Tracing the impacts of global sourcing on local communities: a historical analysis of employment relations in Queensland’s beef processing sector

Abstract

By focusing on firm-specific drivers the literature on global sourcing overlooks many of the wider impacts on host communities. In particular, impacts on the dynamic employment relationship have consequences for local governments and workers as well as MNEs engaged in global sourcing. Using historical methods this paper analyses the development of Queensland’s beef processing sector to identify patterns in global sourcing behaviour and the impacts on employment relations in local communities. The evidence reveals a pattern of inward FDI motivated by MNEs’ resource seeking objectives encouraged by government incentives. Whereas early global sourcing practices were sporadic they became more strategic. Cost minimisation was the enduring driver of this MNE activity. This ethos tempered relations between meat workers and employers and limited the direct and indirect benefits associated with job creation in Queensland’s regional host communities.