The Portfolio and accompanying Commentary explore the dynamics of the labour process in manufacturing industry. This is done by means of a series of case studies from the UK and the US exploring the evolving workplace relations from the late 1970s to the present day. Management -employee relations are explored in terms of a triangulation, the three corners of which are, management, unions and employees. The major questions revolve around the conditions, limits and possibilities of labour- management co-operation. Whilst employing Labour Process theory, the work addresses some of its limitations. It attempts to present an analysis which is more sensitive both to situational and historical factors, as well as to qualify some of its theoretical limitations. These include its overly deterministic nature and the tendency to portray aspects of the employment relationship in terms of false dichotomies. The concept of "dualism" is thus central to the analysis, and the concepts of "dual commitment" and "incorporation" are also employed in order to help explain the inter-relationships between management, union and employees. The longitudinal perspective also allows examination of the extent to which the agendas of "Thatcherism" have led to the demise of collectivism, changed attitudes towards management, created new expectations of the union, and hence implications for the strategies of the latter. The work has implications for union and management policies, particularly with respect to their mutual engagement in the context of the UK acceding to the Social Chapter, and the potential for "social partnership".