IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/274070.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

After Arbeitsschutzkontrollgesetz. Strikes and organic intellectuals in the German meat industry

Author

Listed:
  • Ana, Daniela
  • Voicu, Ștefan

Abstract

For decades, migrant workers with temporary and service contract work in the German meat industry have rarely been recruited by trade unions. The Arbeitsschutzkontrollgesetz (“Occupational Safety and Health Inspection Act”) law implemented in 2021 aimed to grant equal employment conditions to the majority of the workers in slaughterhouses, creating new avenues for trade unions to gain more members and organize industry-level negotiations for better wages and a collective agreement. This article explores the lessons we can draw from the series of strikes that accompanied the negotiations. By relying primarily on participant observation in the meat industry strikes and employing an actor-centred perspective on industrial relations, the paper reveals the role of shop-floor organic intellectuals in mobilizing and demobilizing workers. The analysis of the strikes shows that organic intellectuals can be instrumental in articulating the resistance of subaltern groups, but they can also be co-opted by dominant groups to manufacture consent.

Suggested Citation

  • Ana, Daniela & Voicu, Ștefan, 2023. "After Arbeitsschutzkontrollgesetz. Strikes and organic intellectuals in the German meat industry," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 21(1), pages 93-113.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:274070
    DOI: 10.33788/sr.21.1.5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/274070/1/Ana_2023_After_Arbeitsschutzkontrollgesetz.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.33788/sr.21.1.5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kuhlmann, Johanna & Vogeler, Colette S., 2021. "United against precarious working conditions? Explaining the role of trade unions in improving migrants’ working conditions in the British and German meat-processing industries," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(3), pages 515-531, September.
    2. Ban, Cornel, 2016. "Ruling Ideas: How Global Neoliberalism Goes Local," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780190600396.
    3. Valer Simion Cosma & Cornel Ban & Daniela Gabor, 2020. "The Human Cost of Fresh Food: Romanian Workers and Germany’s Food Supply Chains," Journal, Review of Agrarian Studies, vol. 10(2), pages 7-27, July-Dece.
    4. Cornel Ban & Dorothee Bohle & Marek Naczyk, 2022. "A perfect storm: COVID-19 and the reorganisation of the German meat industry," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(1), pages 101-118, February.
    5. Cosma, Valer Simion & Ban, Cornel & Gabor, Daniela, 2020. "The Human Cost of Fresh Food: Romanian Workers and Germany's Food Supply Chains," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 10(2), December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Natali, 2022. "COVID-19 and the opportunity to change the neoliberal agenda: evidence from socio-employment policy responses across Europe," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(1), pages 15-30, February.
    2. Cornel Ban & Dorothee Bohle & Marek Naczyk, 2022. "A perfect storm: COVID-19 and the reorganisation of the German meat industry," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(1), pages 101-118, February.
    3. Steininger, Lea & Hesse, Casimir, 2024. "Buying into new ideas: The ECB’s evolving justification of unlimited liquidity," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 357, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    4. C. Randall Henning, 2019. "Regime Complexity and the Institutions of Crisis and Development Finance," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(1), pages 24-45, January.
    5. Kern, Andreas & Reinsberg, Bernhard & Rau-Göhring, Matthias, 2019. "IMF conditionality and central bank independence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 212-229.
    6. Guglielmo Meardi & Arianna Tassinari, 2022. "Crisis corporatism 2.0? The role of social dialogue in the pandemic crisis in Europe," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(1), pages 83-100, February.
    7. Lea Steininger & Casimir Hesse, 2024. "Buying into new ideas: The ECB’s evolving justification of unlimited liquidity," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp357, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    8. Diego Ponte & Caterina Pesci, 2022. "Institutional logics and organizational change: the role of place and time," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(3), pages 891-924, September.
    9. Andrei Gheorghiță, 2023. "Understanding Public Support for the Flat-Rate Personal Income Tax in a Post-Communist Context: The Case of Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-14, May.
    10. Michael Blauberger & Susanne K. Schmidt, 2023. "Negative Integration Is What States Make of It? Tackling Labour Exploitation in the German Meat Sector," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 917-934, July.
    11. Reinsberg, Bernhard & Kern, Andreas & Rau-Goehring, Matthias, 2021. "Transforming ‘sympathetic interlocutors’ into veto players," Working Paper Series 2518, European Central Bank.
    12. Bernhard Reinsberg & Alexander Kentikelenis & Thomas Stubbs & Lawrence King & Centre for Business Research, 2018. "The World System & the Hollowing-out of State Capacity: How Structural Adjustment Programs Impact Bureaucratic Quality in Developing Countries," Working Papers wp503, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    13. Braun, Benjamin, 2021. "Central banking beyond inflation," SocArXiv 3skmx, Center for Open Science.
    14. Chen, Ling, 2017. "Grounded Globalization: Foreign Capital and Local Bureaucrats in China’s Economic Transformation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 381-399.
    15. Kehr, Janina, 2023. "The moral economy of universal public healthcare. On healthcare activism in austerity Spain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 319(C).
    16. Bernhard Ebbinghaus & Lukas Lehner, 2022. "Cui bono – business or labour? Job retention policies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(1), pages 47-64, February.
    17. Diessner, Sebastian & Lisi, Giulio, 2019. "Masters of the ‘masters of the universe’? Monetary, fiscal and financial dominance in the Eurozone," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100754, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Reinsberg, Bernhard & Kern, Andreas & Rau-Göhring, Matthias, 2021. "The political economy of IMF conditionality and central bank independence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    19. Alexander Kentikelenis & Thomas Stubbs, 2022. "Austerity Redux: The Post‐pandemic Wave of Budget Cuts and the Future of Global Public Health," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 13(1), pages 5-17, February.
    20. Zoltán Mihály, 2021. "Transnational transfer of lean production to a dependent market economy: The case of a French-owned subsidiary in Romania," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 27(4), pages 405-423, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:274070. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.