The Logistics of Exploitation

November 23-25 Deliverunion Berlin (FAU) will participate in the conference “Against the Logistics of Exploitation” in Stockholm, Sweden.

We will come together and network with other unions and groups across Europe, for example: IWGB (England), IP (Poland), SI COBAS (Italy) and The Dock Workers Union and SAC (Sweden). While being in the north we’ll also try to meet up with the Finnish riders from the campaign #justice4couriers

Participators/fb-event: facebook event

The full program can be seen here: transnational-strike.info

Riders across Europe unite to form the Transnational Federation of Couriers

Last week riders from DeliverUnion joined couriers from 31 other European collectives and unions from 12 countries in Brussels to share common strategies and to found the Transnational Courier Federation! It was really exciting to meet and learn from so many other riders who are organising under platform companies such as Deliveroo, UberEats and Foodora, and also couriers who have started their own cooperative delivery companies.

“These companies operate on a transnational level, so we need to resist them on a transnational level.” (IWW Courier Network member)

Since 2016 riders for “gig economy” platforms have been organising for better working conditions across Europe and beyond to Hong Kong, Indonesia, Argentina and Australia, grabbing media headlines with their demonstrations and strikes.

Continue reading “Riders across Europe unite to form the Transnational Federation of Couriers”

Deliverunion is going to Brussels

October 25-26 Deliverunion is travelling to Brussels to meet other riders from around Europe for the biggest international meeting of food delivery couriers ever!

Since 2016 a wave of rider strikes and protests has spread through Europe. Hundreds of couriers have stood up to the exploitative practices of Deliveroo, UberEats, Foodora and the like, demanding better wages and protections at work.

This week riders from Italy, Spain, France, UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Austria and Belgium will meet in Brussels to share experiences and ideas on organising for better working conditions.

This is an exciting chance to learn from the successes and failures from each country, and to connect and strengthen our common campaigns through a European wide courier network against poverty pay and precarious work in the gig economy.

“Wow, you can do that?” (EN/DE/SE)

SE Riders Unite Flyer

 

September 14-16, FAU Berlin visited three Swedish cities and talked about the Deliverunion campaign. Despair and frustration changed into hope of change.

In the spring of 2018 SAC invited us to talk about the #Deliverunion campaign. Between 14-16 September, we visited Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, where the local unions organized information meetings open to all but especially for riders. Union working groups had produced local info-material and distributed them to the riders on the street, with one leaflet inviting them to the meeting and the other, describing how SAC had now taken on the delivery companies and urging all riders to join their local unions.

A handful of riders attended each of the three meetings. The conversation revolved around their work environment, the (self-)organising they had already done and the difficulties and opportunities in reaching out to their colleagues. We from Berlin talked about how we started organizing ourselves, about the experiences we made, and about successes and hardships in our campaign of over 2 years. The similarity of our situations and the common frustration with our working conditions were striking.

Continue reading ““Wow, you can do that?” (EN/DE/SE)”

Deliverunion Sweden Tour

The Swedish union SAC Syndikalisterna is launching the campaign Deliverunion – organizing riders working for companies like Foodora and Uber Eats in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. Riders from Berlin will visit the cities between the 14-16th of September and talk about what we’ve been doing the last 18 months!

• Stockholm: Friday 14th September 17:00 at SAC-huset, 3rd floor, Sveavägen 98.
• Gothenburg: Saturday 15th September 15:30 at Viktoriahuset/Hagabion, Linnégatan 21.
• Malmö: Sunday 16th September 16:00 at Café Jesusbaren, Falsterbogatan 27B.

#Deliverunion Survey – Foodora Rider Opinions of Shift Planning App

Having trouble with the newly-introduced shift planning app (Rooster)? Take our survey and let us know!

We want to better understand the obstacles that riders are facing in doing their unpaid shift planning on a weekly basis.

The Deliverunion campaign is based on riders’ own workplace issues and demands. Help us today and take our shift planning survey 🙂

How to be broke in one week at Deliveroo

I’m a Deliveroo rider, and this is my story about why I’m broke:

While working at Deliveroo one small incident can dramatically change your living conditions. This is all because of an unfair shift booking system, too many riders, and a company that pushes the consequences of not getting enough customers for their workers. All of this happened to me in the last two weeks. It is my personal experience, but unfortunately there are hundreds of stories like this in the city. So let me tell you what happened…
As you probably know, to be able to work you first need to register for a shift. It is not easy, as there are far more riders than free shifts. Deliveroo constantly “hires” new people. Well, actually they don’t hire anyone, as everybody is offered only a freelance contract. This way Deliveroo has no costs of getting more and more people on board, but the number of shifts remains the same.

Berlin is divided into different zones. The shifts are also not equally profitable. There are zones and time periods where it is impossible to make even an average of 5 euro per hour (believe me, many of us tried). But it is worth taking shifts in zones with lots of restaurants and customers, at times when people order more food. During these shifts you can earn easily 15 euro per hour. But shifts like this are few. All the shifts are one hour long.

In order to manage the shifts Deliveroo developed a system that divides all the riders into 3 groups. All the shifts for the coming week are released on one day. The first group has first access to the booking system before the others. A few hours later the second group can book shifts, and then the third. This means that the last group has very little or no choice – usually all good shifts are gone in the first round. There is also a possibility to work the same shifts one already had worked the previous week. This automated copy is also dependent on which group you are in.

Continue reading “How to be broke in one week at Deliveroo”

Deliveroo – Shame on You!

On the afternoon of Friday, the 13th of April, around 60 riders and supporters gathered on Oranienplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg. They took to the streets to protest the working conditions at Deliveroo and it’s disregard for their worker’s right to unionize. The demonstration was organized by the FAU Berlin, the union representing both Deliveroo and Foodora riders in Berlin since early 2017. It was part of an international day of action against Union Busting and exploitation in turn organized by aktion./.arbeitsunrecht from Cologne (see action reports from other cities: https://arbeitsunrecht.de/shame-on-you-deliveroo/). In an online vote to determine the “worst employer”, and thus “winner” of this day of action, Deliveroo came in first, closely followed by the restaurant chain Nordsee. Continue reading “Deliveroo – Shame on You!”