Today's Topics:
1. Britain, solfed: SolFed is back in Liverpool!
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. fda-ifa: About demonstrationmy body my-choice
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Greece, Libertarian Thessaloniki Anarchist Collective
Rubicon [APO]: Intervention at the American Consulate in
Thessaloniki (gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
Rubicon [APO]: Intervention at the American Consulate in
Thessaloniki (gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Britain, class war: Foodora strikes in Italy: the dark side
of the sharing economy (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
After a few years' absence, SolFed is back in Liverpool. During recent months, we have
been meeting with comrades in Manchester, supporting their activities and trying to find
out how to restart things here. Now a few of us have decided to take the step to start the
process of becoming a SolFed Local. ---- Liverpool SolFed group is now holding regular
meetings. We are starting some campaigns and are doing our first drop-in sessions around
rights at work and housing issues. Of course, we will keep supporting Manchester and all
the other SolFed locals, but now we are focused on restoring an anarcho-syndicalist
presence in Merseyside. ---- We are a small group of workers interested in organising in
our workplaces and communities. Our aims are to build a solidarity network against the
abuses of bosses and landlords (wage theft, insecurity at work, high rents, evictions,
etc.), to develop alternative cultural events and to fight back against all forms of
authority.
http://www.solfed.org.uk/liverpool/solfed-is-back-in-liverpool
------------------------------
Message: 2
On saturday, the 19th of November, the Treffen Christlicher Lebensrechts-Gruppen (TCLG,
Meeting of christian Pro-life-goups) - a network of christian-fundmentalist initiatives,
consulting services and groups - will organize the "Lebensrecht-Forum" (pro-life-forum).
This event is taking place in the Friedenshof in Kassel twice a year. Its main ojectivs
are networking and further education. ---- The so called Pro-Lifers perpetuate an
extremely reactionary worldview: they propagate a heterosexual nuclear family, in which
all reproductive work has to be done by women*. The supposed "god-given" and "natural"
right of women* is to be mothers. Women* are idialised as life giving objects and
therefore they are reduced to nothing more than their capability of giving birth.
Pro-lifers deny pregnant people* their right of self-determination by putting abortion
legally on the same level as murder.
Besides these sexist, homo and trans* hostile views, the movement is quite nationalistic
and supportive of "völkische" ideas.
This needs to be understood in the context of rising activities in the christian
fundamantalist comunity as well as in reactionary and nationalistic movements.These days
the political positions of "pro-life" goups can be found in the election program of the
AfD and in the rhetoric of the protests against the hessian curriculum. They also
propagate a reactionary view of the family, mobilize against LGBT*QI issues and
emancipatory sex education.
On saturday 19.11.2016 we will take our issue to the streets to protest against the
pro-life event.
Because what we do or don't do with our bodies is entirely up to us. My body - my choice!
We demand:
- the acceptance of non-heterosexual ways of life
- sexual self-determination for all genders and emancipative sex education
- legalisation of abortion
- free availability of contraceptives and the "morning after pill"
https://fda-ifa.org/demonstration-my-body-my-choice/
------------------------------
Message: 3
The visit of the outgoing US President Barack Obama in Greece anything but courtesy is. -
Aside from the powerful symbolic weight of the visit of an American president on the eve
of the anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising (and even in a "left-wing" government) the
content of Obama's coming could be summed up in "business as usual". - As is known, of
course, these jobs are always contaminated with the blood of the people. - The world today
has nothing to do with the welter of words on the "end of history" made after the end of
the cold war and tried to provide a theoretical justification for global autocracy US.
---- Amid capitalist crisis antagonisms between the imperialisms have turned vast areas of
the planet in slaughterhouses, at the same time the epelafnontas capitalism attacked
fiercely in the lives of the exploited and even oppressed in countries where until now the
world of work retained some rights he won through struggles and blood in the last century.
The agenda of Obama's visit to Greece is diverse. Initially we must not forget that the US
is actively involved in the Greek crisis. The North American capitalism ever since
Pinochet promoted by the IMF in the total deregulation of the labor market and the frontal
attack on employment rights. Given the intention of SYRIZA / ANEL government to open the
issue of work aiming at the final settling with whatever is left to remind labor unionism
can easily imagine the results of the discussion. The main reason but the Obama visit is
none other than the developments in the wider region of the eastern Mediterranean and the
Middle. East.
