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A perfect storm: COVID-19 and the reorganisation of the German meat industry

Author

Listed:
  • Cornel Ban

    (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)

  • Dorothee Bohle

    (University of Vienna, Austria)

  • Marek Naczyk

    (University of Oxford, UK)

Abstract

An advocacy coalition of trade unions, churches and NGOs had been trying for a long time to mobilise domestic media and politicians in order to re-regulate the German meat industry. The meat industry’s low-cost business model, using employee posting and subcontracting on a massive scale, has led to extreme forms of unsafe working and poor living conditions for large numbers of Central and Eastern European workers. But it is only in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that the German government decided to ban subcontracting, posting and temporary work in this industry. Why did COVID-19 make a difference? In an industry in which the livelihoods of local communities in Germany’s pig belt and in deprived rural parts of Romania have become structurally dependent on subcontracting, institutional change would not have happened without the pre-existing mobilisation of the above-mentioned advocacy coalition. But COVID-19 created a ‘perfect storm’ that empowered this coalition by helping reframe the meat industry issue away from a ‘narrow’ employment regulation problem into a ‘broader’ public health threat. Indeed, after becoming a virus hotspot, the meat industry was no longer just a threat to the livelihoods of its own workers, but to those of the wider local community.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:treure:v:28:y:2022:i:1:p:101-118
    DOI: 10.1177/10242589221081943
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Richard Bärnthaler & Andreas Novy & Lea Arzberger & Astrid Krisch & Hans Volmary, 2024. "The power to transform structures: power complexes and the challenges for realising a wellbeing economy," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, December.
    4. Colin Crouch, 2022. "Reflections on the COVID moment and life beyond neoliberalism," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(1), pages 31-45, February.
    5. 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.
    6. Philippe Pochet, 2022. "From one crisis to another: changes in the governance of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(1), pages 119-133, February.
    7. 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.

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