Participation in virtual organizations-the union responses

Summary form only given. The paper examines the development of manufacturing organizations and employee participation. The focus is on employees and union possibilities to impact the development of virtual organizations and virtual forms of work. Within manufacturing, IT systems are used to integrate across functions inside and outside the traditional organization. Manufacturing has, to an increasing extent, become an issue of organizing geographically spread units and can thus be understood as virtual organizations. This development sets traditional participation strategies under pressure. The contribution discusses the necessary revival of the Scandinavian union based strategy of “collective resources” and argues for other societal strategies breaking the “single company” paradigm that dominates participation discourses aiming at developing work and democracy