling the regulatory context within which exploitation of the forest resource is undertaken. The provincial government has facilitated corporate control of the forest products sector, both through deliberate attempts to promote B.C. as a resource hinterland, and through timber leasing arrangements. During the inter-war years and even prior to this period, the B.C. government sought to attract investment in the resource base by creating the appropriate conditions for exploitation. In the post-war period, the B.C. government's involvement in the industry mounted considerably. Its major influence on the formation of the modern forest industry was through the 1945 Sloan Commission (reinforced by a second Commission in 1956), which resulted in the 1947 Forest Act. The Commission was undertaken partly in response to the demands of the larger forestry companies to guarantee the long term provision of resources. Prior to 1947, timberland leases were valid for only a year and had to be renewed annually. Insecure tenure rendered forest industry investment a high risk venture because short-term leases could not guarantee the provision of logs over a prolonged period of time. Furthermore, year long leases did not encourage their holders to invest in forest regeneration, creating concern about the long term availability of the resource. The Forest Act was designed to remedy both these problems. The Sloan Commission had reported in favour of sustained yield policies and harvesting quotas, and was interpreted by the provincial government as meaning that "large, integrated companies would be the best harvesters of the resource because of (their) long term horizons" (Marchak, 1988, 178). The Act introduced Tree Farm Licences (TFLs) which allow companies to exploit B.C.'s timber base, 94% of which is owned by the provincial 81 government. The TFL is a contractural agreement between the provincial government and a private company in which the latter are delegated management responsibility for Timber Supply Areas (TSAs). The provincial government determines the amount of timber the company is "allowed" to cut according to the total area of land leased by the company. The granting of long term leases was intended to encourage investment in the resource and stimulate the licencee to maintain its timber supply area on a long term basis. The management requirements of long term leases could be fulfilled only by large operators with sufficient financial and human resources. Nevertheless, the presence of large companies with a long term obligation to invest in the resource base was regarded as beneficial and promised to provide B.C. with an economically secure foundation, something which had so far eluded the province. The provisions of the Forest Act invoked the gradual erosion of small firms in the industry. Small operators were supposed to be provided for by Public Sustained Yield Units. P.S.Y.Us are areas of publically owned and controlled land, and the rights to harvest timber on them are sold by auction. The management of P.S.Y.U.s is undertaken by the Forest Service, allowing small companies to access the forest resource without having to bear either the responsibility or cost of its maintenance. Unfortunately, however, timber is sold to competitive bidders, large corporations as well as small logging firms. Needless to say, P.S.Y.U. awards have accrued to the former due to their greater financial pull. Apart from the Forest Act, the most concentrated period of provincial government activity was between 1952 and 1972, under William A.C. Bennett's Social Credit Party. The Bennett government sought to: develop the province's resources by establishing liasions with large corporations and financial houses willing to invest in a resource extraction economy, by building an 82 infrastructure of railways, roads and electricity through government spending; and by providing a fiscal policy, a tax structure and a legal framework which encouraged multinational corporations to invest chiefly in the forest and mining sectors...The object was to provide the necessary physical and economic infrastructure for profitable enterprise (Bradbury, J . 1987, 415). A close relationship between the provincial government and the forest industry persists today, largely because Social Credit Party policies remain closely aligned with the interests of the large forestry corporations. Although this alliance is prone to occasional conflict, the arrangement is typical of the relationship between the mode and regime of accumulation prevalent in the Fordist regime, and is indicative of the social reproduction processes which enable capitalist accumulation. 4.4.2. C O R P O R A T E C O N T R O L O F T H E F O R E S T P R O D U C T S S E C T O R The promotion and management of the forest resource by the provincial government successfully generated substantial investment in B.C. by large corporations. During the post-war period, a considerable amount of corporate capital, particularly American-owned, was attracted to the B.C. forest products sector. As discussed in Marchak (1983), American interest in B.C. was possible because Canadian military production and policies were integrated with those of the U.S. during world war two. Clark (1980) argues that the depletion of American resources and the expansion of American industry during the post-war period generated greater strategic dependence on Canadian supplies. As a result, American capitalists sought to fulfil their requirements by penetrating resource extraction industries, such as the B.C. forest products sector (Clark, 1980, in Marchak, 1983, 39). Corporate ownership of the B.C. forest products sector is highly concentrated. As early as 1940, 58 of the 3000 companies participating in forestry licencing arrangements controlled 52% of the timberland (Marchak, 1983, 353). By 1974, the number of licencees 83 had dramatically decreased to 600, and 82% of the provincial harvest was controlled by only 8 companies. In addition, the number of independent sawmills decreased from over 2000 in the immediate post-war period to 967 in 1961, and to 330 in 1978" (Marchak, 1988, 188). This early post-war period of development in the forest industry is clearly commensurate with the transition from an extensive to an intensive regime of accumulation and the rise of a monopolistic mode of regulation which favoured the concentration and integration of industrial capital. The development of MacMillan Bloedel into one of North America's largest forest products companies is typical of the post-war concentration of ownership in the forest industry. The company originated in three family-run businesses. In 1951, the MacMillan Export Company (mentioned earlier) merged with Bloedel, Stewart and Welch, a logging company, to become MacMillan and Bloedel Limited. In 1959, the recently amalgamated company merged again with the Powell River Company, a newsprint manufacturer, to form MacMillan, Bloedel and Powell River Limited ( Hayter, 1976, 217). In 1965, the company became, and remains, MacMillan Bloedel. By 1970, MacMillan Bloedel had become "the leading Canadian producer of lumber and newsprint, the second largest manufacturer of plywood and an important processor of kraft pulp and other wood products" (Hayter 1976). While 50% of the company's investment capital is located in B.C. (Financial Post, 1988), MacMillan Bloedel has other major investments throughout North America, in Europe, Brasil, and East Asia. Until 1981 when the Toronto-based corporation, Noranda Inc., acquired a 49% controlling interest in MacMillan Bloedel, the ownership of the company was dispersed between a number of shareholders, the largest of which was Canadian Pacific Investments (C.I.P.). Since 1987, Noranda has controlled MacMillan Bloedel through Noranda Forest Inc., which was formed by the amalgamation of two wholly-owned subsidaries, James 84 MacLaren Industries Inc. and Fraser Inc. The controlling interest in Noranda is Brascan Ltd, an investment management company owned by the Bronfman family, which has a 40% stake in Noranda. The minority shareholder in MacMillan Bloedel is Olympia and York, owned by the Reichmannn's (Marchak, 1988, 184) also based in Toronto. Changes in the ownership of MacMillan Bloedel are indicative of a trend toward the further concentration of forest industry ownership which is, moreover, non-B.C. based.^ As illustrated by this example, the processes generating concentrated ownership in the industry remain strong despite economic restructuring. However, corporate ownership of the forest industry has several unfortunate consequences. Firstly, B.C. is dependent for economic and employment stability on the activities of non-B.C. based corporations such as MacMillan Bloedel whose interests in the province are purely financial. The B.C. forest econonry is thus largely at the mercy of companies whose concerns are not so much with forestry per se, nor with the economic health of the province, but with the opportunities afforded by the sector as a circuit for the investment and transfer of capital (Marchak, 1983, 359). Secondly, revenues collected from the renting of crown land and from stumpage rates which are used to support government programs such as health, welfare and education, are adversely affected by the concentrated ownership of the forest resource. The stumpage rate is based on B.C.'s market price for logs and as such, is an artificial estimate of their value (Marchak, 1983, 355). In the stumpage formula, the average operating cost of production is deducted from the value attributed to logs. The concentrated ownership of the industry means logs are usually traded within individual companies and that 26 The increasingly concentrated ownership of the forest industry is contrary to the notion of disorganised capitalism suggested by Lash and Urry (1987) and Lash and Bagguely (1988). 27 The stumpage formula is equivalent to the value of wood/1 + profit allowance - average operating costs (Copithorne, 1979, 188). 85 competition is limited. Hence, there is no genuine log market in the coastal forest products sector. Logs are undervalued to reduce the amount of stumpage paid, thus creating a shortfall in potential forestry revenues. As reported in the 1976 Pearse Commision: (o)ver half of the crown timber is allocated to the ten largest and most vertically integrated forest products companies under long term agreements, and the "price" paid for this timber is not a competitive price at all, but rather is a passive residual which, at least, in the coastal industry, depends upon the prices the forest companies set on the logs they trade among themselves (Copithorne, 1979, 187). This means stumpage rates (are) "essentially determined by the firms themselves, going through the artificial process of charging their own subsidaries for purchases from other subsidaries" (Marchak, 1988, 179). 4.4.3. T H E R O L E O F O R G A N I S E D L A B O U R Despite the drawbacks of concentrated forest industry ownership, the policies of the I.W.A. (Canada), have supported and maintained corporate control of the forest industry, although its relationship with corporate capitalism has been marked by frequent, severe conflicts of interest. The following discussion draws on Lembcke (1980) and Lembcke and Tattam (1984). Prior to world war two, organised labour had insufficient power to influence greatly the organisation of forest industry production. During the early years of the industry, attempts to organise the labour force were usually frustrated. The first major attempt at organising the forest industry workers was by the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) which developed in 1905. Their activities faced great opposition from employers, and the union was eventually violently undermined, leaving the forestry workers a loosely organised labour movement during the 1920s. 86 During the 1930s, Depression conditions entailed deteriorating working conditions, high unemployment, and low wages, and generated renewed attempts at labour organisation, initially through Communist Party affiliates. The Workers' Unity League and the Lumber Workers' Industrial Union (L.W.I.U.) were established as part of the Communist Party's policy to develop national unions for industrial workers outside of the Trades and Labour Congress (TLC). Again, however, this unionisation drive foundered because of strong opposition, mostly derived from anti-communist sources, including employers and labour leadership rivalry. Only in the early 1940s was labour able to present a stable, coherent, and unified front. During 1941 and 1942, B.C. forest industry workers were incorporated into the International Woodworkers of America, (I.W.A.), a North American labour organisation formed in 1937. This early period of I.W.A. history was fraught with leadership struggles, but conditions for organising labour were nevertheless favourable. For example, compared to its Northwest U.S. counterpart, the B.C. industry was more capital-intensive and its workforce more exploited, and the vertical integration of production created large concentrations of workers with common interests in mill towns or log camps. During the post-war period, the labour movement has faced considerable opposition from corporate capitalists, often in conjunction with the provincial government. However, the I.W.A. has been highly active in confronting such opposition because of its active left wing leadership. The left wing gained strength in the I.W.A. because it sought to improve the poor working conditions experienced by workers in the logging camps, and because of the radical political heritage of the immigrant workforce (Lembcke, 1980, 115). To some degree, the conflicting interests of both labour and capitalists have been tempered and accomodated by the incorporation of the labour movement into the mode of 87 regulation. The I.W.A. accepted the organisation and control of forest industry production by capitalist corporations and within this framework, sought to protect members' jobs, secure family wage earning, and improve working conditions. The owners of forest industry capital,, meanwhile, have been willing to meet some of the union's demands in order to ensure uninterrupted production. Hence, overt class struggle is generally, although not unfailingly, regulated and contained by the tacit and mutual acceptance by both parties of each other. As suggested by Marchak (1988), the I.W.A. recognised that centralised control of the forest industry was in many ways advantageous to its members. Although the Fordist mode of production associated with corporate capitalism is often unsatisfactory from the point of view of labour (for example, mass production generates deskilling, boredom and a lack of control over the pace of work), collective bargaining has provided labour with a platform from which to voice its concerns and demands. During the Fordist regime: the I.W.A. recognised the potential for lowering overall wage settlements of wood products manufacturing if small and non-unionised companies were established. (Therefore) it opposed changes in forest industry legislation that might lead to diversification of the industry at the price of reduced overall wages (Marchak, 1988, 191). For example, the I.W.A. is vehemently opposed to the contracting-out practices of large industry producers. To this end, the union has successfully fought to institute a policy whereby employers cannot sub-contract a task if a suitably qualified union member is available to perform the task. As this example shows, I.W.A. policies are designed to protect members' wage earning capacity and employment. Their policies are a response to, and reinforce, the organisation and nature of the B.C. economy. The high wage return associated with unionised forest industry employment established wage earning patterns throughout the B.C. economy. High wages generated high levels of in-migration, creating a large pool of unemployed, reserve labour. In an economy characterised by a lack of 88 alternative employment opportunities, employed workers earning high wages "are reluctant to consider alternative ways of organising an economy" (Marchak, 1988, 191).^ In addition, "(a)s long as the markets stayed buoyant, companies had a positive incentive to accept higher wage costs as the price of uninterrupted production" (Marchak, 1988, 190). Furthermore, Copithorne (1979) argues that "stumpage regulations make it possible, within limits, to pay wage increases out of government stumpage revenues instead of company profits" (Copithorne, 1097, 188). Negotiation for higher wages generates higher operator costs, which results in the stumpage fee being lowered (Copithorne, 1979, 188). Hence, the profit levels of forest industry corporations are not adversely affected by union demands for higher wages. 4.5. DIVISIONS OF LABOUR IN RESOURCE COMMUNITIES The nature of forest industry development in the post-war period has generated a proliferation of resource-dependent communities in B.C.. Currently, there are 100 single-enterprise communities, which accomodate one-third of B.C.'s non-metropolitan population (Bradbury, J . , 1987, 430), many of which are directly dependent on the forest industry for their livelihood and employment. The divisions of labour prevalent in resource communities are structured largely to meet the requirements of employers. Scott and Storper (1987) draw out this relationship between local industry and community: As localised complexes of industrial production develop and grow, they draw into their spatial orbit a corresponding labour force which more or less embodies within itself the basic skills and human attributes demanded by local employers (Scott and Storper, 1987, 224). 