The orderly functioning of global capitalism increasingly depends on the labor of logistics workers. But social scientists have yet to produce nuanced accounts of the labor process in the many ports, warehouses, and distribution centers that lie at the heart of logistics work. In this study, the authors seek to connect the nascent field of critical logistics studies to theories of the labor process in an effort to understand the production regimes that arise in warehouse work under different economic and regulatory conditions. Using qualitative data gathered at four European warehouses owned by the same third-party logistics firm, the authors identify several distinct types of production regimes at these warehouses and analyze the conditions accounting for each. Even in this globally oriented industry in which firms seek to standardize their international operations, locally rooted conditions play a significant role, generating sharply different forms of labor control even within the same firm.

Given the traditional commitment of trade unions to occupational health and safety standards, unions might have been expected to be strongly involved in containing the Covid-19 pandemic. This article focuses on their policy positions at national and sectoral level towards the occupational health and safety measures taken to limit the spread of Covid-19 in Germany, France and Luxembourg from the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 until the surging fourth wave of infections in November–December 2021. The authors’ data show that unions have found it increasingly difficult over the course of the pandemic to develop policy positions in the domain of occupational health and safety that address the variegated situations and needs of their different member groups and that achieve a balance between membership logics and public health considerations.

Given the major role of workplaces as points of contamination and the traditional commitment of trade unions to uphold occupational health and safety standards, trade unions could be expected to be strongly involved in mobilising against the Covid-19 pandemic. This article focuses on their policy positions (at national and sectoral level) towards the occupational health and safety measures taken to limit the spread of Covid-19 in Germany, France and Luxembourg from the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 until the surging fourth wave of infections in November-December 2021. Our data shows that unions have found it increasingly difficult over the course of the pandemic to develop policy positions in the domain of occupational health and safety that address the variegated situations and needs of their different member groups and that achieve a balance between membership logics and public health considerations.

The paper uses a qualitative comparative case study design to examine across (and within) sectoral variation in occupational welfare outcomes (i.e. flexible working hours, occupational pensions and health and sickness benefits, fringe benefits complementing wages) for different groups of workers in food and chemical manufacturing in Germany and Belgium. Findings indicate that common national challenges can yield different occupational welfare outcomes across (and within) different sectors, which in turn affect workforce segmentation. The integration between local and sector-level power dynamics explains the extent to which and how negotiation on occupational welfare can entail segmentation.