DEFENDING THE CORE? AN ANALYSIS OF TRADE UNION'S BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS OUTSOURCING IN THE GERMAN CHEMICAL AND METAL SECTOR

Over the last decade, the role of trade unions in segmented labour markets has been a relevant and strongly debated topic in the literature. On the one hand, the dualisation literature is portraying trade unions' behaviour in Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs) as segmentalist: Confronted with employers' pressures for cost reduction and increased flexibility, unions in core sectors are allowing for segmentation to take place (through outsourcing and the use of atypical forms of employment) in order to protect their members, which are overwhelmingly represented among core workers. On the other, the power resource approach is arguing that segmentation derives from the weakness of employees' representatives which are no longer able to oppose employers' segmentation strategies. This paper will contribute to this debate through a case-study analysis of trade unions' behaviour towards outsourcing in the German chemical and metal sector. We will show that trade unions have adopted both inclusive and exclusive strategies towards peripheral employees depending on three main factors: the peculiar trade unions' identity characterising the two sectors, how outsourcing processes impact on the core workforce and how they impact on the union's organisational interests.