The European Works Council as a management tool to divide and conquer: Corporate whipsawing in the steel sector

Abstract

In large, highly internationalized companies, local sites of production have to contribute to the competitiveness of the corporation while decision-making is directed ever further away from their influence. The article examines how inter-plant competition, called management whipsawing, has changed at the transnational steel company ArcelorMittal over 12 years. The authors take an explicitly Gramscian perspective, as they study the role of coercion and consent in the staging of inter-plant competition. The analysis is based on 45 qualitative interviews with company managers and employee representatives in Spain, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, carried out in two phases, from 2004 to 2006 and 2014 to 2016. The aim is to understand how management can integrate central arenas for employee involvement into their strategies with regard to inter-plant competition. A central finding of this longitudinal case study is that the European Works Council (EWC) is essential in the construction of employee consent to labour competition.