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The article examines the divergent patterns of labor flexibility in 2 Canadian power transformer plants owned by the same company and producing similar products with identical technologies. The case study results are used to point to 3 over-simplifications in the flexibility debate: 1. the claim that "numerical" and "functional" flexibility are incompatible, 2. the argument that North American management relies more heavily on external flexibility than on flexibility, and 3. the widespread contention that the traditional collective agreement is the chief barrier to achieving a more flexible organization of production in North America.