Worker participation under digitalisation: Structure, power and varieties of union influence in two manufacturing...

Technological changes associated with the rise of digitalisation are sometimes envisioned as disrupting forces for the role of workers on the shopfloor. Whether these changes will lead to enhanced or reduced participation of labour and unions has been the subject of conjectures put forward by different schools of thought. The article proposes a framework mobilising various forms of participation to understand patterns of involvement under technological changes. An exploration of four cases in the aluminium and rubber manufacturing sectors in Québec (Canada) reveals a high variation of participation schemes, ranging from collective and formal to mixed (collective and formal, direct and informal), and direct and formal. The authors argue that patterns of participation at work should be understood as the outcomes of the material conditions (technology, markets, economic) in which workplaces are embedded in conjunction with the ability of workers and unions to mobilise power resources to influence changes at work.