ABSTRACT
A crisis emerged on the shop floor of many mass-production manufacturing firms in the United States during the 1960s. The crisis reflected the unfolding of a contradiction in the postwar industrial relations system, a central foundation of which was the mistaken belief that a clear distinction could be established between “managerial prerogative” and labor’s right to influence its “conditions of employment.” The crisis emerged after management attempts, beginning in the late 1950s, to bolster its control over shop floor production following a decade of gains by shop floor workers. The rising injury rates and increased pace of production resulting from management’s more aggressive stance led to reduced worker cooperation in production, and in turn to slower productivity growth and to profit rate decline in the later 1960s.
