Offshoring Danish jobs to Germany: regional effects and challenges to workers’ organisation in the slaughterhouse industry

Increasing internationalisation of production is often cited as causing erosion of West European social systems and in particular the worker's position, but the macro-level empirical evidence is often flawed. This article provides evidence based on a case study of Danish slaughterhouses that offshoring highly affects the power relations in the industry. These changes in industrial relations are largely explained by developments in the German slaughterhouse industry and European legislation which have greatly influenced the shift towards the more precarious slaughterhouse work of East-European subcontracted workers. This article shows the significant role European integration and globalisation play in altering the international division of labour and employer-employee relations.