Productive restructuring and labor organization in the pottery pole of Iranduba

The current article examines the productive restructuring process and its relation to labor organization in three companies in the Pottery Pole of Iranduba, town which holds the largest production of bricks and tiles in the State of Amazonas and also in this part of the Brazilian Amazon. In recent years, major changes have been taking place within the productive process and also in the types of labor organization in that economic sector, which contain new production paradigm features, based upon principles of flexibility and productivity. The introduction of organization techniques, such as Quality Control Circle, 5S Program, and the pursuit of international certifications such as ISO 9000 and 14000 point out new corporate strategies  that are being used in Iranduba’s pottery. To understand and to explain the features of productive rearrangement in a sector that, until just recently, was characterized by low technology used in the manufacture of their products, used native wood as raw material in the burning of tiles and bricks, and, yet, the strategies employed by the potteries’ owners upon the implementation of organizational and technological innovations, and also the pottery workers’ action facing these changes, are the purposes of this work.