We’ve sent Deliveroo and Foodora our second letter demanding a negotiation meeting. We’ll make sure they don’t ignore us again.
Deliveroo and Foodora, both multimillion dollar companies, have been ignoring our request to negotiate. Their refusal to even sit at a table with us just shows how much they value us as employees.
As well as a living wage and fair working conditions, we deserve dignity and respect – Deliveroo has not even had the courtesy to write us an email in reply.
Both companies’ buzzword is flexibility, but when flexibility means precarity and not knowing if you’ll earn enough to get through the month, the only choice is for us to organise for better working conditions.
Our last actions have shown that we are many, and if they continue to ignore us they better know what’s coming.
Roughly 80-90 Foodora and Deliveroo riders with supporters took to the streets on Thursday to highlight their common struggles with the two Berlin-based start-ups. Clad in pink and blue, the workers chanted slogans including “Foodora, Deliveroo, shame on you! shame on you!”, and “What do we want? Better working conditions! When do we want it? NOW!”
Their demo was planned in conjunction with FAU Berlin, who has been assisting the riders to organise themselves for the last few months. It forms part of a larger campaign to improve working conditions, which riders say have been gradually deteriorating. In their speeches, workers took issue with the kind of precarious work which seems to be central to the gig-economy, highlighting the inherent connection of their struggle to similar struggles elsewhere.
Foodora and Deliveroo riders are showing Berlin that we are united in our campaign for better working conditions. Come and join us as we cycle around the city and show our strength in numbers!
Thursday 18th May, 3pm at Lausitzer Platz.
Bring your bikes! bring your uniforms! bring your voices!
There will be snacks, music and a chance to meet other riders!
On April 25th over 100 Deliverooo and Foodora riders and activists met at Zukunft am Ostkreuz for the first big public event of the campaign.
The room was already packed when the talk started, with the FAU #deliverunion working group presenting the riders’ demands, how we are organising and why we can win.
The next campaign meeting will be on Tuesday 2nd May at FAU’s office in Grüntaler Straße 24, 13357. If you are a rider and you want to organise, come and join in! We are really looking forward to meeting you.
18. May 2017: Lausitzer Platz 15:00
On Thursday 18th May riders will come together at Lausitzer Platz to send Deliveroo and Foodora a message. Come along and bring your bikes – it will be fun!
Our working conditions are getting worse and worse and we’ve had enough! Now we’re taking matters into our own hands! The “gig” economy is growing, and it creates more and more precarious jobs. It’s time to fight for our rights as workers, for our job and for yours! Let’s stand together in solidarity!
Riders in similar conditions are already organising and winning gains across Europe. If they can do it, we can do it too! Let’s be heard and demand the very best we can get! Come join us in Zukunft am Ostkreuz on April the 25th at 20:00 as we launch our campaign to get what we deserve!
The FAU Berlin is an independent grassroots self-organised trade union helping workers organise to fight for everything they can get. Organise now so you can too!
Deliveroo and Foodora are two very young start-ups that are rapidly expanding on a global level through their high amount of start-up funds. They spark doubts whether digital capitalism brings an end to work – as some have been claiming. But in fact, the ones who bike the streets for the new internet delivery services have to go many miles through the traffic each day and are regularly put into dangerous situations. Through the #deliverunion campaign, the cyclists are now raising their voices.
Social security? No chance!
As most cyclists are (pseudo-)freelancers, they are not included into the social care system, despite their highly risky job. Only receiving a small wage plus bonuses for each delivery, the cyclists are expected to be fully flexible. They cycle on their own bikes and are strictly controlled as their paths and times are constantly under surveillance.
However, the networking via internet also bears some advantages for the mostly young workers: It provides a platform on which they can discuss and decide to take action. Consequently, this year in Berlin the Deliveroo-cyclists turned around their kangaroo-backpacks to protest against the low wages – eventually, they were granted extra payments for rainy days.
Now, workers are also organising on an international level
In London, Deliveroo-cyclists organised a wildcat strike and successfully fought an implementation of a pay-per-delivery wage system. They were an inspiration for a self-organised struggle against precarious working conditions on an international level: In Milan and Turin, Foodora-cyclists also successfully fought for higher wages by self-organised strikes and protests.
For better working conditions everywhere: the campaign #deliverunion
The international connection of workers has just started. Recently in November, a conference of several grassroots unions took place in Bilbao to re-coordinate the international cooperation. It also created the delivery-service campaign #deliverunion. The Deliveroo-cyclists who are organised in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in Bristol are the campaign’s initiators: In a video that’s been on the internet already for days, Deliveroo-cyclists describe with confidence how they took first steps to improve their working conditions.
Eight grassroots unions which deliverers can contact participate in the #deliverunion campaign. Its goal is to promote the exchange of ideas about collective and union-based actions and to provide an international platform for the workers to organise and learn about their rights.
