Fragmentation of Labour in the Hungarian Battery Industry

Abstract

Literature

ALBATTS – Alliance for Batteries Technology, Training and Skills (2021): Sectoral Skills Intelligence and Strategy for the European Battery Sector. Deliverable D3.6 Analysis of Sectoral Intelligence – Release I, 2019-2023.

Andrijasevic, Rutvica/Sacchetto, Devi (2017): ‘Disappearing workers’: Foxconn in Europe and the changing role of temporary work agencies. In: Work, Employment and Society 31 (1), 54-70. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017015622918

Arboleda, Martín (2020): Planetary mine: territories of extraction under late capitalism. Brooklyn: Verso Books.

Baglioni, Elena/Campling, Liam/Coe, Neil M./Smith, Adrian (2022): Introduction: Labour regimes and global production. In: Baglioni, Elena/Campling, Liam/Coe, Neil M./Smith, Adrian (eds.): Labour Regimes and Global Production, Economic Transformations. Newcastle upon Tyne: Agenda Publishing, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781788213622.001

Barta, Györgyi/Czirfusz, Márton/Kukely, György (2008): Re-industrialization in the world and in Hungary. In: European Spatial Research and Policy 15 (2), 5-26.

Bernaciak, Magdalena (2010): Cross-border competition and trade union responses in the enlarged EU: Evidence from the automotive industry in Germany and Poland. In: European Journal of Industrial Relations 16 (2), 119-135. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959680110364827

Blöcker, Antje/Dörre, Klaus/Holzschuh, Madeleine (eds.) (2020): Auto- und Zulieferindustrie in der Transformation. Beschäftigtenperspektiven aus fünf Bundesländern. Frankfurt am Main: Otto Brenner Stiftung.

Bodnár, Zsuzsa (2023a): Inspectors of the Bátonyterenye battery processing plant suffer sore mouths and skin rashes. In: Átlátszó, 30.6.2023. https://english.atlatszo.hu/2023/06/30/inspectors-of-the-batonyterenye-battery-processing-plant-suffer-sore-mouths-and-skin-rashes/, 4.4.2025.

Bodnár, Zsuzsa (2023b): Nem egy, hanem két ember halálát okozta egy géprobbanás a szigetszentmiklósi akku-feldolgozóban. In: Átlátszó, 28.7.2023. https://atlatszo.hu/orszagszerte/2023/07/28/nem-egy-hanem-ket-ember-halalat-okozta-egy-geprobbanas-a-szigetszentmiklosi-akku-feldolgozoban/, 4.4.2025.

Bodnár, Zsuzsa (2022): Samsung’s battery factory in Göd fined for seriously endangering its workers. In: Átlátszó, 28.6.2022. https://english.atlatszo.hu/2022/06/28/samsungs-battery-factory-in-god-fined-for-seriously-endangering-its-workers/, 4.4.2025.

Bodor, Krisztofer (2024): Foreign workers in Hungary: Key facts and labor market challenges. Budapest: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

Covarrubias, Alex/Holmes, John/Tuman, John (2025): Labor Upsurge in the North American Automobile Transition: Towards a New Industrial and Labor Relations Stage? In: Journal of Labor and Society 28 (1), 36-75. https://doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10169

Czirfusz, Márton (2023): The battery boom in Hungary: Companies of the value chain, outlook for workers and trade unions. Budapest: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Office Budapest.

Dietz, Kristina/Prause, Louisa (2023): Gerechte Verkehrswende global – ein Analyseansatz. In: Journal für Entwicklungspolitik 39 (3-4), 62-82. https://doi.org/10.20446/JEP-2414-3197-39-3-62

Dörre, Klaus/Liebig, Steffen/Lucht, Kim/Sittel, Johanna (2024): Klasse gegen Klima? Transformationskonflikte in der Autoindustrie. In: Berliner Journal für Soziologie 34 (1), 9-46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11609-023-00514-z

EIU – The Economist Intelligence Unit (2023): Complexities of battery supply chain may slow EV adoption. https://www.eiu.com/n/complexities-of-battery-supply-chain-may-slow-ev-adoption/, 4.4.2025.

Eurofound (2022): Overtime in Europe: regulation and practice. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Gagyi, Ágnes/Gerőcs, Tamás (2019): The Political Economy of Hungary’s New “Slave Law”. In: LeftEast, 1.1.2019. https://lefteast.org/the-political-economy-of-hungarys-new-slave-law/, 4.4.2025.

