How the EU’s Eastern Enlargement Changed the German Productive Model. The Case of the Automotive industry

Martin Krzywdzinski

Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, 2014, vol. 15

Abstract: What impact did the Eastern Enlargement of the European Union have on the productive models and labor relations in the German automotive industry? Did it lead to a “race to the bottom” and “social dumping”? This article examines the evolution of value chains and product strategies as well as the development of employment and labor relations in the German automotive industry and discusses the hypotheses of “dualization” or “disintegration.” It is based on case studies of automobile manufacturers and suppliers as well as on statistical data about employment, foreign trade, and foreign direct investment. The analysis shows that the use of low-cost locations in CEE allowed German automotive companies to strengthen their focus on high-quality products without losing their price competitiveness. German companies have used relocation threats to demand labor cost reductions and higher flexibility on working times and employment (i.e., the use of agency work) in their home country locations. These demands, however, did not go as far as to break the governance compromises in the German automotive industry. The metalworking union and the works councils still remain strong enough to reach compromises that guarantee employment security in exchange for higher flexibility and that set limits on the use of precarious employment forms.

Keywords: industrie automobile; élargissement à l’Est de l’Union européenne; relations de travail; investissement direct étranger; dualisation; automotive industry; Eastern Enlargement; labor relations; foreign direct investment; dualization; Germany; indutria automotriz; ampliación de la Unión Europea hacia el Este; relaciones de trabajo; inversión extranjera directa; dualización; Alemania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 F21 F23 J52 J53 J80 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1) Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://regulation.revues.org/10663 (text/html)
http://regulation.revues.org/pdf/10663 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rvr:journl:2014:10663

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs from Association Recherche et Régulation
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Pascal Seppecher ().