28 Harvey's (1988) notion (indicated in chapter one), that workers were willing to sacrifice workplace rights in order to protect their wage earning capacity and marketplace rights, is applicable to the I.W.A.. 89 The most striking characteristic of the labour force in resource communities is the gender division of labour. Consistent with the arguments outlined in chapter two, I argue that the gender divisions of labour in resource communities are attributable to an accomodation of capitalist and patriarchal interests, as expressed through the activities of a Fordist forest industry and the I.W.A.. 4.5.1. GENDER DIVISIONS OF LABOUR AND T H E I.W.A. The I.W.A.'s protection of members' employment has played a major role in maintaining and deepening gender divisions, to the extent that women in resource communities have been able to expand their employment opportunities only in those sectors (service industry, the public sector) which expanded in the post-war period, in which men did not have a prior monopoly of employment (Marchak, 1983, 247). Since its inception, the I.W.A. has fought for and strongly supported the family wage earning capacity of its members. This is especially true of the I.W.A. (Canada) local 1-80, the local representing employees in the Chemainus sawmill, historically a particularly strong and powerful organising influence. For forest industry workers in this region, "(t)he possibility of a home and of a wage capable of supporting a wife and children provided an incentive to organise" (Diamond, 1984, 290) indicating their adherance to patriarchal norms. In Diamond's discussion of the activities of the I.W.A. locale 1-80 Ladies Auxiliary, established during the 1930s and 1940s, the patriarchal values of the I.W.A. are clearly evident. For example, the union press featured numerous articles pertaining to women which reinforced their role as a homemaker (Diamond, 1984, 295). Women were expected 90 to support the union activity of their husbands, yet their own activities through the Ladies Auxiliary were restricted to household and community support, and contained by I.W.A. directives. Furthermore, "(w)omen woodworkers in the industry received minimal support from the union leadership for demands such as equal pay" (Diamond, 1984, 288), suggesting women were perceived to not merit or require full wage earning potential. Women's participation in forest products manufacturing (as opposed to clerical and secretarial employment), occured because men were removed from the industry in World War Two. Between 1939 and 1943, the number of women employed in the forest industry throughout North America grew from 1% to 11% of the total number of workers, an increase of 50,000 women (Lembcke and Tattam, 1984, 135). However, women did not receive "men's pay" and were gradually removed from the forest industry labour force with the end of the war. Since then, women's participation in the forest products sector has remained minimal. During the 1980s, women comprised an average of 4.7% of the B.C. I.W.A.'s total membership, and 3.2% of local 1-80's total membership (derived from B.C. Labour Directories, 1979-1988). 4.5.2. GENDER DIVISIONS OF LABOUR AND CORPORATE CAPITALISM Gender divisions of labour in resource communities were also established by the employment activities of corporate forest companies: large companies divide their labour force by sex and in effect marginalise women by containing them within clerical and service jobs (Marchak, 1983, 246). The advantage gained by forest industry capitalists in doing this is that a cheaper female labour force "does two necessary jobs, neither of which produces exploitable surplus value" (Marchak, 1983, 247). Women are predominantly employed in the competitive 91 sector of the economy and here provide the services necessary for reproducing labour power in the community's industrial support services, as well as in the domestic sphere. In this way, women in resource communities constitute a "floating reserve labour force" (Marchak, 1983, 234, after Connelly 1978). For the most part, married women either do not work at all and are an "inactive" reserve army of labour, or "move into and out of the labour force in response to domestic demands" (Marchak, 1983, 224). This means that at any one time, a surplus pool of reserve, female labour which is not actively seeking work is available. Meanwhile, a relatively small number of women compete for the limited employment opportunities available, thus ensuring that the wages paid for such work remains minimal. Overall, resource communities under Fordism primarily comprised "two distinct labour forces divided by gender" (Marchak, 1983, 235). Men worked in the monopoly sector of the economy and earnt a family wage, while women were housewives, or worked in non-industrial jobs, their labour force participation being secondary to, and dictated by, their familial and domestic responsibilities. These differences in the employment experience of men and women in resource communities are demonstrated by the following figures. In 1981, in the district of North Cowichan, the municipality in which Chemainus is located, the labour force participation rate of women was 47.2% compared to 77.7% for men, and their unemployment rates, 9.2% and 6% respectively. In terms of sex segregation, 71% of North Cowichan's female labour force was employed in three sectors: clerical and related occupations, sales and services. 51% of the district's male labour force, meanwhile was employed in primary, processing, manufacturing and construction industries. 29 1 refer to data for the municipality of North Cowichan because such information is not available for individual communities at a sub-municipal level. 30 These figures are derived from Canada Census Catalogues, 94-120 (1981, 1986). 92 In chapter six, I suggest the dichotomy between the labour force participation of men and women is undergoing recomposition. The lines along which the labour market was divided under Fordism are being redrawn by forest industry restructuring. The restructuring of the labour force has implications for the persistence of gender relations as rationalised during the post-war period. In the flexible regime, working class interests are being segmented in response to sectoral changes in the economy and the adoption of flexible production techniques in industry. In the following chapter, I discuss the adoption of flexible technology in the coastal forest products sector as the leading edge of change in the labour force participation of forest industry workers. 93 CHAPTER 5 FLEXIBLE TECHNOLOGY AND T H E FOREST PRODUCTS SECTOR 5.1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS This chapter is concerned with the workplace implications of flexible technology, and uses as an example the MacMillan Bloedel Chemainus sawmill. Consistent with the issues outlined in chapter one, the broad economic context for forest industry restructuring and the reorganisation of production in the Chemainus sawmill is argued to be the demise of the Fordist wage relation. Under Fordism, workers fought for, and were paid a family wage. This enabled the reproduction of labour and ensured the affordability of mass consumption. By the 1970s, contradictions in the regulation of labour had developed. Organised labour had gained significant power because of the requirements of Fordist production for a large, un- and semi-skilled workforce. This enabled workers to recognise their collective interests and demand an increasing share of the surplus value. Capitalists' attempts to maintain profitability precipitated a breakdown in the Fordist wage relation in which productivity, wages and mass consumption were inter-linked. These circumstances undermined the demand for lumber manufactured by B.C.'s coastal producers, and the sector became uncompetitive in declining and increasingly competitive markets. Hence, flexible technology was introduced into corporate-owned sawmilling facilities to undermine the gains and power of organised forest industry workers, and to regenerate market demand. Within this framework, five issues are examined in this chapter: i) the nature of technological change in the coastal forest products sector. ii) the rationale underlying the adoption of flexible technology in the forest products sector. 94 iii) the workforce requirements of flexible technology in terms of its size and skill composition. iv) the workplace reorganisation that accompanies flexible technology. v) broader changes in the regulation of labour with respect to the role of labour unions. In discussing each point, I substantiate my arguments with reference to the reorganisation of production at MacMillan Bloedel's Chemainus sawmill. Comments on this occurence were obtained from interviews with individuals representing the I.W.A. local 1-80 and Chemainus' management, and from mill employees. 5.2. TECHNOLOGY AND THE COASTAL FOREST PRODUCTS SECTOR The Canadian forest products sector has long been characterised as a "sunset" industry because of its labour-intensive and under-capitalised nature. Sunset (or mature) industries are distinguished from sunrise industries on the basis of technological characteristics, and whether in the stage of birth, youth, maturity, old age or death (Hayter, 1988, 21). The distinction between these stages of development is one in which the rate of major innovation falls and is oriented toward process optimisation and cost reduction rather than product development (Hayter, 1988, 21). As a mature "Fordist" industry, technological innovation in the forest industry is limited. Technological change is incremental, process oriented, and concerned with labour-saving rather than product development and innovation (Hayter, 1988, 21). Charges of technological obsolescence in the B.C. forest products sector are based on the declining technological advantage of the industry in western Canada vis-a-vis the eastern provinces (Hayter, 1988). Although the majority of new sawmills constructed during the 1950s and 1960s were located in B.C., few new mills have been built in 95 western Canada since 1973 and capital investments in central Canada have been more rapid. Even between 1981 and 1986, "investments (were) overwhelmingly concentrated in central and eastern Canada" (Hayter, 1988, 86). Although sawmills such as the pre-1982 Chemainus facility were arguably technologically obsolete, the early 1980s crisis provided the B.C. industry with an opportunity for "re-birth" and inspired rapid technological innovation in the industry. The application of computerised technology to the coastal forest products sector is a relatively recent phenomena but is revolutionising the industry. Despite the widespread opinion that "the diffusion of forest products technology has not been fast enough" (Hayter, 1988, 67), the majority of coastal producers have applied at least some computer-numerically-controlled (CNC) machinery to their operations. In the Chemainus mill, a "flexible manufacturing system" (FMS) is in place. An FMS is a totally integrated system of production operations in which every stage in the production of lumber is controlled by computer. The advantage of flexible technology over traditional mass production techniques is that the requirements of the machine are programmed by computer and not built into the machinery at the outset (Schoenberger, 1988, 252). In sawmills, a range of lumber types are produced in short production runs while maintaining economies of scale. In a custom-processing mill such as Chemainus, the FMS is programmed to produce lumber according to the specifications of each individual order, and to maximise simultaneously the value of lumber recovered from each log. To explain the rationale underlying the adoption of flexible technology in the coastal forest products sector, I now turn to a discussion of the production reorganisation undertaken by MacMillan Bloedel at the Chemainus sawmill. The company's actions in 96 this respect were part of a broader strategy to improve MacMillan Bloedel's efficiency and profitability. During the early 1980s, MacMillan Bloedel developed new production and marketing strategies to overcome the high production costs associated with forest industry manufacturing. Two major barriers to profitability were identified: high labour costs, due to powerful labour unions, and fixed tax costs (MacMillan Bloedel, 1984). Because the object of my analysis is employment change, I discuss only the implications of restructuring for labour although we should recall that the state is a powerful third actor in Fordism. As discussed more explicitly in the preceding chapter, the state plays a crucial O 1 role in regulating and enabling capitalist accumulation. In this context it is useful to consider Lash and Bagguely's (1988) claim that whenever a collective actor (labour, capital, or the state) was particularly strong in the Fordist regime, it was often a major structuring force in the flexible regime (Lash and Bagguely, 1988, 336). In the B.C. forest products sector, changes in the mode of regulation were initiated by corporate capitalism in close alliance with the provincial government in order to secure an institutional environment more amenable to accumulation. For the most part, labour has been at the receiving end of these initiatives. 5.3. M O D E R N I S A T I O N O F T H E C H E M A I N U S S A W M I L L The circumstances which precipitated and surround the closure of the Chemainus sawmill in 1983 generated a number of controversies. Following short, temporary lay-offs at the end of 1981, the mill was closed for an indefinite and prolonged period in May 1982. At the time. MacMillan Bloedel claimed to be unsure about the future of the mill which depended on future market demand for lumber. In February 1983, however, despite 31 In the 1985 budget, the B.C. government responded to the corporate forest industry's complaints about fixed tax costs by removing taxes on business property and fixed capital (see Fairey, 1986). 32 In referring to Lash and Bagguely's work, I have substituted the terms Fordism and flexible regime where they use the terms organised and disorganised capitalism. 97 improving market conditions, the definite closure of the mill was announced, to take effect in April 1983. For a short period, the notice of closure was revoked. MacMillan Bloedel was under pressure from the I.W.A. to operate the mill on a down-sized basis, and from the provincial government to maintain production at Chemainus. The company's Tree Farm Licences had been renewed in 1981, but under the condition that Noranda modernise or replace the Chemainus mill. This condition was based on the obligation contained in TFLs that companies maintain employment in the province. Indeed, the TFL is partly "a contract in which a private company undertakes to provide employment and maintain processing facilities...in return for an assured supply of crown timber" (brief submitted to MacMillan Bloedel by I.W.A. local 1-80, 1983). Despite MacMillan BloedePs apparent failure to fulfil these obligations, the Minister of Forests claimed not to have the legislative authority to remove timber from MacMillan Bloedel's TFLs. This, and the unwillingness of MacMillan Bloedel to adopt the I.W.A.'s suggestions that the mill be operated on a down-sized basis, resulted in the eventual closure of the Chemainus sawmill in August 1983. Within a few months, however, the company announced the demolition of the existing mill and its replacement with a new state-of-the-art processing facility. There are several possible reasons for the closure of the Chemainus sawmill. Although MacMillan Bloedel claimed that the mill was unprofitable for five of the eight years preceding its closure (Casselton, 1983), company wide losses occured only in 1982 as table 1 (overleaf) shows. Furthermore, several factors indicate that the company was in a position to bear such losses and could have attempted to upgrade the facility. Firstly, despite the obsolescence of the Chemainus mill, an apparent profitability crisis, and recessionary conditions, MacMillan Bloedel had invested in processing facilities elsewhere, for example, in Port Alberni, and especially outside B.C. For example, in 1980, the 98 company invested a record $328 million in capital expenditures, of which $274 million was invested in Alabama, U.S.A.. A significant amount was also invested in Brasil with the transfer of Embrasca, Brascan's Brasilian forest products operations to MacMillan Bloedel. Secondly, the I.W.A. accused MacMillan Bloedel of exporting raw logs, which if processed in B.C. could have provided 1000 jobs (I.W.A. sources, 1988). Thirdly, a study carried out by the I.W.A. local 1-80 suggests that MacMillan Bloedel was controlling the pricing of its internal log market so that the Chemainus mill paid higher prices for its logs than other MacMillan Bloedel facilities. For example, prior to its closure, the Chemainus mill was paying $14 more per 1000 fbm of logs than MacMillan Bloedel's Alberni Pacific facility (I.W.A. sources, 1988). Table 1; Earn ings from M a c M i l l a n Bloedel operations and M a c M i l l a n Bloedel 's net earnings 1979-1986. Year Operating earnings (loss) Net earnings (loss) $millions $millions 1979 258.0 154.9 1980 246.0 113.2 1981 7.2 3.3 1982 (66.8) (57.3) 1983 40.5 23.9 1984 67.2 19.3 1985 108.9 42.9 1986 222.5 178.3 (Source: Figures compiled from MacMillan Bloedel corporate reports 1979-1986). 99 In view of such observations, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the closure of the Chemainus mill and its replacement by a technologically advanced facility was not, as the company argued, entirely a response to changing market conditions and needs. Certainly, one can surmise that the company's actions prior to the mill's closure were designed to precipitate the opportunity to rationalise the facility. The evidence presented suggests that modernisation of the Chemainus mill was part of a longer term strategy. As early as 1979, MacMillan Bloedel had announced their plan "to replace our sawmill at Chemainus" (MacMillan Bloedel, 1979, 7). The intention to construct "a large new sawmill at Chemainus" was reiterated in 1981 (Knudsen, 1981, 4). The long drawn-out decision to close the mill and its timing suggest the early 1980s crisis was not responsible for the occurence. Rather, the recession was an opportunity for Noranda to restructure MacMillan Bloedel facilities into a more profitable and competitive form without having to consider local or community employment obligations. Organised labour, moreover, was in too weak a position to offer much resistance because of high unemployment rates. . I will now discuss the marketplace and workplace characteristics of the two Chemainus sawmills to highlight the differences between the capabilities of Fordist production and flexible technology. Despite substantial changes in workplace organisation, the autonomy of labour remains limited and its power is highly constrained, although by very different mechanisms than were prevalent in Fordist production facilities. The adoption of flexible technology in the Chemainus mill was a means of undermining the gains attained by labour, increasing labour productivity (Hayter, 1988, 95), and fulfilling a demand for specialised rather than standardised lumber. 