Galgóczi, Béla (ed.) (2023): On the way to electromobility – a green(er) but more unequal future? Brussels: European Trade Union Institute.

Gedei, Henriett (2024): Összefoglaló a munkaerő-kölcsönzők 2023. évi tevékenységéről. Budapest: Nemzetgazdasági Minisztérium.

Gerőcs, Tamás/Pinkasz, András (2019): Relocation, standardization and vertical specialization: Core-periphery relations in the European automotive value chain. In: Society and Economy 41 (2), 171-192. https://doi.org/10.1556/204.2019.001

Gialis, Stelios/Leontidou, Lila (2016): Antinomies of flexibilization and atypical employment in Mediterranean Europe: Greek, Italian and Spanish regions during the crisis. In: European Urban and Regional Studies 23 (4), 716-733. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776414538983

Gregson, Nicky/Crang, Mike/Botticello, Julie/Calestani, Melania/Krzywoszynska, Anna (2016): Doing the ‘dirty work’ of the green economy: Resource recovery and migrant labour in the EU. In: European Urban and Regional Studies 23 (4), 541-555. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776414554489

Hürtgen, Stefanie (2021): Precarization of work and employment in the light of competitive Europeanization and the fragmented and flexible regime of European production. In: Capital & Class 45 (1), 71-91. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309816819900123

Hürtgen, Stefanie (2005): Keine Netze ohne Boden: Kontraktfertigung und gewerkschaftliche Interessenvertretung in der osteuropäischen Elektronikindustrie. In: Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft (3), 108-126.

IG Metall Leipzig (2023): BMW: Gemeinsam Mitglieder gewinnen für Vasas und IG Metall. https://www.igmetall-leipzig.de/aktuelles/meldung/bmw-gemeinsam-mitglieder-gewinnen-fuer-vasas-und-ig-metall, 4.4.2025.

IndustriALL Global Union (2023): Organizing is key in growing battery industry. https://www.industriall-union.org/organizing-is-key-in-growing-battery-industry, 4.4.2025.

Kiss, Gergely K. (2024): Kirúgják a vendégmunkásokat betanító magyarokat az akkuipari gyártótól, amely milliárdokat kapott munkahelyteremtésre. In: 24.hu, 17.1.2024. https://24.hu/fn/gazdasag/2024/01/17/vendegmunkas-munkaero-kolcsonzes-munkahely-akkumulatoripar-akkugyar-beszallito-kkm-szijjarto-peter-nograd/, 4.4.2025.

Kapitsinis, Nikos/Gialis, Stelios (2023): The spatial division of precarious labour across the European Union regions: A composite index analysis of the 2008/2009 global economic crisis effects and COVID-19 initial implications. In: European Urban and Regional Studies 30 (4), 380-403. https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764231191631

Klebaner, Samuel/Gaddi, Matteo/Acebal, Marc Andreu/Ferret, Salvador Clarós/Gažo, Patrik/Martišková, Monika/Smith, Thomas S.J./Vesić, Darko/Vukša, Tanja/Boareto, Renato/Tsai, David Shiling/Ferreira, André Luis (2021): The need for transformation. Challenges for the international automotive sector. Voices from unions, workers, climate movement, industry. Brussels: Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.

Krzywdzinski, Martin/Lechowski, Grzegorz/Ferdinand, Jonas/Schneiß, Daniel (2023): The German path to electromobility and its impacts on automotive production and employment. In: Galgóczi, Béla (ed.): On the Way to Electromobility – a Green(Er) but More Unequal Future? Brussels: ETUI, 179-206.

Lier, David Christoffer (2007): Places of Work, Scales of Organising: A Review of Labour Geography. In: Geography Compass 1 (4), 814-833. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8198.2007.00047.x

Lüthje, Boy (2022): Foxconnisation of Automobile Manufacturing? Production Networks and Regimes of Production in the Electric Vehicle Industry in China. In: Teipen, Christina/Dünhaupt, Petra/Herr, Hansjörg/Mehl, Fabian (eds.): Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 311-334. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87320-2_12

Lüthje, Boy/Hürtgen, Stefanie/Pawlicki, Peter/Sproll, Martina (2013): From Silicon Valley to Shenzhen: Global production and work in the IT industry. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. https://doi.org/10.5771/9780742568495

