Germany's subcontracted precariat: 3 Stripes and you are out?

From our Be careful what you wish for series.

Germany has seen several high-profile strikes in recent months. Train drivers (engineers), postal workers, and child day care workers have engaged in work stoppages.

None of these has been resolved yet, so we cannot talk about the long term effects.

We have heard one joke, though, which we would like to share: One mother says to another: I'll have a hard time scheduling due to the kindergarten strike, you too?
I'll be just fine, my husband is train driver.

These three groups of employees have two crucial things in common: they are unionized, and their work affects large groups of people.

The work from home office wonk who complains about not being able to take the train to work in the unlikely case that he should feel a desire for personal office presence is merely your stereotypical cuddled citizen.

This sort of lifestyle complaints very much highlights public discourse in a modern industrial country and starkly contrasts with the few reports about the life of the German precariat.

We had to do some research to understand how Germany has developed Europe's biggest low wage labor market in the 21st century. Deregulation has led to the rise of temp and subcontractor agencies, social cuts have taken away much of the job security previous generations enjoyed. Wages, not only in low skills jobs, were further brought down by the European Union's free movement of people policy. Add the rise of industry in countries euphemistically called the developing world plus the fear of downward social mobility (2005 unemployment was ca. 5 million, 2015 is under 3 million), and the rise in the number of low paid, short term jobs becomes more plausible.

Today, German ZEIT Online has a long, depressing article about work in a logistics center of German sports gear producer Adidas. Adidas, the company with the 3 stripes logo, was recently named  a top employer by the press.

How do hiring and firing practices, docking of pay, exploitative multi-bed accommodation  with WiFi access at 25 Euros a week, unpaid on-call requirements, "no vacation" block periods, and more practices that sound more like "developing world" than socially advanced first world country co-exist with the pride of being named top employer?

They can co-exist in large part because workers under the latter regime are employed by subcontractors while those enjoying top employer benefits and atmosphere are the privileged ones on the payroll of Adidas.

We suggest you read the ZEIT article (use Google translate to get a decent English version) for details.

We will henceforth use the image "3 stripes and you are out" in the K-Landnews basement newsroom.