Suggest an edit
The US has since promoted the transformation of the Arab Spring in process to suit their
plans for the region, having primed the most reactionary jihadists tracks like ISIS, have
engaged in a hopeless competition with other imperialisms (such as Russian) mainly in
front of Syria and Iraq and in Libya, Yemen, etc. They convert a large part of the M. East
field in open warfare with avevaio future. The Greek state, loyal to NATO commitments
involved directly and indirectly in this conflict. Due to the geopolitical balance is
imperative for the US to stabilize this participation. Finally we must not forget the
classic trade weapons the US is doing with their two best clients of areas, the Greek and
the Turkish state.
We for our part we have no illusions. We are not opposed to US imperialism having the back
of our mind to ally with another imperialism. There fantasize "folk" or national class
collaboration fronts against the "external" enemy. Our enemy is total world domination,
the state, capitalism and imperialism whatever form or guise though it gets. We understand
that the by-the-less, the proletarians and oppressed of this world have no interest in the
sovereignty of the state and capital, either of a national or supra-interstate sign, have
no interest in escalating warfare caused by imperialist antagonisms. Unlike what should
unite them is the struggle for a universal society of freedom and equality, the struggle
for libertarian communism.
For this reason we stand alongside those struggling against oppression. Kurds of Syria
with which the United States playing a very dirty game, helping militarily against ISIS
but also supporting the murderous regime Erdogan who do not miss an opportunity to attack
them. Palestinians who for decades not bow their heads and fight for their freedom. All
the peoples of the Middle. East, Asia and Latin America who refuse to yield to.
Even in the heart of the beast, however, within the US developed resistances. Not long ago
the big nationwide strikes of workers in the food supply as required and managed increases
in the minimum wage. The Black Lives Matter movement also fighting for years against
police violence and murder but also in general against racial and class oppression that
never ceased to exist African Americans. Also a great movement has begun to grow in
prisons where prisoners combining many forms of struggle as strikes, riots and hunger
strikes resist unpaid forced labor forced to give private contractors, ie they resist
turning them into modern slaves.
Indigenous Sioux recently dug up the hatchet of war resisting the passage of a
catastrophic oil pipeline through their lands. These are just some examples of the
oppressed in the US struggles remind us that the struggle against imperialism and
capitalism has no national colors, is not determined by national borders nor can it be
achieved by allying with the various bourgeoisies.
This Tuesday, November 8 we intervene at the American Consulate in Thessaloniki. We wish
in this way to get involved early in the protests against the arrival of US President. We
invite all / s to go down the road the day of Obama's visit to the war against the state,
capitalism and imperialism.
Unearth the hatchet internationalists SOCIAL-class war
SOLIDARITY THE WEAPON OF PEOPLES, WAR, WAR OF THE BOSSES
Libertarian Thessaloniki Initiative
Anarchist Collectivism Rubicon
members ANARCHIKIS FEDERATION
------------------------------
Message: 4
from libcom: Foodora in Italy ...It's been sold for a figure of several tens of million of
euros yet Foodora has the typical appeal of a startup: young and friendly international
people working in an open space office in Berlin and young students delivering food by
bike as an easy side-job. ---- It landed in Turin as a mirror image of the Berlin base.
The managers, all under 30, meet every so often in a co-working space in the city center,
are informal and speak using English words. The fleet of couriers are also young,
educated, and are paid €5 per hour. ---- This image started to crack when in August
Deliveroo couriers in London went on strike and a month later their counterparts in Paris
also protested. The reason was, oversimplifying, that once the company had attracted
enough "workers", pay shifted from a fixed scheme to per-delivery compensation only.
Ever since the company opened in Italy, workers had been meeting and talking to one
another informally, especially where they are waiting for new deliveries. They had held
informal assemblies, sometimes even meeting with management in order to discuss many
issues. When a change in contract similar to London and Paris happened at Foodora in
Turin, the protest flared up.
