René
Springer
Working
Conditions in the Meatpacking Industry
German
Bundestag, May 13, 2020, Plenarprotokoll 19/159, p. 19730
[René Springer is an Alternative für
Deutschland Bundestag member from the eastern German state of Brandenburg. He
is an electrician and navy veteran and here responds to a motion concerning
working conditions in the meatpacking industry. Hubertus Heil (SPD) is the German
Minister for Labor and Social Affairs. Hartz IV is a large-scale unemployment
compensation program.]
Herr
President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen.
In
some slaughterhouses in Lower Saxony up to 50 percent of the workers are ill,
not with Covid-19 but with tuberculosis, and not just in recent weeks but since
2018. Thus the problem of working conditions in the meatpacking industry being
hazardous to health is no new problem and the Federal government has been aware
of it for years. With respect, Herr Minister Heil, the preceding helps no one
out of a bad situation.
In past
years our neighbors Belgium, France and Denmark have spoken critically of the
prevailing pay and working conditions in our meatpacking sector in Germany. Not
just anyone mentioned that; the Federal Labor Ministry said that in its answer
to a minor inquiry from the year 2017. The present Corona outbreak in the plants of
the meatpacking industry is thus the consequence of an inveterate failure of the
Federal government.
The
workforce, especially from eastern Europe, for years was exploited in German slaughterhouses.
They had to live and work under conditions in part inhuman and hazardous to
health. That – as expressed by a pastor at a recent demonstration in Coesfeld –
is nothing other than modern slavery. Yet thousands of the single and the independent,
predominantly from eastern Europe, were employed with dubious work contracts
and at low wages. Thereby was the state not only relieved of millions in social
spending but the domestic and foreign workforces were played off against one
another as to wage levels. Employees in the meatpacking industry today earn
approximately 36 percent less than in the overall economy. Consider for
yourself what one third less in the pocket is.
Where
do the low wages come from? Perhaps it is coherent with the 20 percent decline
in the number of the German workforce in the meatpacking industry in the past
ten years while the number of the foreign workforce has increased over 270 percent.
This mostly eastern European workforce unfortunately figures this exploitative
labor situation to be abundant because they do not have to pay rent, being crowded
together in collective housing, but also because they have a claim to child
support [Kindergeld] in Germany
Ulli Nissen (SPD): That just had to
come up again!
Matthias W. Birkwald (Linke):
Underground!
and
at fixed benefits, Hartz IV. On the whole, it provides an income far beyond
that available to people in their home country. This form of self-exploitation
is primarily made possible by the freedom of movement in the European Union and
the Federal government’s consequent turning a blind eye [konsequente Wegschauen] and it will continue to suppress wages. And
the taxpayer – and this is the idiocy of the whole thing – subsidizes the new
form of slavery with social benefits.
That
needs be the social Europe of which you are always speaking, as you do, Herr
Heil. You speak of a social Europe but intend the dissolution of the sovereignty
of the nation-state into an EU super-state on the backs of the employed. You
therefore tolerate, Herr Minister, therefore tolerates the Federal government
and the overwhelming portion here in parliament, all that is cheap, and not
only in the meatpacking industry. For years we see the common practice of
wretched working conditions and wretched wages in agriculture, in the security
business, in the construction industry, in the packaging branch. We all still
well remember the debate we conducted at Christmas.
Thereby
lie at hand the solutions which are in the interest of all. First of all, there
ought not to be any cheap imports, no cheap foreign meat. We must reconsider a
sensible formation of globalization by means of a limitation of the EU’s
freedom of movement. We must regionalize agriculture and we need a stronger and
closer control of plants by public officials, not only at the federal but also
there where the responsibilities lie, at the state and local levels.
When
80 percent of the employees in the meatpacking industry have a work contract,
and thus are independent, then it must be asked whether it would be suitable to
forbid this instrument in this branch.
Let
us do nothing prematurely. Ultimately there will be fair working conditions and
fair wages when the product has a justified price. This is a matter where each
must look in the mirror [an seine eigene
Nase packen muss]. Wage dumping and bad working conditions can be prevented
not with words but actions. Herr Heil, action has often been announced; this
time yet again. Finally clean up your own act [Räumen Sie endlich auf]!
Thank
you very much.
[Translated by Todd Martin]
