Neue Koordinaten für eine proaktive Betriebspolitik. Erfahrungen aus dem Gewerkschaftsprojekt „Arbeit 2020 in NRW“

The project Work 2020, initiated by unions from the manufacturing sector in North Rhine-Westphalia, aims at gaining knowledge about factors that may facilitate a pro-active labour policy and about the chances for unions and works councils to widen their scope of codetermination and influence under the conditions of Industry 4.0. The project focuses on dialogic techniques in order to reflect the ongoing changes taking place in the plants amongst employees, works council members and also management and to identify new challenges in the field of labour policy. The process is supported by union-oriented consultants, the union itself, and scientists. A central instrument in the organisation of the process is to map digitalisation and change in each plant taking part in the project. The landscapes of Industry 4.0 drawn by the actors show a very different picture, both within and between the plants. The general view represents a mosaic of partly connected, partly isolated strategies of digitalisation rather than a homogeneous development.