5.4. MARKET REORIENTATION OF THE CHEMAINUS PROCESSING FACILITY Technological change was undertaken by MacMillan Bloedel at Chemainus partly in an attempt to increase its ability to respond flexibly to the differentiated demands of specialised markets rather than having to depend on the increasingly competitive U.S. housing market. During the 1970s and 1980s several factors significantly altered the competitive conditions faced by B.C. lumber . producers. For example, greater self-sufficiency in consuming regions, the advent of new competitors, and technological developments altered the supply and demand balance for most producers (MacMillan Bloedel, 1984). The coastal forest products sector felt the effects of competition particularly from interior facilities which as we saw, developed later than the coastal industry and were consequently more efficiently equipped. Figure 1 (overleaf) illustrates B.C. lumber production by region 1945-1987. The rate of growth of the interior forest products sector clearly outstrips that experienced by coastal producers. The major consumer of lumber produced by both coastal and interior facilities throughout the post-war period was the U.S. housing market. Figure 2 illustrates the close relationship between the number of U.S. housing starts and B.C. lumber output. As can be seen, the collapse of the U.S. housing market, initiated by high interest rates, significantly reduced the demand for B.C. lumber. Although the U.S. remains the major destination for shipments of B.C. lumber (see table 2), this is largely due to the exporting activities of interior producers. The phenomenal increase in the rate of production by interior facilities in the post-war period and their greater cost competitiveness, stimulated coastal producers to seek alternative markets in the 1970s. 101 Figure 1: B . C . Lumber Production by Region 1945-1987. 11 OOO Interior 71% 10000 9000 8000 7000 Ql ft) 6000 "O L. a o a 5ooo 1000 Coast 29% Total (1987) 15.8 Billion FBM I I I I I 82 84 86 I I I I I | I I I I I 50 60 70 72 74 76 78 80 1945 55 65 71 73 75 77 79 81 83 85 87 (Source: Council of Forest Industries of B.C. , 1988, 12). 102 As indicated on table 2, lumber shipments to Japan increased rapidly during the late 1970s. Between 1961 and 1981, the Japanese share of B.C. lumber exports rose from below 1% to 19% (Financial and Economic Review, 1982, 64). The market reorientation of the Chemainus sawmill is typical of changes in the market distribution of coastal lumber. Table 3 shows the percentage distribution of the mill's sales by major market in 1981 and 1987. The major trends are a decline in both the U.S. and domestic markets, the dominance of the Japanese market and an increasing share by the E.E.C. and other markets, such as South America and the Middle-East. Figure 2: Relationship between U.S. Housing Starts and B.C. Lumber Production. United States Housing Starts British Columbia Lumber Production (Source: Financial and Economic Review, 1983) Table 2: Value of Lumber Shipments by Market ($ millions and as percentage of total lumber exports). 1972 D e s t i n a t i o n Value % 1976 Value 1980 Value % 1982 Value 1985 Value 1986 Value % U.S. Japan U.K. Other EEC 771.3 85.2 44.3 4.9 37.1 4.1 19.8 2.2 952.6 71.1 145.4 10.9 101.8 7.6 71.0 5-3 1 , 3 6 7 . 2 55 .5 501 .6 20.4 I69.I 6.9 238 .4 9-7 1,058.8 57.3 384.5 21.0 135.0 7.3 110.7 6.0 2,114.9 74.3 397-5 14.0 93.6 3.3 75.9 2.7 2,217.2 72.0 473.9 15-3 173.2 5.6 118.4 3.8 T o t a l 909.2 100.0 1,339.8 100.0 2,461.1 1Q0.0 1,846.2 100.0 2,847.9 100.0 3,091.0 100.0 (Source: Figures derived from Financial and Economic Review 1980-87). Table 3; Percentage Distribution of Chemainus Sawmill Lumber Sales by Market. Destination 1981 1987 British Columbia 0 15 Rest of Canada 5 10 United States 10 20 Japan 40 40 Other Pacific Rim 15 5 E.E.C. 18 10 Other 12 0 Value of sales ($m) 68.5 (1986) 45 Value of export sales ($m) 65.0 (1986) 25 (Source: Fieldwork 1988) Although the U.S. remains a major market for coastal producers such as MacMillan Bloedel (see table 4 overleaf), many producers began, during the early 1980s, to concentrate on manufacturing higher grade, higher value lumber for more specialised overseas markets. Changes in the type of lumber being produced and marketed parallel changes in the destination of exports. For example, prior to its closure in 1982, the major product of the Chemainus mill was dimension lumber used in the construction industry. The range of output was limited by Fordist, product-specific machinery, and standard size lumber (mostly 2' x 4's) was produced in large volumes to obtain economies-of-scale and meet the demands of a mass market for lumber. 105 Table 4: Percentage Sales of MacMillan Bloedel Wood Products by Market. Destination 1976 1979 1980 1984 1986 U.S. 44 47 41 53.1 56.0 Canada 24 19 20 17.7 18.6 Europe 19 20 21 11.7 10.6 Japan/Orient 7 9 10 10.4 10.2 Other 6 5 8 7.1 4.6 Sales of Lumber ($m) 420.3 734.7 705.3 649.0 770.0 (Source: Figures compiled from MacMillan Bloedel Corporate Reports 1979-1986). In contrast, the new mill, opened in January 1985, was intended to "replace the antiquated Chemainus sawmill - a mill built for the markets and competitive forces of a bygone era" (MacMillan Bloedel, 1984, 3). The new mill symbolised the first major step in MacMillan Bloedel's Hemlock Program which was initiated in 1984 and was "designed specifically for cost-effective extraction of the maximum value from high quality hemlock and balsam logs". These species constitute 60% of MacMillan Bloedel's timber base (MacMillan Bloedel, 1984, 5), and are often primary growth trees.^ The program's emphasis on quality rather than quantity of output was planned to overcome and offset the high processing costs due to high labour, logging and delivery 33 An oft cited reason for re-equipping lumber plants is the need to process small rather than large logs. However, 57% of the timber base managed by MacMillan Bloedel comprises old growth forest, suggesting the transition from primary to secondary growth trees is not in this case, the reason for introducing new technology. costs (MacMillan Bloedel, 1984, 3), and to maximise the value extracted from each log. In order to improve the grade and quality of lumber, old sawmills had to be "modernised or replaced with smaller, more efficient mills" (MacMillan Bloedel, 1984, 3). In sawmills employing Fordist production techniques, high grade lumber is less profitable to manufacture than lower quality grades due to the extensive finishing and "tidying up" processes required. However, with the availability of computerised technology which enables a wider range of profitable processing options, MacMillan Bloedel planned for each sawmill to "specialise in particular grades and species of logs" and to "match its unique mix of logs to those end-uses which best fit the value potential that can be realised from (the) timber resource" (MacMillan Bloedel, 1984, 3). The major product of the new mill is rough green "clear" lumber. Clear refers to lumber which is derived from the outer section of the log and is free of "blemishes" such as knots. Clear lumber is high quality lumber, suitable for use in industrial markets, and is often re-manufactured into products such as window frames, doors, ladders and mouldings (MacMillan Bloedel, 1984). Despite an overall reduction in capacity, the volume of high grade lumber recovered in the new mill is three times greater than in its predecessor (MacMillan Bloedel, 1984, 5). Greater product differentiation is also possible because the installation of computerised technology permits greater flexibility. The production of a wider range of lumber types, sizes and grades allows the Chemainus mill to fulfil the diverse requirements of specific customer orders. For example, the Japanese market requires a variety of lumber dimensions, typically "baby-fours" (4'x4's) plus a range of other less common non-standard sizes. As suggested by a representative of Chemainus' management, custom processing enables the mill to respond flexibly to the needs of a broad market rather than having to find a specific market subsequent to processing. 34 Despite the availability of a high quality resource, the rugged mountainous terrain and remoteness from major markets result in high log harvesting and delivery costs. 107 Sales figures for the Chemainus mill indicate the success of the Hemlock Program and flexible technology in rapidly increasing profitability. In 1981, the lumber distributed by the Chemainus sawmill was worth $45 million, of which, $25 million was exported. In 1986, however, these figures were $68.5 million and $65.0 million respectively, revealing a phenomenal increase in the value of lumber produced and exported (fieldwork, 1988 - see table 3). Flexible technology is the factor enabling producers such as MacMillan Bloedel to meet the requirements of diverse markets for high grade lumber, both in terms of destination and end-users. Flexible technology allows forest products manufacturers to overcome the marketplace limitations associated with dependence on the mass consumption of standardised, relatively low value lumber and to meet the demand for more specialised products. Of greater significance to the workforce, the adoption of flexible technology has also undermined the position of organised labour, reduced labour costs, and in so doing, restructured the labour force. In the following section, I discuss three issues which suggest flexible technology has primarily been adopted to regulate labour: the reduced labour force requirements of flexible technology, the recomposition of the workforce, and changes in the organisation of work. 5.5. THE LABOUR FORCE IMPLICATIONS OF FLEXIBLE TECHNOLOGY 5.5.1. The issue of most immediate concern is the reduced labour force requirements of flexible technology. As the forest products sector undergoes the transition from labour-intensive to capital-intensive industry, households and communities dependent on lumber producers for employment have much to fear from technological change. At Chemainus the size of the workforce is the most immediate difference between the former mill and the 108 replacement one. In contrast to the former mill which employed 654 workers at the end of 1981, the present one employed 145 after its first year of business, rising to 161 in 1988 (fieldwork, 1988). Furthermore, although the capacity of the mill declined from 225 million fbm to 160 million fbm, labour productivity in the flexible mill is 300% greater than in the previous mill. The employment losses experienced at Chemainus are not an isolated incident. Table 5 shows the number of employment losses due to the restructuring of MacMillan Bloedel by Noranda Inc.. Employment declines within individual plants are largely attributable to technological change. Despite criticisms of the forest products sector for being slow to modernise, record production levels have been achieved within the province since 1985 but at the expense of 25,000 jobs (Fairey, 1986, 20). Between 1979 and 1982, employment in the B.C. forest products sector declined by 22,883, with 8,757 of these jobs being lost in the lumber sector (Farris, 1983, in Hayter, 1987, 223). A frequently endorsed opinion is that the forest products sector needs to invest extensively in technological innovation in order to remain competitive (eg. Hayter, 1988, 99). Such a viewpoint is based solely on profitability and accumulation criteria and needs to be tempered by a statement recognising the adverse consequences of technical change. Although technological change occasionally generates employment, usually in relation to product innovation, forest industry restructuring has generated permanent employment dislocations, not just transient lay-offs (Marchak, 1983). Marchak's (1988) statement that there "is no prospect that industry employment rates of the 1970's will ever again be attained in B.C." (Marchak, 1988, 178) is a recognition of the debilitating impact of technological change on employment levels. As argued by Schoenberger (1988), it is misplaced to rely on economic growth to remedy the sudden increase in unemployment caused by the adoption of flexible technology for even with increasing levels of output, flexible manufacturing "does not seem likely to absorb the quantity of production workers characteristic of Fordism in its heyday" (Schoenberger, 1988, 259). 109 Table 5: Employment change in selected MacMillan Bloedel facilities in B.C. 1980- 1984. Employment Employment Reason for Location Product 1980 1984 Changeb Change Vancouver Head-office 1200 560 -737 RE' Chemainus Lumber 682 100 -562 M Vancouver Lumber 740 400 -340 RA Vancouver Plywood 400 0 -400 RA Vancouver Particleboard 91 70 -21 I Port Alberni Plywood 450 375 -75 / Port Alberni Lumber 1600 950 -650 M a Port Alberni Pulp, paper 1522 1249 -273 M Powell River Pulp,paper,lumber 2335 1598 -737 M Harmac Pulp, lumber 1399 1347 -52 I a New Westminster Containers 161 156 -5 / Burnaby Paper bags 94 94 0 / New Westminster Fine paper 222 372 + 150 E RE = reorganisation, M = modernisation, RA = rationalisation, I = intensification, E=expansion. a Job changes were also affected by cutbacks caused by poor markets and decreased production. b employment change 1979 - 1984. (Source: Hayter, 1987, 223) 110 5.5.2. The nature of jobs being eliminated is an issue of further interest, for the skills required by flexible technology differ substantially from those associated with traditional Fordist production techniques. My research in Chemainus suggests the numerous un-skilled and semi-skilled tasks created by mass production technology are made obsolete by flexible manufacturing. The remaining skilled tasks are downgraded or recomposed in order to make them accessible to a wider range of workers, thus reducing dependence on a few, highly trained and specialised workers. Although the definition of skills is a q C controversial issue, I distinguish between skill levels on the basis of length of training required to perform a task, and, or, possession of a trade certificate. In sawmills such as Chemainus, the most concentrated point of job loss due to flexible technology is in lumber sorting. Lumber sorting was previously a highly labour-intensive task, performed on the "green chain". Unskilled workers were simply required to pull lumber off a conveyor belt and place it in the appropriate pile. In technologically advanced mills, lumber is sorted automatically into different bins by a j-bar, according to its size, grade and species. In terms of employment loss, it is significant that the j-bar sorter has been widely adopted throughout the coastal forest products sector and is virtually universal in use. In the former Chemainus mill, approximately 30 workers were employed per shift on the green chain, a total of 90 workers if the mill was operating three shifts. In the new mill, only a handful of workers are required to oversee the automatic sorting of lumber to ensure the process is running smoothly. The "time that anyone (who was) down on their luck or out of work could..head for a sawmill and pull on the green chain" (Ellis, 1980, 5), is obviously long past. 35 See Gaskell (1987) for a discussion of the role of trade unions in establishing skill-defining criteria. These practices have contributed to the under-valuation of the skills asociated with women's work and have protected the skill levels of tradesmen by restricting entry to unions. I l l In the case of lumber planing, the entire processing operation has been removed from the mill due to flexible production techniques. In the old Chemainus mill, approximately 90 workers were employed in the planer mill to pull lumber off two planing chains. Because planing is now undertaken by a non-unionised contractor, the new mill is not equipped with planing facilities and the entire workforce previously associated with planing tasks has been eliminated. In terms of skilled employment, largely associated in the case of lumber production with the sawing and cutting of logs, the adoption of flexible technology has significantly altered the composition of such tasks. For example, the sawyer was previously required to rapidly assess, by eye, the characteristics of a log and to align the sawblades in position so as to maximise the value of lumber recovered. In flexible mills, however, logs are read and measured automatical!}'. In use at Chemainus are laser sensing devices which are used to profile logs (Tillman, 1985, 186), to measure their length, width and height, and to assess the best way to cut logs so as to maximise recovery and revenue. In addition, the emission of laser lines is a visual aid to log cutting. Although the sawyer, and others such as edgers and trimmers, need greater computer operating ability, their decision-making and judgement skills are no longer essential. While computer-operating skills are relatively generalisable, the ability to "read" logs and understand the techniques and processes involved in efficiently converting logs into lumber are much more specialised skills, acquired only through training and extensive experience. Overall, in technologically advanced mills such as Chemainus, computers have taken over from labour "the job of deciding, at high speed, the most profitable lengths into which each log should be cut" (Ellis, 1980, 5). The type of skills associated with the flexible technology prevalent in the Chemainus mill can be secured by a greater number of workers, thus ensuring labour is expendable, or 112 mobile across tasks as required. Workers are "skill-flexible" and provide companies with "functional flexibility", being interchangeable between several tasks (Atkinson, 1985, Jessop et al, 1987). In contrast to the specialised skills required by a small number of workers in the Fordist era, the skills associated with flexible technology are generalisable and can often be learnt in training programs not related to the processing facility. Although flexible technology may create some specialised, skilled tasks, these are more likely to be in the research and design fields rather than production, and are insufficient in number to offset the employment losses generated within production facilities. In my study, I interviewed twenty five employees of the former Chemainus mill, eleven of whom were re-hired to work in the new mill. Without exception, these eleven possessed either a trade certificate, or experience or training in operating a particular piece of machinery, or were perceived by management to be capable of "skill-flexibility" (fieldwork, 1988). The hiring of workers in the flexible mill is creating an employment structure in which low-skilled, repetitive tasks and the commensurate need for semi-skilled workers is being reduced (Piore, 1986, 158). The remaining tasks are being recomposed and are defined as skilled, but are less specialised and more amenable to employee interchangeability than was the case with skilled workers in the Fordist regime. 