ABSTRACT
Responses to the new computer-based technologies tend to be characterized by extremes either of uncritical enthusiasm for their revolutionary benefits (Reynaud, 1982) or apocalyptic warnings of the dire consequences brought in their wake (Harman, 1979). Not surprisingly, as in the examples cited, the former tend to derive from a management perspective, and the latter from the viewpoint of organized labour. This is not merely a late twentieth century reiteration of the Luddism of the early nineteenth century. Rather, it recognizes that labour organizations exist to defend their members' jobs and
working conditions, and that, in the economic climate prevailing in the closing decades of this century, innovation and change is likely to be paid for by job displacement and the radical alteration of working conditions for a significant proportion of those workers affected. Hence, proposals for the introduction of new technologies on the railways, in mines, docks and offices in recent years have been met with vociferous opposition and organized resistance from labour organizations representing the work-forces in those industries.