The usual problems affecting all delivery workers are that deliveries may be in harsh
weather conditions and usually involve moving a lot (60-80 kilometers per shift in
Foodora's case). Nor is it new that there are long waits for the food to be ready or the
next delivery.
There are, though, completely new aspects connected to the digital nature of the work
relationship. Working time is 24/7 meaning there is no such thing as work/non-work
division. Riders can theoretically decide when they are available, though they do not know
whether they will actually work as the management decides to accept, modify or even delete
the shifts, at any time, even during the shift itself.
As an algorithm decides in real time the work rhythms (according to volume of requests and
positions of the couriers), there are hours of absolute rush and hours of complete
stand-still. Not to mention that both bike and phone are provided by the courier, with all
the related costs of maintenance and repair.
In some interviews workers even mentioned privacy issues as continual geo-localization
goes against privacy law, especially if done by an app from the Apple and Google Play stores.
All of this for €500 a month, working 25 hours a week.
3. New conditions and first strikes
Riders demanded better working conditions. In May 2016, they wrote a letter signed by 85
out of 100 workers, but the requests were answered with a mix of procrastination and
excuses, such as that the head of the company was elsewhere at the time. Finally, in July,
a meeting took place but management said the contract could not be modified. What turned
dissatisfaction into protest was that the contract could actually be changed, and the
company did that.
In September Foodora issued a new contract, applying to all new riders, and from November
30, to all riders. This new contract eliminates the fixed income and replaces it with a
variable one: €2.70 per delivery. The number of deliveries per shift is not a factor that
riders can influence, as if they were factory workers, but it will still determine their
income. For an income of €500, they will have to make a delivery every half hour, at any
hour, regardless of the day, time or period of the year.
The managing director, Gianluca Cocco, refused to discuss the new terms with the base
union, SiCobas, that the workers had chosen to represent them, saying that autonomous
workers have no right to unionise. The management agreed only to face-to-face meetings
with individual workers and many were removed from the group used to communicate with them
or blacklisted.
The informal connections between riders turned into the platform for a strike: on October
8th in Turin there was the first strike in Italy of workers employed through an app.
Around 50 riders blocked the service for the whole Saturday, biking through the city
distributing leaflets in the restaurants affiliated to Foodora. There were basically three
demands:
abolition of the "temporary collaboration" contract described above, as well as the
per-delivery pay, and introduction of a flexible part-time (20 hours minimum) contract.
This kind of contract guarantees sick leave, insurance and vacation.
a basic salary (€7.50 per hour) with a variable bonus (€1 per delivery).
halting of any threat towards and disciplinary sanctions of the protesting workers.
Further demands include a proper formal communication channel with the employer (rather
then a whatsapp group and an app), fair assistance from the company towards the cost of
bike and phone, and proper insurance covering not only accidents but also recovery days
and illness.
4. Evolution of the struggle
The protest was so successful that it carried on all day, was joined by many locals and
was immediately reported by newspapers, mainly because of the newness of the technologies
involved. There was significant disruption of the brand image: ‘modifications' of the
company logo (from a hand carrying a tray to one carrying an iron ball with chain) and a
"shitstorm" on social media where the company had to delete insults and messages of
solidarity. The over-exposure of Foodora's brand on these platforms made them a great
place to show digital solidarity. All this was linked to local assemblies and street
action: going to each restaurant to give out leaflets and speeches. The message spread
wider, a proper boycott was launched, and restaurants started to join it. In the end a
meeting with the managing director to discuss their requests was fixed for October 10. At
the end of this meeting the management, both Italian and German, promised to issue a
statement in response to every point. It's worth mentioning that during the meeting a
group of people from the co-working space used by Foodora came together to show solidarity
and that the co-working space dissociated itself from any connection to Foodora.
While management was deciding how to answer, an indirect answer came through a ‘rather
strange layoff'. Two promoters who went to a riders' assembly to understand and show
solidarity were excluded from the app. Their contract was not over, but they were
effectively laid off as they were not being given any shifts. The clear written answer to
the protesters arrived at 00.02 of the 14th (despite a deadline of the 13th): not €2.70
euro per delivery but €3.70. The same morning the riders went to the Turin office but
found it empty. No one from management showed or picked up the phone. Two labour
inspectors were sent directly from the Ministry of Labour, though, to check the legality
of the situation, while the Minister himself expressed solidarity with the riders.
