ABSTRACT
The lines of power and authority in a factory are for the most part clear and unmistakable. Some give orders, others follow them. The structure is hierarchical, the decision-making process authoritarian. Companies do have certain legal obligations vis-a-vis their employees and more defined ones in relation to unions. But among those obligations does not lie the need to organize its affairs at all democratically or to obtain advice from its employees on plant decisions. The extent of the division of work areas poses certain potential problems for the research. If each building has its own work environment, there might not be a sufficient sense of “common-ness” among the employees to render information provided by interviews useful. The population is almost completely white and it has had successive immigration waves of Irish, Italians, and eastern Europeans. The economy has been largely industry-based, but many of those jobs were in crafted consumer goods which are mass produced elsewhere.