5.5.3. As typified by the organisation of labour in the Chemainus mill, the need for a skill-flexible workforce is often accompanied by the development of work teams on the shop-floor. In theoretical terms, work teams appear to involve a move away from hierarchical and technical systems of control and are associated with the "socio-technical system" of workplace organisation (Mansell, 1987). In contrast to the scientific management principles of labour control and restraint, the socio-technical system rests on the notion that in order "to achieve organisation effectiveness, the basic structures of the organisation must directly meet the needs of both the organisation's technical system and 113 its people (and) must be co-designed to fit together in such a way as to accomodate and support each other" (Mansell, 1987, 12). In its pure form, the work team is a group of employees "who have collective responsibility for a natural, whole unit of work. The teams are self-regulating in that they exercise considerable autonomy in planning, integrating, executing and monitoring the set of interdependent tasks within their work unit" (Mansell, 1987, 13). This description of the function of work teams has been used by the MIT school to glorify the workplace reorganisation associated with flexible production. Management officials also tend to emphasise the positive aspects of technological change. Such is the case at the Chemainus mill. Flexible technology is argued by management to be reskilling and workers are said to benefit from broader job definitions and the opportunity to partake in a number of tasks rather than the single, repetitive, often deskilled task associated with traditional Fordist production techniques. Unfortunately, the semi-autonomous work group idea as developed in theoretical terms has often been "badly bastardised" in its practical application (Mansell, 1987, 17). "The language of the socio-technical systems approach is now being used widely to describe workplace innovations that bear little, if any resemblance to it" (Mansell, 1987, 17). Lash and Bagguely (1988) suggest that apparently similar industrial relations may be used to favour either managerial or labour interests. For example, the flexibility of job tasks may involve increased exploitation and job loss or genuine job enrichment. Similarly, worker participation and increased interaction with management may function either to pass information up to management or as instruments of industrial democracy (Lash and Bagguely, 1988, 323). In the coastal forest products sector, and the Chemainus sawmill specifically, I suggest the work team does not operate in its pure form or in workers' interests but is used to further capitalist accumulation goals. 114 This is the position taken by the French Regulationists, who portray workplace reorganisation as primarily a means of assuring worker control. Aglietta (1979) describes the job rotation and enrichment associated with work teams as the "ultimate extensions of the principles of Fordism and Taylorism" (Aglietta, 1979, 128). As a means of organising production, work teams simultaneously control and increase the productivity of labour. In Chemainus, for example, work teams are semi-autonomous groups responsible for a particular part of the production process. This does not mean, however, that individual workers have control over their labour or the rate of production. Instead, the worker is denied "influence over the manufacturing process due to its automatic control by the computer" (Aglietta, 1979, 129). In the Chemainus mill, control of production remains centralised, being coordinated by a centrally-controlled computerised system. The performance and productivity of labour are determined by the rate of production of the flexible manufacturing system. The entire FMS is based on the "ability to construct machines that control their own operations" (Aglietta, 1979, 124). Workers remain "appendages" of the machine rather than the computer becoming the "artisan's tool" as suggested by Piore and Sabel (1984). The organisation of labour into work teams also ensures the expendability of "skill-flexible" workers. Skilled workers are less easy to replace than un-skilled or semi-skilled workers performing homogeneous tasks, and require greater investment and training on the part of the company. In the Chemainus mill, for example, employees are required to develop a range of skills and receive in-house training to this end. Typically, employees are trained initially to obtain trade certificates such as grading and first-aid, and may then apply for training for more specialised tasks. The provision of in-house training means the company is inclined to retain its workforce, a situation which potentially empowers labour. To undermine the value of workers' skills, they are organised into work teams and learn 115 the skills which are relevant within this smaller group. Workers are thus trained and organised so as to be expendable and replaceable. Skill-flexibility is contained within a work team, a situation which restricts workers' knowledge to a limited set of production tasks and ensures production is not adversely affected by absenteeism. Perhaps the most significant consequence of work teams is the fragmentation of worker interests into smaller groups. The development of a collective consciousness due to mutual interests is impaired because of the disparate nature of tasks and their division between different groups of workers. In addition, the application of management work norms and targets may create inter-work team competition, and pressure within the group to attain specified output goals. For example, productivity bonuses and incentive schemes may generate competition between different shifts of workers, and enforce a collective "self-discipline" among individual group members (Armstrong et al, 1984, 399). In the sawmill, competition is particularly evident between the three shifts of workers, each of which comprises approximately 30-40 workers. The productivity levels of the shifts are recorded and advertised on the premises, providing the opportunity for comparison. Such methods polarise the labour force and emphasise individual or group interests at the expense of broader class interests. Furthermore, in the Chemainus sawmill the production process is controlled by computerised technology and not by the work teams. The specialised judgement skills of trades-persons have been undermined by flexible technology and the pace of work is set by the machinery. As stated by Ellis (1980), in technologically advanced sawmills, "computers control log sorters, lumber sorters, head rigs, bucking stations, slasher decks, end doggers, setwork - virtually everything formerly monitored by decision-making humans" (Ellis, 1980, 4). 116 Several interviewees recognised the positive aspects of the team system, namely that job rotation reduced boredom and made it possible to learn more. In addition, management labour relations were felt to be outwardly less antagonistic. A monthly meeting is held, involving both parties, to discuss the mill's finances, investment plans, and so forth. However, these attempts at management-labour cooperation were acknowledged by a number of respondents to be superficial. Despite the greater availability of information, management retains control of the operation, and workers are still denied any real power to institute initiatives or reforms. 5.5.4. The concept of a flexible labour force is contrary to the traditionally rigid task demarcations associated with unionism (Schoenberger, 1988, 253) and raises questions about the impact of technological change on the nature and role of collective bargaining. To obtain the broad definitions of job tasks required by flexible technology, the owners of capital have had to renegotiate work rules with the unions. The willingness of labour to cooperate in the restructuring of work relationships (Schoenberger, 1988, 253) is largely attributable to their lack of alternatives. The work team system, for example, represents the "imposition of a new, less splintered division of labour on trade unions (that are) in a weak position to resist resulting job losses" (Armstrong et al, 1984, 399). In the coastal forest products sector, the high incidence of job loss during the early 1980s undermined the power of the I.W.A. (Canada) to resist the creation of employment regardless of the terms involved. Union membership figures indicate the extent of job loss in the forest industry during the recession period. Membership of B.C.'s I.W.A. declined from 51,008 at the end of 1979 to 32,805 at the end of 1983, a decrease of 36% in 4 years. By the end of 1988, membership had risen to 33,723 but remained 34% lower than in 1979 (derived from B.C. Labour Directories, 1978-1988). 117 The I.W.A. local 1-80 experienced more extreme and rapid declines in its membership rate. Between the end of 1981 and 1983, its membership declined 76% from 5500 to 1330. By the end of 1988, membership had increased to 2630, a figure still 52% below that in 1981 (derived from B.C. Labour Directories, 1978-1988). The decimation of union membership meant the I.W.A. was too weak to prevent the closure of the Chemainus sawmill or successfully negotiate for downsizing, and was unable to resist the workplace reorganisation sought by MacMillan Bloedel at the Chemainus mill. The procedure followed by the I.W.A. is to negotiate members' rights with the work crew of a particular mill within the contractural framework sought by the company. Hence, at Chemainus, MacMillan Bloedel were able to build job rotation and task flexibility into the workers' contract, and to overcome the traditionally more rigid occupational definitions. MacMillan Bloedel's intransigence to union demands and procedures, and its rehiring policies, are indicative of the policies pursued by corporate capitalism during the restructuring period to undermine the rigidity of Fordist labour regulation. The company resisted union demands to operate the old mill on a down-sized basis and ensured the mill was closed long enough to allow a clause requiring workers to be rehired according to seniority to lapse. This clause was designed to guarantee employment security to union members and required workers to be rehired according to the length of their membership with that I.W.A. local. With the lapsing of this clause, MacMillan Bloedel was free to ignore workers' seniority rights, and hire whosoever it chose. Discussions with an I.W.A. representative and residents of Chemainus indicate that this strategy generated widespread hostility to MacMillan Bloedel because their rehiring practices by-passed numerous workers who had served loyally with the mill for most of their lives. Despite the extensive experience of former mill employees and the availability of a large reserve labour force from which to rehire workers (654 workers having been laid off 118 from the old mill), only 60 former employees were selected to work in the new mill (which currently employs approximately 160 workers). In addition, it is widely felt, by officials of I.W.A. local 1-80, former and current employees of the Chemainus mill, and their spouses, that the company is hiring "green" labour with little background in sawmilling employment in order to guarantee a compliant labour force. Several interview respondents and an I.W.A. representative cited two reasons for MacMillan Bloedel's hiring practices. In the words of Meurer et al (1987), these are "to reduce the union's presence on the shop floor" and "to gradually purge from the workforce those workers with "memory" of a unionised employment relation" (Meurer et al, 1987, in Gertler, 1988b, 426). 5.6. SUMMARY REMARKS The undermining of the labour movement associated with industrial restructuring and the introduction of flexible technology tells us much about the rationale underlying the reorganisation of production. The owners of capital took advantage of the circumstances generated by the early 1980s regulation crisis, notably a weakening in the power of labour due to unemployment, in order to restructure their industries. The net result - renewed if not record rates of profitability - is at the expense of labour and the institutions which during the Fordist regime had guaranteed workers some degree of security, protection and support. Although flexible industrial accumulation remains based on Fordist production principles, it is nevertheless significantly different from Fordism in terms of workplace organisation and the mode of regulation. In the workplace, flexible technology allows the owners of capital to employ a smaller labour force and organise workers into smaller groups, thus inhibiting the recognition of collective interests and undermining the power of organised labour. In term of regulation, union membership is much reduced and the labour 119 movement weakened, and the mass consumption of standardised goods manufactured in western industrialised countries is no longer the dominant market. A discussion of the implications of flexible technology in the workplace provides only a partial analysis of the changes wrought by flexible accumulation. A fuller picture of the impact and characteristics of this new regime can be gained only by considering changes in the nature and means of social reproduction due to restructuring. To this end, the following chapter examines the changes that arose in the division of labour between both different forms of work and between men and women, because of the transition to a flexible regime. CHAPTER 6 SOCIAL REPRODUCTION AND RESTRUCTURING IN CHEMAINUS 6.1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS In this chapter I present the results of a questionnaire survey carried out in Chemainus, B.C. which was designed to assess changes in the participation of men and women in the formal and informal sectors due to the transition from a Fordist to a flexible regime of accumulation. My findings are analysed with reference to the issues outlined in the first three chapters. The study comprises 25 in-depth interviews with households "headed" by an employee of the former Chemainus sawmill. Without exception, the former employees I interviewed were all male, and their spouses were at no time employed in the production facility. In each case I interviewed either one or both partners.^ The questionnaire (see appendix) comprised a number of questions relating to the work and employment experience of former mill employees and their spouses, and was designed to establish the work histories of the respondents in the last ten years. Respondents were asked to provide details of their participation in both formal and informal work. Additional questions sought to establish the composition of respondents' households during this period including general changes in household needs and income levels. During the interviews, which generally lasted 2-3 hours, respondents' insights into developments surrounding the mill and the community were also discussed. The study is based on the notion that forest industry restructuring in the early 1980s, and the adoption of flexible technology, has undermined the availability of unionised, 36 In one household, the poor relationship between the husband and wife meant I was unable to gain a full set of information, particularly as regards communal and self-provisioning activities. Hence, the analysis of my results comprises either 24 or 25 households depending on whether the relevant information was available in this instance. 121 family wage earning for men. The workforce has subsequently been recomposed along more flexible lines. Within this context, I discuss several issues. Firstly, I show that a crucial process in the restructuring of the labour force was the adoption by households of informal means of household reproduction. Participation in the informal sector was necessary because opportunities for formal employment were scarce during the transition period. I show that irregular work is inversely related to formal employment whereas communal work and self-provisioning are a "preferred" means of reproduction rather than a direct response to the organisation of capitalist accumulation. Secondly, I investigate the longer term implications of flexible accumulation for social reproduction. In particular, I argue that sectoral changes in the economy are generating, in resource towns such as Chemainus, significant, long-lasting changes in the division of labour between formal and informal work, and in terms of gender relations and patriarchy. The works of Atkinson (1985) and Harvey (1987) are used to explain sectoral changes in the economy and the labour market segmentation prevalent in a flexible regime. I show that the formal sector remains, as in the Fordist regime, the predominant means of generating income, and that patriarchal gender relations are being restructured with respect to women's greater labour force participation. Before presenting and analysing my results I discuss with reference to Chemainus, the need to study forest industry restructuring in resource dependent communities. I also provide some information about the study area and the households I sampled. 6.2. RESOURCE COMMUNITIES AND RESTRUCTURING Mackenzie (1987) argues that the early 1980s crisis generated "some enduring changes in our way of life in Canada" (Mackenzie, 1987, 248). This is particularly true for resource 122 extracting and processing regions which were seriously affected by deindustrialisation. Such regions are particularly vulnerable to economic restructuring because of their dependence on a single industry or even a single company for employment. The adoption of flexible technology throughout the forest products sector is generating "jobless growth", or perhaps more accurately, growth at the expense of jobs. In communities like Chemainus, the shedding of employment by major forest products corporations is reducing the - availability of full-time, unionised employment opportunites for men (See pages 116-117 for declines in I.W.A. membership). The adverse impact of employment losses is heightened in resource dependent communities such as Chemainus because of the limited availability of alternative employment opportunities. Because of this lack of employment diversity in Chemainus, particularly during the recessionary period, it is reasonable to expect that the amount of informal work undertaken by households increased due to the closure of the Chemainus mill. This occurence is contrary to Pahl's (1984) results in which informal sector participation is associated with formal employment. In discussing my results, I suggest several factors specific to the study area account for this difference. The implications of the loss of men's family wage earning capacity for the role of women as income generators is also examined. In resource communities, men and women often strongly adhere to patriarchal norms. Indeed, "the division of the labour force by sex which occurs throughout the economy is sharpened in resource regions, especially in company or otherwise single industry towns" (Marchak, 1979, 56). This is because of the availability of only "a narrow range of employment possibilities, usually dominated by traditionally male occupations" (Andrew and Moore Milroy, 1988, 4). 