Unfortunately more and more riders were locked out of the app as they spent their day
giving out leaflets about their protest. A group went to the main HQ in Milan twice, once
finding it unexpectedly closed and the next time forcing the management to lock themselves
in the office for three hours. Both occasions were used to meet some colleagues in the
city, organizing info-events for the coming week and spreading the strike.
Under the pressure from the workers the company decided to answer at least one of the
demands. It issued a statement that three bike shops were authorized to give 50% discount.
According to the riders, no-one has ever received such a discount. The company's real
reaction, though, was to employ a massive number of new riders, promising them at least
two deliveries per hour, a promise that has been broken by either fewer deliveries per
hour or fewer hours per week, and blame laid at the door of the striking riders.
Two weeks after the first strike not only workers but even restaurants that expressed
solidarity have been denied access to the app. From the beginning the striking riders have
used different methods to decentralize their struggle: frequent change of the
representative speaking with management, use of fake names and distorted voices. Once
Foodora identified who it thought were the leaders, they were completely banned from any
communication, although not officially fired. There are, though, interviews where workers
who were ready to accept the new contract were subjected to the same sanctions, just
because they took part in assemblies. How the management knew about their participation is
a matter of speculation.
Meanwhile labour inspectors are investigating and the workers have been received by both
the municipality and the Labour Ministry. Since both occasions proved unfruitful (Foodora
failed to attend the meeting with the municipality), the strikers kept on organizing
several public meetings. The role of social centers and squats cannot be underestimated:
media reporting and coverage as well as practical solidarity and support came immediately
from local grassroots movements. Public assemblies in Milan were held at social center
COX, and in Turin assemblies were promoted by activists at the local university and at the
social center Cavallerizza, while a solidarity dinner was held in anarchist squat Asilo.
5. Flexibility and the Italian labour market
Further reflection should be given to the bigger picture. The truth is that Foodora was
able to offer such low salaries (compared, for instance, with France where a rider gets
€7.20 an hour + €2 per delivery) because the Jobs Act and previous reforms have
deregulated the Italian job market and removed general protection for workers. When the
deregulated market meets the hyper-fragmented employment form of Foodora it results in a
terrible mix. Furthermore, Foodora has been accused of taking advantage of the high youth
unemployment rate in Italy (around 40% in 2015, according to ISTAT): what the company
terms a "side job" is, for the riders, one of the only ways to have an income.
Luckily the struggles of the riders and many others keep our eyes open and our hopes high.
You can find info and statements (in Italian) about the striking riders on their FB page:
Deliverance Project. Feel free to express your solidarity to them, or on the Foodora FB page.
Original article from the Struggles in Italy blog.
http://www.classwarparty.org.uk/foodora-strikes-italy-dark-side-sharing-economy/#more-14814
------------------------------
of the sharing economy (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
After a few years' absence, SolFed is back in Liverpool. During recent months, we have
been meeting with comrades in Manchester, supporting their activities and trying to find
out how to restart things here. Now a few of us have decided to take the step to start the
process of becoming a SolFed Local. ---- Liverpool SolFed group is now holding regular
meetings. We are starting some campaigns and are doing our first drop-in sessions around
rights at work and housing issues. Of course, we will keep supporting Manchester and all
the other SolFed locals, but now we are focused on restoring an anarcho-syndicalist
presence in Merseyside. ---- We are a small group of workers interested in organising in
our workplaces and communities. Our aims are to build a solidarity network against the
abuses of bosses and landlords (wage theft, insecurity at work, high rents, evictions,
etc.), to develop alternative cultural events and to fight back against all forms of
authority.
http://www.solfed.org.uk/liverpool/solfed-is-back-in-liverpool
------------------------------
Message: 2
On saturday, the 19th of November, the Treffen Christlicher Lebensrechts-Gruppen (TCLG,
Meeting of christian Pro-life-goups) - a network of christian-fundmentalist initiatives,
consulting services and groups - will organize the "Lebensrecht-Forum" (pro-life-forum).