Meszmann, Tibor T./Fedyuk, Olena (2018): Temporary agency work as a form and channel of labour migration in Hungary. Budapest: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

Mihály, Zoltán (2015): The making of cheap labour power: Nokia’s case in Cluj. In: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Sociologia 60 (1), 63-83. https://doi.org/10.1515/SUBBS-2015-0003

Ojeda, María Gómez/Reis, Nadine (2024): USMCA Labour Provisions and Their Impact on Working Conditions in the Mexican Automotive Industry: An Initial Assessment. In: Journal für Entwicklungspolitik 40 (3), 39-65. https://doi.org/10.20446/JEP-2414-3197-40-3-39

Orbán, Viktor (2023): Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s statement in Parliament, responding to reaction to his address before the start of daily business. https://miniszterelnok.hu/en/prime-minister-viktor-orbans-statement-in-parliament-responding-to-reactions-to-his-address-before-the-start-of-daily-business-2023-09-25/, 4.4.2025.

Pardi, Tommaso (2023): Work and employment in the lithium-ion battery industry for electric vehicles: a preliminary overview. In: International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management 23 (4), 426-444. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJATM.2023.136570

Pattenden, Jonathan (2018): The politics of classes of labour: fragmentation, reproduction zones and collective action in Karnataka, India. In: The Journal of Peasant Studies 45 (5-6), 1039-1059. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2018.1495625

Pavlínek, Petr (2023): Transition of the automotive industry towards electric vehicle production in the east European integrated periphery. In: Empirica 50 (1), 35-73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10663-022-09554-9

Pavlínek, Petr (2022): Relative positions of countries in the core-periphery structure of the European automotive industry. In: European Urban and Regional Studies 29 (1), 59-84. https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764211021882

Pianta, Mario/Lucchese, Matteo (2020): Rethinking the European Green Deal: An Industrial Policy for a Just Transition in Europe. In: Review of Radical Political Economics 52 (4), 633-641. https://doi.org/10.1177/0486613420938207

Schling, Hannah (2022): “Just- in- time” migrant workers in Czechia: racialization and dormitory labour regimes. In: Baglioni, Elena/Campling, Liam/Coe, Neil M./Smith, Adrian (eds.): Labour Regimes and Global Production, Economic Transformations. Newcastle upon Tyne: Agenda Publishing, 301-315.

Silver, Beverly J./Arrighi, Giovanni (2001): Workers North and South. In: Socialist Register 37, 53-76.

Smith, Adrian/Barbu, Mirela/Campling, Liam/Harrison, James/Richardson, Ben (2018): Labor Regimes, Global Production Networks, and European Union Trade Policy: Labor Standards and Export Production in the Moldovan Clothing Industry. In: Economic Geography 94 (5), 550-574. https://doi.org/10.1080/00130095.2018.1434410

Szalavetz, Andrea (2022): Transition to electric vehicles in Hungary: A devastating crisis or business as usual? In: Technological Forecasting and Social Change 184, 122029. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.122029

Tamásné Szabó, Zsuzsanna (2021): Rengeteg ukrán munkahelyét „védi” a kormány a gödi Samsung-gyárban, ahol helyiek alig dolgoznak. In: 24.hu, 26.11.2021. https://24.hu/fn/gazdasag/2021/11/26/samsung-sdi-god-gyar-dolgozoi-letszam/, 4.4.2025.

USGS – United States Geological Survey (2024): Mineral commodity summaries 2024. Reston: U.S. Geological Survey.

VDSZ – Magyar Vegyipari, Energiaipari és Rokon Szakmákban Dolgozók Szakszervezeti Szövetsége (2024): Nem kell a kölcsönzött munkaerő Iváncsára? http://www.vdsz.hu/hirek/6/nem_kell_a_kolcsonzott_munkaero_ivancsara_/1506/, 29.6.2024

Weiler, Vilmos (2023): Csak robotként figyelem a futószalagot az aksigyárban, de az előző fizetésem kétszeresét keresem. In: telex.hu, 6.3.2023. https://telex.hu/komplex/2023/03/06/akkumulatorgyar-12-ora-muszak-god-samsung-munkas-tarsadalmi-hatas-oktatas-vendegmunkas-szakszervezet-catl-fizetes, 4.4.2025.