Eastern European Service Contract Workers in the German Meat Industry – Institutions, Networks and Conventions

This contribution will be based on an ethnographic case study of the transnational labour market that allocates Eastern European workers to jobs in the German meat industry, including interviews, informal talks, observations, and document analysis. The empirical reconstruction of this specific transnational labour market and of the complex configuration of market (making) actors aims at revealing its underlying logic and at developing a theoretical understanding of (this type of) transnational labour markets more generally. Specific attention will be paid to institutions, networks and conventions that enable cross-border recruitment, placement, and matching in this case and thereby enact this transnational labour market. A special focus will be put on the complex interplay of EU legislation and national labour laws of the home and host countries, on the gaps between these levels and the ways that (collective) market actors fill them, and on the role of national and EU-level industrial relations for regulating this transnational labour market.