123 My analysis suggests, however, that due to an increase in non-unionised employment which is insecure, low-paying, lacks full benefits and may be part-time or casual, a conventional male breadwinner-housewife division of labour is not only less practical in the flexible regime but is also no longer in the interests of those working class households in which the man's labour force activities have been involuntarily peripheralised. The rationale which underlay patriarchal and capitalist accomodation in the Fordist regime is being transformed with the weakening of labour unions and the creation of a flexible labour market. Women are being called upon to perform a "double day" of work as they are increasingly employed in the formal sector, and, meanwhile, retain responsibility for household reproduction tasks. 6.3. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY Before presenting my results, it is important to outline several points relating to the study area and the households sampled. Although I interviewed only 25 couples, the sample represents 10% of households of mill employees resident in Chemainus at the time of the mill closure. In 1982, 245 of the 643 workers employed in the mill lived in Chemainus and the remainder in nearby communities, especially Crofton, Ladysmith and Duncan. Although the Chemainus mill dominated the community's labour market during its earlier history, improvements in Vancouver Island's transport and communications infrastructure have extended the local labour market area. Despite the considerable drawbacks associated with generalising from small scale localised, empirical studies, the results of this investigation may be relevant to other B.C. communities. The modernisation of the Chemainus sawmill was only one element in a broader strategy of corporate rationalisation undertaken by MacMillan Bloedel. Communities and households dependent on other major forest industry producers are subject to similar experiences should their employment base be reduced by technological 124 change, or removed by rationalisation. Furthermore, many of the household work patterns were consistent throughout the sample. Strong relationships on this scale are only likely to be identified if the larger scale patterns they reflect are significant. My study in Chemainus focusses only on working class households, and therefore gives little indication of the impact of restructuring on households of other classes. This is because the central concern of my thesis is with the impact of industrial restructuring on the working class. In addition, the intra-class nature of my study can be justified by Pahl's (1984) conclusion that social class is less significant than household structure and stage in the domestic cycle in determining patterns of work and sources of labour (Pahl, 1984, 231). My survey comprises a range of households at various stages in the domestic cycle. The majority of the households were well established in the area, and to some extent the sample is top heavy in terms of the age of household members. This is typical of the population structure in North Cowichan where 20.3% of the population is aged over 55 years, compared to 20.2% province-wide. The age structure of the municipality is becoming increasingly skewed towards older age groups, and is slightly under-represented in the 20-34 age group relative to the B.C. average (District of North Cowichan Planning Analysis, 1987). In 50% of my sample the head of household was aged between 40-55 years. Only 4 of the households (16%) had a head of household aged below 40 years, while the remaining 8 households (34%) had a head of household above 55 years of age. 54% of the total (13 households) have been established in their present home for at least 20 years and 17 (75%) for at least 10 years. While these households all own their homes outright, the remainder (excluding one renter) have been established for a much shorter period of time and continue to make mortgage payments. In addition, 11 homeowners (46%) had constructed their own dwelling, while two more households were residing in inherited "family-owned" buildings. These figures suggest continuity and stability in the status of Chemainus residents and may partly explain the limited degree of migration out of Chemainus subsequent to the mill closure despite the lack of alternative, regular, full-time employment opportunities. Residential and occupational immobility, at least until 1982, were major factors in contributing to the devestating impact of the mill closure on Chemainus residents. For many respondents the mill represented their "way of life" (fieldwork, 1988), and employment in the facility was pivotal in determining the organisation of household activity. 56% (13) of the male respondents had worked in the old Chemainus mill for at least 20 years prior to its closure, and 80% (20) had been mill employees for over 10 years. The housing tenure of households is closely related to the length of employment in the Chemainus mill of the head of household. Those whose access to union wages spanned a long period tended to be financially more secure and residentially "settled" homeowners. In contrast, former employees with less than 10 years experience of regular, full-time mill work, tended to head mortgage paying households. The prevalence of an aging workforce and population is significant to my study in a number of ways. Older workers arguably face the greatest obstacles when laid off, especially if aged over 50 years. They may be residentially immobile, have skills which are suited only to a particular employer or task, but be too young to claim a full pension. Few employers are willing to invest in the retraining of older workers, and many have lower education levels than younger workers with whom they must compete in the labour market (Employment and Immigration Advisory Council, 1987, 21). Allowing the "rehiring 126 by seniority" clause to lapse meant MacMillan Bloedel was no longer obliged to hire back the longest serving, older mill employees. Although my sample included two men aged over 50 years who were re-hired to work in the new mill, both respondents believed their rehiring to be due to their experience in handling a particular piece of equipment, and their utility to the company in passing on their knowledge and training younger workers. Finding alternative full-time employment is very difficult for older, laid-off workers. Many workers were obliged to take early retirement due to the premature and unexpected closure of the mill. By September 1983, 66 of the laid-off workers had retired (a number which subsequently increased with the passage of time). Among the 33 retirees resident in Chemainus, 28 were aged over 60, only one of whom was over 65 years, 3 were aged between 55-59, and 2 were less than 55 years old. Early retirement often involved sacrificing a full pension so many workers were faced in their old age with lower incomes than anticipated. At the time of the mill closure, the union contract was organised so that for every year of early retirement a certain percentage of the pension was sacrificed. Hence, those retiring aged 60 received approximately half of their full pension. Since then, however, the system has been changed in order to compensate workers who retired due to being laid-off by technological change. The new pension system means workers who retired aged 55 are entitled to a full pension on reaching 60 years. At the time, however, early retirees did not know about this future entitlement. The experience of one of my respondents is particularly striking in this respect. Having been obliged to retire aged fifty-four, the respondent did not know if he was eligible for the new retirement scheme or would be entitled to only half of the pension on reaching 60 years. The respondent has had to wait six years in order to know the outcome of his fight 127 for a full pension. His pension is now being supplemented by the Government so that he receives the full rather than a partial rate. During the intervening six years the respondent earned no formal income. Instead, he generated income by irregular work and had to spend savings to "get by". The respondent will receive the bulk of his I.W.A. income in the next five years and on reaching 65 he will rely mostly on the old age pension. His story is indicative of the distress experienced by workers whose early retirement was somewhat involuntary, and provoked by the mill's closure through no fault of their own. 6.4. IRREGULAR WORK 56% (14) of the former mill workers responding to my survey participated in irregular work between 1982 (the closure of the mill) and the present. The amount of time spent doing such labour was inversely related to the degree of formal labour force participation by respondents during the period. By 1985, the majority of respondents were placed in their current employment positions, whether in the new Chemainus mill (11 respondents), or another recently established facility (7 respondents). 3 of the respondents are now retired, 2 are still only working in part-time or casual positions, one is running his own forest products manufacturing company, and 1 is temporarily laid-off again from a full-time position. It is significant to the study that among the 7 workers in full-time employment other than at the Chemainus mill, only 1 is a union member. The remainder are employed in non-unionised, low paying positions, and receive few or none of the benefits associated with unionised forest industry employment. Overall, these figures support the notion that the industrial workforce is being reorganised into a core and periphery. Most respondents experienced a varied working life between mid-1982 and 1985 (if not beyond), alternating between unemployment and temporary, formal labour force 128 positions. Only 4 respondents were employed for less than 6 months, and these generally did not undertake irregular work. 13 of the men (52%) were unemployed for 7-18 months, the average being a year, and 7 (28%) were out of work for 2-4 years. During their lay-offs, 2 households claimed welfare for a brief period, 4 respondents attempted to establish their own companies, and 4 respondents took training courses, 2 to supplement their income and 2 to acquire new skills. Participation in such activities reduced the rate of involvement in the irregular economy. The 13 male respondents that predominantly made a living during this period by alternating between unemployment and formal labour force participation all cited necessity and the need to make money as the major reason for working on the side. Usually such activities were undertaken for friends (28%), and friends of friends (72%), demonstrating the role of informal communications networks in providing access to irregular work opportunities. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that community members deliberately created work and hired laid^off employees to perform tasks if they were known to be working on the side. It would be interesting to assess whether those employing irregular workers usually perform such tasks themselves, and whether the demand for informal work was a response to exceptional economic circumstances. It is reasonable to infer that because none of the sample works on the side while participating in regular formal employment, informal labour is less readily available during periods of higher employment. Clearly, 37 Several of the forest products companies established since the mill closure were set up by former sawmill employees. Often, their former work colleagues and friends provided unpaid, informal labour, while claiming U.I. to help establish the companies. These unremunerated services were provided as a favour and because the men had been promised employment in the new facilities. This type of informal work was widespread during the transition period and demonstrates the role of informal networks in contributing to employment. 4 of the 5 respondents that set up new companies were rehired by MacMillan Bloedel. Only 2 of the companies now remain in operation, one of which serves as a source of employment for some other former Chemainus employees, rather than a source of profitability for the owners. 129 however, my results indicate participation in irregular and formal work to be more or less inversely related, which is contrary to Pahl's findings, although the relationship is more complicated for households and individuals with a wider range of options, be it to take a course or establish a business. As well as participation in the labour force, a number of other factors influence the extent of irregular work. The age of household members is particularly important in determining their ability or desire to partake in other forms of work. The results of my study in this respect are quite categorical. Among the men, those engaging in irregular work (13) were all aged below 55 years except for the above mentioned early retiree. Similarly, 11 respondents did not participate in irregular work and were all aged over 50 years, again with one exception. Clearly, age is a prime determinant of the likelihood of "working on the side". These findings are consistent with Pahl's results in which younger people are likely to be more active in terms of performing work than older ones. The ability to perform irregular work suggests respondents possess the skills needed to perform the type of tasks in demand. For 70% of the sample, the type of irregular work undertaken was related to a hobby or interest and typically associated with home maintenance and construction, for example, painting, carpentry and renovations. The proliferation of home maintenance tasks is related to the tradition in Chemainus, as in other resource towns, for people to construct their own homes. In addition, all these tasks are typically perceived as "men's work". The high rates of irregular work and the establishment by several respondents of their own companies is somewhat at odds with the notion of a company town mentality. Pahl (1985) for example, suggests dependence on a single industry or company creates reliance on the provision of employment and undermines the ability of households to generate income by utilising alternative work strategies. Although a number of former employees 130 suffered financially and psychologically from the mill closure, my results suggest they possessed significant initiative and ability to "get by" by informal means. The participation of women in irregular work was much less extensive than that of men. Only 8 spouses (32%), undertook irregular work, 6 of whom began to "work on the side" as a result of the mill closure. The irregular work of women was undertaken instead of entering the labour force either to accomodate child care responsibilities, to generate income without entering the labour force, or as an extension of formal employment, for example, hairdressing at home as well as in the formal sector. Other activities typically undertaken by women in the irregular economy are cleaning and babysitting."^ Respondents returned to formal employment as soon as an opportunity was available and did not perceive irregular work as a long term alternative to formal employment. Also, the potential for irregular income generation is constrained by the limited demand for irregular work tasks. For example, "tasks in and around the home like painting and decorating, plumbing and car repairing cannot expand indefinitely" (Pahl, 1985b, 338). Moreover, the income generated from irregular work is minimal, irregular, and insufficient to support an individual or a household. 70% of irregular workers in Chemainus managed to survive on an informal income only by spending their savings and 48% spent their severance pay. 70% of households struggled to get by following the mill closure, and despite alternative work strategies 83% are in a financially poorer position now than in 1982. 46% survived only because they had previously earned substantial incomes, and 38 See Hoyman (1987) for a critique of the notion that women voluntarily prefer and choose to perform irregular work because it allows them more flexible work schedules. She argues the supposed "preference" for irregular work is largely structured by a combination of barriers to participation in the formal economy: the inability to earn a "family wage", the attitude of employers, the labour force participation and decision making power of male partners, the stage in the domestic cycle, and an acceptance of conventional gender roles in which women perceive female domesticity to be their priority and the norm. 131 62% are still financially and occupationally insecure as a result of the mill's sudden and unexpected closure. 6 . 5 . COMMUNAL WORK Unlike irregular work which is a substitute for the loss of formal wage earning, communal work and self-provisioning are undertaken irrespective of the prevailing mode and regime of accumulation. In contrast to irregular work, communal work by both partners is more extensive and regularly undertaken regardless of the formal employment status of the household. 79% (19) of the male respondents participate to some degree in the communal sector. Without exception, tasks were undertaken as a "favour" either for a family member (47%) or close friends (53%). For the most part, communal work was intergenerational and respondents often assisted infirm or elderly relatives and neighbours in home improvement tasks. Such communal work networks tend to be small scale and between groups of households rather than community-based. A much higher proportion of women worked in the communal sphere than in the irregular economy. 14 (out of 22) women undertook tasks as a favour, and 79% of such tasks were family-oriented, a much higher figure than for men. Indeed, 46% of women's work in the communal sphere involved babysitting, usually for their own grandchildren, a task often perceived as a pleasure rather than a chore. My results support Pahl's conclusions that communal work is frequently related to family networks and stage in the domestic cycle. The greater family orientation of women, vis-a-vis men, is attributable to the daily contacts and interactions of each gender as determined by conventional roles. In resource communities, the strong association of women with the home encourages them to maintain stronger ties with the households of immediate relatives. 