ABSTRACT
In all the hundreds of books, articles, and speeches on American competitiveness – or the lack thereof – work rules and job restrictions are rarely mentioned. Such rules forbid a foreman to do any production work, whether taking the place of a worker who goes to the restroom, repairing a tool, or helping when the work falls behind. They forbid electricians to straighten a stud when installing a fuse box. They forbid workers’ moving from one job to another, thus restricting them to narrow, repetitive tasks, e.g., spray-painting the door panel of a car. And they narrowly restrict what a worker may be trained for. Yet all available evidence indicates that work rules and job restrictions are the main cause of the ‘productivity gap’ of American (and European) manufacturing industry.
