Continuity and change, production restructuring and labour market flexibility in the food processing industry of Canada's Technology Triangle (CTT) and the City of Toronto

Abstract

Economic and social restructuring, globally, locally and sectorally, has been highly evident over the last two decades. Debate over a real or apparent transition from Fordism to post-Fordism or flexibility often involves analyses of the labour market. As such, labour, flexibility and place have become highly interrelated. Achieving new labour flexibilities are central to the post-Fordist shift. Capital has been attempting to achieve increased levels of flexibility, both across regions and in situ, through labour market flexibility strategies.

This research attempts to: 1) synthesize and evaluate literature pertaining to labour flexibility and the wider Fordist/post-Fordist debate, and; 2) with a focus on production restructuring, recruitment and training, to explore the real or apparent shift towards increased flexibility within Ontario's food processing industry through case studies of two regional economies, Canada's Technology Triangle (CTT) and the City of Toronto.

This study offers a number of insights. First, elements of Fordism, including mass production, appear resilient. Second, firms are pursuing labour flexibility largely through numerical means. Third, social and spatial segmentation of the labour market is highly apparent. Finally, both sector and geography appear to matter. Despite similar pressures for change, these processes were locally constituted. Numerical flexibility and flexible training regimes, for example, have been pursued more aggressively in the CTT than in Toronto.

Restructuring in the food processing industry certainly does not appear to constitute an outright rejection of Fordism. This industry is characterized by aspects of both continuity and change. The food industry has been able to reinvent itself through the pursuit of numerical flexibilities, a high percentage of female labour and a general intensification of the labour process.