Manufacturing resiliency: economic restructuring and automotive manufacturing in the Great Lakes region

Abstract

Through a case study of the Great Lakes region automotive industry spanning the USA–Canada international border, this article critically reassesses the concept of regional resiliency and the sustainability of the recent resurgence of American manufacturing. We argue that regional resiliency needs to be reframed around regional integration into global production networks and the restructuring of workplace governance especially with regard to the significant ‘recalibration’ of labour relations reflected in declining rates of unionisation, lowered labour costs and more ‘flexible’ employment relations. The region is no longer as dominant in North American automotive manufacturing as it once was and must respond to increasing competition from emergent auto-making regions in the southern USA and Mexico.