132 Mutual exchange relationships between households were not well developed, but there is evidence to suggest that friends, relatives and neighbours provided assistance to those households most adversely affected by the mill closure. Such assistance was provided in a discreet, subtle manner, being disguised for instance as gifts of food or clothing. In sum, communal work is an extension of the work performed by household members within their domestic unit for their own consumption needs. 6.6. SELF-PROVISIONING The-self provisioning activities most frequently undertaken by women are extensions of their domestic duties and include food preservation (67%), making or repairing clothes (46%), and baking. The tasks most often performed by men in the domestic sphere are undertaken less frequently and typically comprise some sort of home maintenance, improvement or repair task. 84% of households undertook most if not all of the provisioning associated with these activities. The high percentage is related to the tradition of own home building in Chemainus, and to the self sufficiency of manual workers with the appropriate skills to perform such tasks. As suggested by Pahl (1985a, 1985b), in higher earning working class households which are headed by a manual worker both partners are more likely to have the time and skills to do work for themselves. In addition, Sharpe (1988) suggests the availability of rich natural resources in B.C. provides ample opportunities for self-provisioning (Sharpe, 1988, 330). The most commonly cited reason for self-provisioning (50%) was to reduce household expenditure. Food production is undertaken by both partners and motivated by a different rationale. 33% of the households provided a substantial portion of their own food supply and 12% were nearly entirely self-sufficient. The mill closure induced 33% of households to increase their level of self-sufficiency, suggesting they became more self reliant and less dependent 133 on a formal income during periods of breadwinner unemployment. Such households may have had the additional option of selling or giving away their surplus production in order to make extra cash or help someone out. Although most households could increase the number of dwelling-related tasks performed within the household, greater self-sufficiency in food supply was a viable option only for households already engaged in this activity. Once established in food production, relatively little additional expenditure is required to increase output. For example, two households with hobby farms, faced with the loss of formal employment, increased their rate of self-sufficiency by growing a greater range of crops, slaughtering animals, and supplementing these activities with others related to the availability of resources in the area, for example, hunting and fishing. On the other hand, to initate self-sufficiency requires extensive investment and resources and is not, therefore, a viable cost reducing exercise for non-food producing households. Households with a lower rate of food provisioning prior to the mill closure were less able to benefit from an increase in such activity, and were therefore forced to be more dependent on finding alternative irregular work, or better still, formal waged employment. The prevalence of self-provisioning prior to the mill closure suggests such activities represent a preference for a particular lifestyle or way of life, and only become a "need" attributable to the vagaries of capitalist production during adverse economic conditions. The above discussion implies participation in the informal sector in the flexible regime is unlikely to be more widespread than in the Fordist regime. Nevertheless, informal work was highly significant during the transition period and was widely pursued by households as a means of survival and reproduction because opportunities for formal waged earning were limited. Irregular work increased and communal and self-provisioning activities which 134 were already being performed took on greater significance in terms of survival. Overall, the working population became much more "entrepreneurial" during this period as suggested by Harvey (1987), demonstrating a considerable capacity for work creation and income generation. With the development of a flexible regime, the need to perform informal work was gradually eroded. Indeed, formal employment remains the predominant means of generating income. The nature of employment opportunities currently available, however, indicates that the labour market is being recomposed. The industrial workforce is being restructured into a core and a periphery, and the labour force participation of women has increased due to the development of a circuit of "symbolic capital". The impact of these trends is now discussed in relation to the formal employment strategies of households. 6.7. T H E FORMAL EMPLOYMENT STRATEGIES OF HOUSEHOLDS Household work strategies have significantly altered since 1982 due to sectoral changes in the economy and the development of flexible production techniques. These changes are shown on figure 3 (following two pages) which indicates the employment arrangements of couples in households in 1982 and 1988. 135 Figure 3; Formal Employment Status of Sampled Households, 1982 and 1988. i) 1982: The Fordist Regime8 Men Women 22 monopoly sector employees 4 full-time (18%) 1 part-time (4.5%) 17 full-time housewives (72%) a excluded are 1 single male (who worked in the monopoly sector), and 2 households not yet established. ii) 1988: The Flexible Regime** 136 Men Women 13 core employees 4 full-time (17%) 1 part-time (4%) 8 full-time housewives (35%) 10 peripheral employees 3 full-time (13%) 7 part-time (30%) 0 full-time housewives (0%) k excluded are one household in which the male partner retired immediately, and one single male (who was employed in the peripheral sector). (Source: fieldwork 1988) 137 In 1982 there were 24 households in the sample in which the man was the major breadwinner Only 5 women participated in the labour force and the remainder were full-time housewives. Since 1985, when most men regained formal employment, a more diverse range of employment strategies has developed. Currently there are: 1) 8 households with a male worker in core employment and a full-time housewife. 2) 4 households, 2 of which are common-law couples, and comprise a core male employee and a female partner in full-time employment. There is also one household in this category in which the woman is working part-time. 3) 10 households with a range of formal employment strategies, which have in common 2 income generators both of whom work in the peripheral labour force. The man's income is generated by either full or part-time peripheral employment, and is non-unionised, low-paying, insecure, sometimes irregular, and with few or no benefits, such as medicare. Such incomes are insufficient to maintain a household and require the female partner to work full or part-time to earn a second income. The nature of employment opportunities available to women, however, does not permit them to be the major household breadwinner. The first category of households represents the persistence of the conventional gender division of labour which was widespread during the Fordist regime. Women remain home-centred even beyond the departure from their support of grown up children. Associated with a long history of male, unionised employment, there is no financial necessity for women to work, and the women are neither expected to work, and do not themselves expect to have to work in the formal sector. In these households, patriarchal norms are very strong and conventional gender divisions of labour are maintained. 39 Included in this category are two respondents who are now retired. One is included because he had worked in a variety of temporary jobs before retiring. The second is included because he was forced to retire involuntarily when the mill closed and has had to forego a formal income for the last six years until he was eligible for a pension. 138 In the second category, women participate in the labour force because of the household's stage in the domestic cycle, or as a result of inequalities in household power relations. These are explained in greater detail later. The third category of household typifies a new industrial gender division of labour and has arisen in response to the nature of employment opportunities available in the flexible regime. These contrast markedly with those prevalent in the Fordist regime. Firstly, opportunities for monopoly sector, industrial employment have declined. Although a relatively small number of core employment positions are available, the demands of industry are increasingly for peripheral workers. This means fewer households can survive on the wage capacity of a male breadwinner. Secondly, the generation of a circuit of "symbolic capital" (Harvey, 1987) has markedly increased the labour force participation of women, thus enabling them to supplement the household income. The development of symbolic capital is the legacy of a deindustrialising Fordist economy, and constitutes an autonomous sphere of capitalist accumulation. The employment opportunities available to men and women in Chemainus in the flexible regime in the industrial and symbolic capital sectors are outlined below. 6.8. EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN T H E FLEXIBLE, RESOURCE ECONOMY With respect to the industrial workforce, the major development in the flexible regime is the division of a former monopoly sector workforce into a core and peripheral workforce. The process is similar to but not entirely synonymous with that identified by Atkinson (1985). Atkinson outlines the emergence of "core" and "peripheral" workers within organisations or corporations. Core workers are the central element of the organisation 139 and provide functional (or skill) flexibility, that is, the ability to perform several tasks. Examples of core workers are salaried administrative and managerial staff, trades-persons and technicians. In contrast, peripheral workers provide numerical flexibility, "protect(ing) core workers from numerical employment fluctuations", (Morris, 1988, 302), and "can be purchased on the market on an "as-needed" basis" (Christopherson, 1987/8, 3). There are three groups of peripheral workers. The first comprises full-time workers in non-company specific tasks, for example, clerical and supervisory functions, the second, part-time and temporary workers, and the third is made up of external groups such as subcontractors. Although the peripheralisation process is pertinent to the organisational outcome at the Chemainus sawmill, the process is better seen if given sector-wide treatment and applied to the forest products sector as a whole. Although "peripheral" employment was evident in the forest products sector in the Fordist regime, such employment is now becoming more widespread especially in terms of the second and third groups of peripheral workers.^ Furthermore, the approach to labour force flexibility during the two regimes is different because firms increasingly seek to have flexibility explicitly "built into their basic approach to manning rather than an additional extra secured through a productivity deal" (Atkinson, 1985, 18). The divisions of labour emerging in Chemainus comprise a "core of company unionism, internal labour markets, relative job security and rising living standards, and a periphery (both new and old) of high turnover, part-time and temporary work with limited employment rights and low pay" (Jessop et al, 1987, 121). Among the men I interviewed, 40 The issue of subcontracting has become such a controversial source of conflict between the I.W.A. and employers that a strike called in July 1986 to protest the issue, led to the shutdown of coastal logging operations and two-thirds of sawmill capacity. The I.W.A. wanted work performed in the bargaining unit to be guaranteed against loss to contractors (often non-unionised). This was opposed by industry employers because it would have made forest products manufacturing inflexible in adjusting to technological change and world competition (MacMillan Bloedel, 1984). 140 11 were re-hired to work as "skill-flexible" core employees in the Chemainus mill. All but one of the remainder are now peripheral workers either employed by small independent companies, dependent on contract work from corporate-owned processing facilities in the region,^ or working part-time or casually for other forest products plants in the area. Such workers are involuntarily "time-flexible" and constitute an appropriately experienced source of reserve labour should the Chemainus sawmill ever require additional workers. Lower rates of unionised employment in the forest products sector, and the division of forest industry workers into a core and a periphery have generated greater labour market segmentation and greater differentiation in working class interests. The availability of an under-employed, surplus industrial labour force is a deliberate outcome of capital's restructuring strategies, and is designed to undermine the potential power of labour thereby providing improved conditions for accumulation. Figure 3 indicates the nature of recomposition in the industrial workforce since Fordism. Symbolic capital, a concept introduced by Harvey (1987), is portrayed by him as a sphere of capitalist accumulation whose development is intimately related to the rise of flexible accumulation. Harvey (1988) argues that during the transition to a flexible regime, capitalists experimented with a diverse range of accumulation strategies in order to overcome the rigidities and contradictions of the Fordist regime. Flexible accumulation is thus characterised by: the emergence of entirely new sectors of production, new ways of providing financial and business services (and) new markets...(Harvey, 1988, 107). The emergence of symbolic capital is one expression of the search for new circuits of accumulation. This sphere of accumulation has also developed because of the 41 The occurence of contracting-out arrangements indicates the utilisation of vertical disintegration strategies, alongside the adoption of flexible technology. 141 "entrepreneuralism" of urban governments in the flexible regime. Many urban governments have had to deal with the detrimental impacts of deindustrialisation in their communities and have often sought to create alternative economic sectors: Though the patterns, powers and politics vary greatly, all urban governments throughout the advanced capitalist countries have been forced these last few years to come up with some kind of entreprenurial response to the problems posed by flexible accumulation under conditions of generalised over-accumulation (Harvey, 1988, 127). In some cases, investment in symbolic capital is pursued as the solution to recessionary conditions. Symbolic capital refers to the built environment associated with flexible accumulation and the use by entreprenurial urban governments of gimmicks such as "the recuperation of history" and "community" to sell the merits of a particular town (Harvey, 1987, 274). This process means communities are packaged for sale by capital. The economic developments taking place in Chemainus are a microcosm of these processes. Since the mid-1980s, the community has witnessed rapid investment in, and the proliferation of, service and retail establishments which are related to tourist activity in the community. The municipal government in Chemainus, in conjunction with various private business persons, has been instrumental in developing a circuit of symbolic capital to which these investments are a response. The physical expression of symbolic capital in Chemainus is the development of an outdoor gallery of murals. The murals are painted on the outside walls of the town's buildings and their theme is the community's historical development. The aims are ostensibly to generate tourism, diversify the economic base of the community, and decrease dependence on the forest industry. The advantages of an economy based on tourism and leisure-related activities are endorsed by those subscribing to the thesis of a post-industrial society. However, in Chemainus, the development of symbolic capital is funded largely by outside capital. It is a widely held view that despite improvements to Chemainus's built environment, the 142 benefits of tourism have otherwise accrued solely to the individual owners of this capital, and not to the community as a whole nor to its residents. To some degree the situation is characterised by a tension "between (the) increasing unemployment of workers in traditional occupations and ..employment growth..based on the organisation of spectacle" (Harvey, 1987, 277). Despite similarities in the type of employment positions available, symbolic capital is not simply an outgrowth of Fordism's competitive sector. The latter was closely related to the monopoly sector and serviced the local industrial labour force. In contrast, "symbolic capital" has developed as an autonomous sphere of capitalist accumulation because of industrial restructuring. Nevertheless, unless students or retired, men are generally excluded from employment generated by symbolic capital. Such businesses actively seek to employ women or other "secondary" wage earners, on the basis that they are earning "pin money" and do not need to be paid a family wage. The availability of these employment opportunities has, however, significantly increased the labour force participation of women in the flexible regime. Figure 3 indicates the labour force participation of women during the period 1982-1988. The major trends to note are a 54% decrease in the number of women not working, and their increased labour force participation mostly in part-time employment. Women working in the symbolic capital sector are perceived to be voluntarily, rather than involuntarily "time flexible" as their employment activities have to fit in with their domestic cycle and family responsibilities. Such hiring practices propogate conventional gender divisions of labour and indicate the maintenance of patriarchal attitudes by employers. 