There are a number of points, which can be made in relation to the exchange and its influence on the production chains that are linked to the Forests of the Czech Republic. First, the fact that both cultivation and forest harvesting (which means access to wood) are treated as one (called a “complex order”) brings great competitive pressures for labour. For example, the workers doing the cultivation work are then more clearly tied to competition in the regional/global wood production chain. Cuts on labour costs in cultivation work have been used to cover the cost of wood paid to the Forests of the Czech Republic (Transparency International 2011a). Second, the exchange is organised in such a way that it does not impose limits on capital, which can then allow for labour costs to not be fixed to the employing organisation but subcontracted in a flexible way (Robinson 2004: 18). In other words, the Forests of the Czech Republic has rejected several proposals from the forestry unions Dřevo-Lesy-Voda asking the company to introduce new criteria in the public tenders (e.g. on work being carried at least in part by one’s own employees, guaranteeing regional employment, putting great emphasis on security at work). The Forests of the Czech Republic claimed that these proposals were introducing discriminatory conditions for the bidders19. This is related to the discussion of the size of the core employees in forestry and wood companies and the (social construction of) “seasonality” and temporality of work in this industry. According to the employer association Czech Association of Businessmen in the Forestry Sector, which represents smaller and midsized companies in this economic sector, much of the work could be organised on a yearround basis, which could eventually lead to the increase of “local” workers in the countryside as opposed to migrant “agency workers”20. Third, the exchange mode allows for treating the total cost as well as the costs of individual services rendered in the public tender as unconnected to wages, economic, social and even basic human rights of workers that are at the bottom of the public tender chain21. This is possible because they are “black-boxed” – to use a term from the actor-network-theory. If a part of a network of actors is “black-boxed” it means that it is considered as not having an effect on how the overall network functions. There are two kinds of enrolments in the 19
Interview with a representative of the Labour Unions Dřevo lesy voda, 4 January 2011. Interview with the head of the Czech Association of Businessmen in Forestry Sector, 15 November 2011. 21 I will use the term “public tender chain” to show the connections between the different levels of the public tendering including the subcontractors, it is inspired by the global production chain concept. 20
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