Taming Technology? A Socio-Technical Case Study of Newspaper Production in Austria

This paper describes the formation of a social framework which was built up in reaction to technological changes in the Austrian newspaper industry, resulting from the introduction of computerized printing systems. The affected parties are specified, their material interests and their policies as well as the the bargaining process and its results are analyzed in detail. Special emphasis is given to the point of views of the employees and their representatives at the trade unions. A comparison with similar agreements in other Western European countries facilitates the assessment of the agreements