143 The employment trends revealed by my sample are replicated on a larger scale. Table 6 summarises the labour force participation of men and women in North Cowichan in 1981 just prior to the recession in the forest industry, and in 1986, when the economic and employment trends associated with the flexible regime were in their infancy. Table 6: Summary of Labour Force Activity in North Cowichan 1981 and 1986. Characteristic 1981 1986 % Change Total Population 18,210 18,535 1.8 Population aged over 15 14,025 14,370 2.4 Men aged over 15 6,995 7,040 0.64 Men in labour force 5,435 5,160 -5.1 Participation rate (%) 77.7% 73.3% / Unemployment of men (%) 6% 12.8% / Women aged over 15 7,030 7,330 4.3% Women in labour force 3,325 3,690 11% Participation rate (%) 47.2% 50.3% / Unemployment rate (%) 9.2% 14.9% / (Source: Derived from Canada Census, 1981 and 1986, Catalogue 94-120. Despite a population growth of 1.8%, the active labour force has declined by 1.5%. The number of men with employment has decreased 7.6% while that of women has increased 42 8.8%. The unemployment rate of both sexes has increased, suggesting a growth in the 42 The corresponding figures on the provincial scale for B.C. are 4% and 6% respectively (Statistics Canada, Catalogue 71-529, 1981, 1986). 144 size of the reserve labour force. Table 7 gives a further breakdown of the full and part-time employment rates of both sexes. Table 7: Employment Activity and Income by Sex in North Cowichan, 1985. Variable Men Women Worked full-time or full year Average employment income ($) Worked part-time or part year Average employment income ($) 2,605 1,080 32,977 18,276 2,350 2,500 16,026 7,428 (Source: Derived from Canada Census 1986, Catalogue 94-120). Although 52% of men worked full-time and 71% of women worked part-time, it is significant that 48% of the part-time labour force were men suggesting a high incidence of A O peripheral employment in the district. Sectoral changes in~ Chemainus' economy have increased the labour force participation of women. It is useful, however, to assess why women have taken advantage of new employment opportunities. Particularly influential are the employment status of wives' partners, stage of the household in the domestic cycle, and the distribution of power in the household's decision making structure. 43 Unfortunately such figures are not available on a sub-census division scale for 1981. Province-wide statistics, however, provide a satisfactory indication of changes in the labour force participation of men and women. Between 1981 and 1985, the number of full-time workers in B.C. declined 7% and the number of part-time workers increased 12.7%. The number of men in full time employment decreased 10.5% while the number of men and women in part-time employment increased by 31% and 7.5% respectively (Statistics Canada, Catalogue, 71-529, 1981, 1986). 145 In my study, the majority of women entered the formal workforce in response to the loss of full-time employment of their partners. 32% of the sample (7 women) began formal employment as a result of the reduced income and loss of secure employment associated with their partner's lay off. The economic situation of many households has improved since the mid-1980s, and several women have withdrawn from the labour force since then. Most, however, have remained in formal employment, partly to make up for income "lost" during the mid 1980s because of the closure of the mill (for example, savings spent, debts incurred), and partly in response to the reduced breadwinner status of their partner's present employment. The importance of the stage in domestic cycle is most evident in households in which women work full-time. Two of these women are common-law wives. Their employment role is related to the less secure, and more independent role associated with their unmarried status. Furthermore, unlike the rest of the sample, both women belong to households formed within the last three years, suggesting two earners are needed to establish a household. Although there are children in the two households both have arrangements that allow the two partners to work full-time. In one the children are of school age and do not require attention for most of the day. In the other household, the children are of pre-school age and the couple relies on the children's grandmother to babysit. Christopherson (1987/8) suggests there is a trend for women to enter the labour force while their children are of school age, rather than wait until they have grown up as they did in the 1950s and 1960s. This means the labour force participation of women aged 25-44 years increased rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s (Christopherson, 1987/8). This trend appears to be filtering into resource communities in the flexible regime. 146 In several households the labour force participation of women was constrained by, or was a means of combatting, the decision-making influence of their husbands. For example, one woman began to work in order to have greater financial independence and a "louder voice" in household decision making especially as regards economic matters. Another withdrew from the labour force at the request of her husband in order that she spend more time with the children. Several men resented the labour force participation of their wives but the extra income they earned was essential to maintain the standard of living these households were accustomed to during the Fordist regime. These examples indicate the prevalence of patriarchal male breadwinner power in household work relationships, and in the last case, men's fear of its demise. Despite the greater demand for women's labour in the formal economy due to capitalist restructuring, women's experience of work and employment in the flexible regime remains constrained by patriarchy. The statement by one woman that women should not work because "it takes jobs away from men" (fieldwork, 1988) remains a strongly endorsed attitude. Although no longer practical for many households, there was substantial support by both men and women for the status quo, that is, the retention of traditional gender roles with the man as provider (Mckee and Bell, 1986, 141). Thus, the legacy of "rationalised" patriarchal norms is strongly persistent. Although women with paid employment have greater power in the household they earn much less than their husbands (Luxton, 1987, 43), a situation which applies despite the peripheral employment status of men (see table 7 for average employment income differentials of men and women in North Cowichan). Patriarchal norms and the dependence of women on men's greater wage earning capacity persist despite the convergence in the wage earning potential of both sexes in the flexible regime. This is seen with reference to the domestic division of labour. 147 6.9. HOUSEWORK Housework is a problematic sphere of work to study. The relative importance of domestic tasks' and the standard to which they are performed varies substantially between households. In addition, because housework often includes child-care the amount that needs to be done varies depending on stage in the domestic cycle, and the number and age of children. Stage in the domestic cycle and the formal employment status of both partners are the main determinants of time spent on housework. Not surprisingly, in every household surveyed, the woman was predominantly responsible for domestic tasks, even among households with two full-time income generators. Conventional gender roles are retained most strongly amongst households which contain, regardless of the stage in the domestic cycle, a "core" male employee and a full-time housewife. Following the closure of the Chemainus sawmill, women in these households generally made little attempt to enter the labour force but instead supported the husband in the search for alternative work, and provided the conditions that made his employment possible (Mckee and Bell, 1986, 143). Such households indicate the continuation of the patriarchal accomodation which typified the Fordist era and in which family wage earning is advantageous to both organised labour and capitalists.^ In households containing two peripheral employees, the female partner retains responsibility for household tasks which gives rise to her experience of a "double day" of work. The double day is an expression of both the capitalist oppression of women, and the subordination of women in the household (Luxton, 1987, 35). Although the double day was evident in the Fordist regime among married women working in the competitive sector, it 44 Due to the need to invest in and train a core of skill-flexible employees, it is in thex interests of capitalists to attempt to retain the employment of core workers and reward them with a comfortable working environment, including high wages. 148 has become a much more widespread phenomenon in the flexible regime in resource communities. My results indicate that men are not wholly inactive in terms of housework. The results derived from the "peripheral" category of households are broadly consistent with Gershuny's (1987) findings in which both the total number of hours spent on housework, and the number of hours spent by women on housework, has gradually diminished since the mid-1960s. The number of hours spent on housework by men meanwhile has gradually increased, albeit at a much slower rate of growth (Gershuny, 1985, 1988).^ ^ The shift work associated with forest industry employment enables many Chemainus husbands to contribute to domestic tasks if their wife is employed. Usually their assistance involves babysitting for their own children,^ cooking and occasionally vacuuming. Evidence from 5 households suggests that during times of work inactivity due to unemployment or retirement, the male partner may become a house husband while the female partner is employed. Such an arrangement is regarded as a temporary aberration from the norm, and roles immediately revert to "normal" with the re-employment of the male partner. For the most part, however, unemployment did not greatly increase the amount of housework done by men. Frequently, "(m)en did not contribute in the home as they were often engaged in the search for work or absent due to job interviews or informal labour market activities". Despite their severance from the labour market "unemployed men still had a public profile and purpose" (Mckee and Bell, 1986, 143). 45 Luxton (1987) is critical of the notion that the distribution of work between men and women is becoming more equitable. She suggests, for example, that men tend to perform the most "sociable" or "pleasant" domestic tasks, leaving women to perform the tedious and tiresome work. 46 Luxton also notes that women do not "babysit for their own children". 149 Many women were protective of their domestic work role, and despite being employed did not want their husbands to "interfere" in their domain. Domestic work has, after all, traditionally been the one sphere of female control and power (Luxton, 1987, 44). In that light, women often saw themselves as performing "domestic tasks quicker, better (and) more thoroughly" (Mckee and Bell, 1986, 143). My results confirm the persistence of a patriarchal gender ideology in which the responsibility of women for domestic tasks is perceived as the norm. Nevertheless, women's role in resource communities in the flexible regime has significantly altered since Fordism. Under Fordism, women were home-centred reproducers, consumers, and an "inactive" reserve labour force. In the flexible regime, the consumption role of women is being undermined by the demise of mass markets and sectoral economic change. Secondly, in terms of formal employment women are becoming an active labour force and contribute more directly to the production of surplus value to a greater extent than previously, and thirdly, despite a convergence in the employment experience of men and women in peripheral households, responsibility for reproduction has not been distributed more equitably between the sexes, and women continue to perform reproduction tasks such as housework and child-care. Restructuring has thus generated an accomodation between patriarchy and capitalism in which men continue to perform productive tasks in the formal economy although the labour force participation of many working class men has been peripheralised. Nevertheless, patriarchal norms mean sex segregation and the under-valuation of women's labour continues. Hence, contrary to what initially appears to be the case, the flexible regime is not reducing gender inequalities as working women are subject to a double day of work. 6.10. SUMMARY A brief summary is necessary to draw together my research findings and analysis. Firstly, I have shown that the informal sector was highly significant during the transition to a flexible regime of accumulation. Because opportunities for formal employment were limited during this period, informal work was the only means whereby households were able to reproduce themselves. Although irregular work in Chemainus was not, as suggested by Gaughan and Ferman (1987), a long term substitute for formal sector employment, men exhibited significant initiative in performing irregular work despite the persistence of a company town mentality. Several factors account for the high rate of irregular work performed: a number of households interviewed were higher income working class and possessed the resources and equipment necessary to do informal work; the loss of employment did not reduce access to the resources required by irregular work, partly for the aforementioned reason, and also because of the availability of natural resources in the area (Sharpe, 1988); and a long tradition of own home construction and self-sufficiency in home maintenance tasks means most men had manual skills to sell in the informal labour market. Age too was important in determining the ability or motivation to perform irregular work. Self-provisioning and communal work, meanwhile, were undertaken more independently of the regime of accumulation. Pahl's statement that "households have always had needs of their own" (Pahl, 1984, 329) which must be provided for "no matter what the dominant mode of production has been" (Pahl, 1984, 135) is a useful reminder that people of all classes have to ensure their own reproduction and survival, regardless of the nature of social and economic organisation. To this end, communal work and self-provisioning acquired greater significance during the transition period. 151 The crucial importance of the informal sector is that it sustained an inactive reserve labour force while capital was restructured into more profitable circuits of accumulation. With the emergence of a flexible regime, informal work diminished and was replaced by a formal economy which demanded a flexible labour force. As in the Fordist regime, households remain predominantly dependent on income generated in the formal sector. However, the nature of formal sector employment available in the flexible regime is substantially different from that predominant in the Fordist era. The industrial workforce has been recomposed and divided into a core and periphery, while women are participating to much greater extent in the formal sector out of financial necessity and because of the development of a circuit of symbolic capital. The relationship between capitalist and patriarchal interests differs depending on whether households are headed by a core worker or contain two peripheral employees. Working class men as a whole retain an interest in having women perform domestic tasks. In households headed by a core worker, the rationale underlying a conventional gender division of labour remains in place. In households headed by a peripheral worker this is no longer the case. Although a male breadwinner-housewife arrangement remains the "ideal" for many of these households, this division of labour is no longer an economic reality for peripheral households. The minimum wage earning capacity of women, alongside the relatively low wage of the husband threatens the reproduction of these households. In contrast, core workers may continue to prefer that women are restricted to feminised, minimum pay occupations in order to protect an ever decreasing number of family wage earning opportunities for men, and retain their wives' services at home. Overall, "old divisions are changing or being renegotiated and new divisions are emerging" (Pahl, 1988b, 420). The segmentation of the labour market in the flexible regime is dividing the working class and creating conflicting interests between core and peripheral workers. This 152 indicates that in resource communities in the flexible regime, intra-working class conflicts are likely to become as divisive as inter-gender and inter-class conflicts. 153 C O N C L U S I O N S The main object of this thesis was to analyse the impact of restructuring in the coastal forest products sector on the industry's workforce. The theoretical framework within which I discussed this issue derives from the French Regulationist school. I argued that French Regulationism is a valuable approach to understanding the organisation of capitalist accumulation, and the processes that generate crises therein. French Regulationism suggests that the crisis in the late 1970s and early 1980s was rooted in the contradictions inherent in the Fordist mode of labour regulation. The Fordist regime is characterised by a wage relation in which productivity and wage increases were connected, enabling mass consumption and accumulation. The large workforce requirements of Fordism and the organisation at the workplace, however, allowed labour to gain significant organising strength and to demand an increasing share of surplus value. Attempts by capitalists to retain profitability culminated in the breakdown in the Fordist wage relation, undermined mass consumption, and created a shortfall in market demand for the products of industry, eventually resulting in an over-accumulation crisis. Within this context I pursued two themes. In the first (theoretical) part of the thesis, I argued that like many andro-centric socio-economic models, French Regulationism considers only the manufacturing sector (the monopoly sector of the Fordist regime), that is, production activities that are undertaken in the formal market economy. I argued that such a focus was an overly narrow one and provided only a partial understanding of capitalist social and economic activity. Although the French Regulationists ostensibly portray a regime of accumulation as a "schema of reproduction", they do not unpack the regulatory processes which guarantee the reproduction of that regime. To provide a fuller 154 understanding of capitalism, I argued that it is necessary for French Regulationism to account for the mechanisms whereby the working population reproduces itself and sustains accumulation in the regime. To this end, I attempted to rectify the deficiencies of French Regulationism by inserting both the informal sector and gender relations into the approach. An analysis of these issues is central to an understanding of social reproduction. The informal sector comprises work undertaken by households, other than formal employment, and fulfils household needs and contributes to the reproduction of labour power. Gender relations are a means whereby the labour time of the working population is divided between production, reproduction and consumption tasks. This division of labour according to gender as opposed to other criteria is due to the persistence of a social system of patriarchy. Using feminist theories of women's role in capitalist society, I argued that conventional gender divisions of labour are rooted in pre-industrial patriarchal gender relations. During the Fordist regime, these divisions were institutionalised by the incorporation of predominantly patriarchal labour movements into the mode of regulation. Gender inequality therefore is not functional to capitalism. Rather, pre-existing patriarchal gender relations are deepened and ascribed a specific meaning and role to support a capitalist regime of accumulation. In the Fordist regime Women's roles were threefold: they were responsible for reproduction, were consumers and constituted a reserve army of labour which in resource communities was largely inactive. The relationship between capitalism and patriarchy is essentially one in which: The two evolve and change in a complex unity with each other: capitalism in its concrete form incorporates into itself the inequalities between men and women that the pre-existing patriarchal order has engendered: and the existing relationships between the sexes take a form that itself has been moulded by the organisation of capitalist production (Bradley, 1986, 96). 