New Technology, Work and Employment 13:1 ISSN 0268-1072 Jointism and the role of the workplace union in the auto- components industry John Black and Darren McCabe This article is part of a case study history, from the British auto-compo- nents industry involving a changing workplace regime from the late 1970s through to the 1990s. Employing the concepts of ‘dual commit- ment’ and ‘incorporation’ we explore, partly through the voices of parti- cipants, the process of involvement in that regime. We consider the implications for how trades unions might respond to policies on ‘join- tism’, and for management vis-a ` -vis the choices on union involvement or anti union strategies. This article explores the changing character of trade union-management relations in manufacturing in a period of increasing econ- omic competition. We focus upon the auto- components industry, being an industry which is, in general, highly unionised, albeit with a growing number of exceptions, and subject to increasing local and global compe- tition. Management is thus continuously exposed to pressures to be both ‘lean’ in the production process and ‘world class’ in respect to the product. Both management and union are confronted with choices and dilemmas as to how to respond. For manage- ment, one approach to achieving ‘world class’ is through ‘jointism’[1]. However, manage- ment may fear bestowing legitimacy upon ❒ John Black is Principal Lecturer in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management at the University of Wolverhampton Business School. Darren McCabe is a Research Fellow in the Financial Service Research Centre at the Manchester School of Management, UMIST.  Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1997, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148, USA. Workplace unionism in auto-components 29 the union at the expense of employee com- mitment to organisational goals. Trade unions, in co-operating with management in the structures and processes of ‘jointism’ may fear jeopardising jobs, or that their indepen- dence as a body capable of resisting manage- ment, should the need arise, would be under- mined. This research builds upon our previous work, both in the UK and the USA, on the role of the trades unions in the process of re- organising the workplace[2]. It also comp- lements findings reported with respect to the co-existence of continuity and change in the introduction of cellular manufacturing, where trade unions played an important role[3]. “Without them”, Alford argues, “dealing with the workforce would have been a much more difficult exercise”, and she calls for “further case studies of the implementation of cellular manufacturing in unionised plants”[4]. Union–management co- operation is explored in terms of ‘dual com- mitment’ and ‘incorporation’. The former