This article addresses three main questions: 1) Do managerial strategies in modern chemical plants produce new forms of individual consent towards organizational restructuring and intense work rationalization? 2) Is there a new institutional alchemy of interests indicating the emergence of a different kind of micro-regulatory institutions (a new factory regime)? 3) What is the role of human resources politics on skills and employability in re-shaping the institutional ambience? The answers emerge from the analysis of four case studies in Brazilian chemical-petrochemical plants which typify different situations in terms of: position in the productive chain, capital property, regional labor markets, unionism, welfare regime and managerial culture.
industrial restructuring; skills; factory regimes; human resources management