155 In the second (empirical) section of the thesis, I examined the notion that divisions of labour between formal and informal work and between men and women, are subject to restructuring during periods of economic crisis. These issues were investigated with reference to economic restructuring in Chemainus, a B.C. resource dependent community. Using the French Regulationist perspective, I investigated the implications of the transition from a Fordist to a flexible regime of accumulation on all forms of work (formal and informal), and in terms of gender relations. Firstly, I argued that the formation of social and gender relations in resource communities in the Fordist regime was due to the policies of the three major players in the Fordist regime in B.C.: the provincial government, corporate capitalism and the I.W.A.. During this period, divisions of labour in resource communities were predominantly along gender lines, and the employment of men and women was segregated between the monopoly and competitive sectors. Secondly, I outlined the reorganisation of production in the Chemainus sawmill in the flexible regime. Flexible technology was adopted in order to undermine the gains made by labour during the Fordist regime. Those employed in the Chemainus sawmill are the skill-flexible component of the flexible labour force in the new regime. This does not mean, however, that flexible technology is re-skilling. Rather, production remains based on Fordist principles, that is, the intensification of labour productivity and control of labour. To this end, the workforce in flexible production facilities is organised into "teams", leading to the fragmentation of workers' interests, and preventing the formation of collective interests. In the final chapter, I analysed the broader consequences of the transition to a flexible regime of accumulation in Chemainus. The reorganisation of production in the Chemainus 156 sawmill generated widespread unemployment during the early 1980s, and reduced the availability of unionised family wage earning employment opportunities. The adoption of flexible production techniques undermined monopoly sector employment for men. Instead, the industrial workforce in the flexible regime comprises a core and peripheral workforce. The men who were not rehired to work as core employees in the Chemainus sawmill are often employed as peripheral workers in non-unionised, low-paying, insecure, employment positions, and constitute the time-flexible component of the flexible labour force. The economic and employment structure associated with the flexible regime further differs from Fordism because it comprises not only industrial capital but also symbolic capital. Economic restructuring and industrial disinvestment meant capital sought more profitable spheres of investment in the flexible regime (Harvey, 1987). In Chemainus, which is a microcosm of broader changes occuring in the flexible economy, this is marked by the development of an outdoor gallery of murals and greater tourist activity. The jobs generated by symbolic capital are mostly peripheral, minimum pay and seasonal, and employ women or other secondary workers. Symbolic capital is not the same, however, as the competitive sector. The former is autonomous from the industrial sector, being concerned with a tourist market, whereas the latter comprised (at least in resource communities) activities which enabled the reproduction of the industrial workforce. In the flexible regime, formal employment remains the predominant means of income generation. Nevertheless, informal work was highly significant during the transition period in maintaining social reproduction. Because of the loss of formal employment, the working population became much more entreprenurial and informal economic means of survival and reproduction were widely adopted (Harvey, 1987, 277). Irregular work was particularly significant and widespread as a substitute for formal employment. Communal work and self-provisioning, on the other hand, were undertaken regardless of the 157 predominant mode of production, but nevertheless acquired greater importance during deindustrialisation as a survival mechanism. Although informal work is not a long term alternative to formal employment, such activities were the crucial means by which households maintained their reproduction during the passage from one regime of accumulation to another, and guaranteed the availability of a reserve army of labour in the flexible regime. In terms of gender relations, patriarchy is being restructured by flexible accumulation, and sectoral changes in the economy are creating a different role for women in the capitalist economy. During the Fordist regime, women were reproducers, consumers, and, in resource communities, a largely inactive reserve army of labour. In the flexible regime, the consumption role of women has been undermined by the demise of mass consumption markets. Also, the widespread employment of women means they constitute an active labour force and contribute more directly to the production of surplus value. Despite this, women retain responsibility for reproduction tasks. A convergence in the employment experience of men and women has not generated a more equitable distribution of labour to reproduce the household and labour power. Although I do not intend to suggest that women should not be employed in the formal sector, the persistence of patriarchal norms means that women are being doubly expoited in the flexible regime because they are called upon to undertake a double day of work, performing both domestic work and participating in the labour force. The persistence of these patriarchal gender divisions in resource towns like Chemainus indicates that the economic realities of the flexible regime have in no way undermined gender inequality. The division of labour along gender lines which prevailed in the Fordist regime is also complicated in the flexible regime by polarisation within the male, working-class industrial workforce. The segmentation of the workforce into a core and a periphery means the 158 working population is stratified along increasingly complex and differentiated lines. For households containing two peripheral workers, reproduction is becoming increasingly problematic. Their situation could be eased if patriarchy, which is unlikely to disappear, was modified, and if capitalists were willing to reward workers appropriately for the value of their labour. Men and women alike need to paid a reasonable "living" wage rather than a minimal one in order to ensure the reproduction of households and labour power, and to maintain the standard of living to which the working population was accustomed during Fordism. 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The International Woodworkers of America (Canada). 168 APPENDIX: QUESTIONNAIRE USED FOR INTERVIEW SURVEY IN CHEMAINUS. RESIDENTIAL BACKGROUND I'd first like to ask a few questions about your residential history. 1) Were you born in Chemainus ? If not, where ? 2) In what year did you first come to Chemainus ? 3) Have you lived here since then or did you leave and comeback ? 4) If left, when did you come back to live in Chemainus ? 5) Why did you decide to live here ? eg. Was it due to job (own or partner's), got married, always lived here etc ? 6) How long have you lived at this address ? 7) Was house already built, or newly constructed by/for you ? 8) If new, who was mainly responsible for its construction ? eg. selves, friends, relatives 9) Do you own or rent your home ? 10) Did you rent or own your previous accommodation ? HOUSEHOLD STRUCTURE 11) Could you tell me the names of all people who usually live in this household, their age and their relationship to you ? 12) Do you have any children who no longer live at home ? If yes, their age and when left home ? 169 13) Do you have any other relatives living in the Cowichan Valley or elsewhere on the Island ? On average, how often do you see them ? E D U C A T I O N A L H I S T O R Y 14) What is the highest grade or year you completed in school ? 15) Do you have any other qualifications gained in education, or subsequent training ? eg. University degree, technical, trades, clerical, management. 16) What qualifications and training do other adult members of the family possess ? 17) Has any member of the household acquired new skills etc since 1981 from any institution, employment, or on their own initiative ? E M P L O Y M E N T H I S T O R I E S 18) What is your current employment status ? What about other family members ? 19) Can you outline for me, the details of all jobs you or other household members have had since 1981 (including periods of unemployment). Details: dates of employment, name of employer, job title, full or part-time, average # of hours worked per week, shift work, approximate wage, unionised, location (town), why chosen, why left ? 20) What kind of financial contribution (if any) do other members of the household make to its wellbeing ? (eg. do children earn own pocket money, pay for keep, buy own clothes etc) D O M E S T I C C H O R E S I would now like to ask a few questions about who does what as regards domestic chores and housework. 21) Who is primarily responsible for the housework ? 170 22) Who is usually responsible for each of the tasks listed in Section A of list of activities ? 23) Has the breakdown of who does what around the house remained more or less the same since 1981 ? 24) In your opinion, has responsibility for domestic tasks shifted between different members of the h'hold during the 1980's ? Please answer fully. SELF-PROVISIONING/USE OF INFORMAL SECTOR I would like to ask some questions about work that is done within your home aside from housework. This section refers to activities listed in Sections B and C of the list, plus any other tasks not listed that you feel may be relevant here. 25) For each activity listed, if it is done at all, can you tell me if it is usually performed by a household member or someone else (eg. friend, company) ? 26) Are the activities performed by household members in any case an extension of that person's interests, a hobby, or is it employment or housework related ? 27) Does that person make use of resources acquired at work to do the task ? 28) Why do/did you do such activities rather than buy them from a store or hire a company ? eg. is it to save money, a hobby or interest, preference etc ? 29) Compared to 1981, do you think the household as a whole is now more, less or equally self-sufficient in terms of providing its own goods and services ? Can you explain why this might be so ? 30) Are the goods and services provided by others (but not by companies) paid for by cash or some other means ? 31) Why do/did you use the services of friends/whoever rather than purchasing them from a store or company ? Is it eg. to save money, preference etc 32) Overall, do you think you now use the goods/services provided by friends etc to a greater extent than in 1982 ? Please explain your answer. 171 33) Do you think the household was more self-sufficient and used the services of others more often during periods of unemployment or unsteady employment than during periods of full-time secure employment ? INFORMAL EMPLOYMENT/WORK UNDERTAKEN BY HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS FOR OTHERS I'm interested in work you do for others apart from your regular employment. This section refers to activities listed in all the sections A-D on the list. 34) Do you do any of the activities listed for other people ? 35) Is this kind of work done on a regular basis, more frequently during periods of unemployment, or more often while employed ? 36) How were/are the tasks paid for ? eg. cash, favour 37) Is the activity an extension of eg. a hobby, an interest ? 38) Is use made of resources available at work ? 39) Do any of the tasks involve skills learnt at school, from family etc ? 40) Does anybody else in the house do work for others ? 41) Have the gains made from such work (in terms of cash or exchanged goods/services) become a more important way, since 1982, of ensuring the household's wellbeing and comfort ? 42) In this household, do you think more time is spent doing work for others now than in 1982 ? 43) Is/was more time spent doing work for others during the mill shutdown, periods of unemployment or unsteady wage earning, than during periods of steady employment ? 44) For what reasons is work done for others ? Is it to make money, as a favour, a combination of reasons ? 172 GENERAL QUESTIONS 45) Have any household members been in receipt of any other income between 1981 and 1988, for example, welfare, UIC, an inheritance, dividends etc ? Did this income make a significant difference to the household's wellbeing ? 46) What do you particularly like or dislike about living in Chemainus ? What do you think of the murals/Chemainus' recent development ? 47) Can you foresee any circumstances in which you might be forced to move away from Chemainus ? How would you feel if it did prove necessary to move away ? 48) In general, who makes decisions in the household as to who does what, about financial matters, etc ? Is decision-making fairly equally shared between individuals or is there one person with more influence than the others ? 49) Taking into account changes in the number of dependents and wage earners, overall do you think this household is generally worse or better off than in 1981 ? Please answer fully. (QUESTONS FOR FORMER M.B. EMPLOYEES) 50) Since the sawmill's closure, have you received any retraining or acquired new skills courtesy of M.B. or the I.W.A ? 51) Did you receive severance pay from M.B. ? 52) When were you laid off permanently ? Had you been laid off temporarily shortly before this occured ? If yes, when, for how long & how many times ? 53) Have you spent or saved your severance pay ? Did you use it to help get by in the last few years ? 54) Do you still qualify for a pension/retirement plan from the I.W.A. ? 173 55) Do you feel more/less/equally satisfied with your current employment/situation than in 1981 ? 56) What are your feelings about your present situation and the last few years generally ? 57) How do you feel about your wife's current employment/ housewife status ? Would you prefer her to be doing something else ? How valuable has her contribution to the wellbeing of the household been, particularly in the last few years ? 58) In general terms, what do you see yourself doing in 5 years time ? What would you like to be doing ? (QUESTIONS FOR WIVES) 59) Has your employment experience been affected in any way at all by changes in your marital status (positive and negative effects)? 60) What effects did having children have ? 61) Is caring for your household a full-time job ? How long has it been a full-time job ? 62) What did you do before you got married/had children ? 63) (if relevant) While working, what are/were your child-care arrangements ? 64) Overall, how would you best describe your present situation and outlook on home and worklife as compared to how you felt in 1981 ? 65) How well do you think your husband has coped with his situation since being laid-off in 1982 ? (SELF-PROVISIONING) 66) What exactly is it that you make or produce ? 67) How long have you been doing this ? 68) Do you have any informal or formal training ? 69) Do you sell your products ? To whom ? 70) Do your earnings from this make a significant contribution to the family income ? 71) Has your income from this increased or decreased since 1980 ? 72) What are the advantages of this kind of work ? How/why did you become involved it ? (COMMUNITY WORKERS) 73) What type of work do you do in the community ? What about in the past ? 74) How long have you been doing this ? 75) How did you become involved ? 76) Are you paid for your services or is it voluntary ? 77) Do you think community work/networks are very extensive in Chemainus or have become more extensive in recent years ? 78) Do you use any community support services yourself eg. daycare, or are family/friendship ties more prevalent ? LIST OF DOMESTIC, SELF-PROVISIONING AND INFORMAL EMPLOYMENT ACTIVITIES (not exclusive) Section A: Household tasks Cleaning the house Cooking the meals Cleaning up after meals Food shopping Doing the laundry/ironing Mowing lawn Child care Care of other household residents Pet care Paying bills/writing checks Other Section B: Home maintenance and improvement Painting Decorating Repairs (eg. plumbing) Renovations (eg. converting basement) Installations (eg. electrical) Other Section C: Domestic production and services Making/repairing clothes Baking Food preservation (eg. jams, pickling) Gardening (ie. fruit, veg, flowers) Hair dressing Making toys, gifts Carpentry, metalwork (eg. furniture) Babysitting Fishing Prospecting Chopping and selling firewood Section D: Community work Social support (eg. care of elderly) Tourist related activity (eg. murals) Other
Thesis/Dissertation
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Geography
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Social and economic restructuring in the forest products sector : a case study of Chemainus, British Columbia
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