This event is taking place in the Friedenshof in Kassel twice a year. Its main ojectivs
are networking and further education. ---- The so called Pro-Lifers perpetuate an
extremely reactionary worldview: they propagate a heterosexual nuclear family, in which
all reproductive work has to be done by women*. The supposed "god-given" and "natural"
right of women* is to be mothers. Women* are idialised as life giving objects and
therefore they are reduced to nothing more than their capability of giving birth.
Pro-lifers deny pregnant people* their right of self-determination by putting abortion
legally on the same level as murder.
Besides these sexist, homo and trans* hostile views, the movement is quite nationalistic
and supportive of "völkische" ideas.
This needs to be understood in the context of rising activities in the christian
fundamantalist comunity as well as in reactionary and nationalistic movements.These days
the political positions of "pro-life" goups can be found in the election program of the
AfD and in the rhetoric of the protests against the hessian curriculum. They also
propagate a reactionary view of the family, mobilize against LGBT*QI issues and
emancipatory sex education.
On saturday 19.11.2016 we will take our issue to the streets to protest against the
pro-life event.
Because what we do or don't do with our bodies is entirely up to us. My body - my choice!
We demand:
- the acceptance of non-heterosexual ways of life
- sexual self-determination for all genders and emancipative sex education
- legalisation of abortion
- free availability of contraceptives and the "morning after pill"
https://fda-ifa.org/demonstration-my-body-my-choice/
------------------------------
Message: 3
The visit of the outgoing US President Barack Obama in Greece anything but courtesy is. -
Aside from the powerful symbolic weight of the visit of an American president on the eve
of the anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising (and even in a "left-wing" government) the
content of Obama's coming could be summed up in "business as usual". - As is known, of
course, these jobs are always contaminated with the blood of the people. - The world today
has nothing to do with the welter of words on the "end of history" made after the end of
the cold war and tried to provide a theoretical justification for global autocracy US.
---- Amid capitalist crisis antagonisms between the imperialisms have turned vast areas of
the planet in slaughterhouses, at the same time the epelafnontas capitalism attacked
fiercely in the lives of the exploited and even oppressed in countries where until now the
world of work retained some rights he won through struggles and blood in the last century.
The agenda of Obama's visit to Greece is diverse. Initially we must not forget that the US
is actively involved in the Greek crisis. The North American capitalism ever since
Pinochet promoted by the IMF in the total deregulation of the labor market and the frontal
attack on employment rights. Given the intention of SYRIZA / ANEL government to open the
issue of work aiming at the final settling with whatever is left to remind labor unionism
can easily imagine the results of the discussion. The main reason but the Obama visit is
none other than the developments in the wider region of the eastern Mediterranean and the
Middle. East.
Suggest an edit
The US has since promoted the transformation of the Arab Spring in process to suit their
plans for the region, having primed the most reactionary jihadists tracks like ISIS, have
engaged in a hopeless competition with other imperialisms (such as Russian) mainly in
front of Syria and Iraq and in Libya, Yemen, etc. They convert a large part of the M. East
field in open warfare with avevaio future. The Greek state, loyal to NATO commitments
involved directly and indirectly in this conflict. Due to the geopolitical balance is
imperative for the US to stabilize this participation. Finally we must not forget the
classic trade weapons the US is doing with their two best clients of areas, the Greek and
the Turkish state.
We for our part we have no illusions. We are not opposed to US imperialism having the back
of our mind to ally with another imperialism. There fantasize "folk" or national class
collaboration fronts against the "external" enemy. Our enemy is total world domination,
the state, capitalism and imperialism whatever form or guise though it gets. We understand
that the by-the-less, the proletarians and oppressed of this world have no interest in the
sovereignty of the state and capital, either of a national or supra-interstate sign, have
no interest in escalating warfare caused by imperialist antagonisms. Unlike what should
unite them is the struggle for a universal society of freedom and equality, the struggle
for libertarian communism.
For this reason we stand alongside those struggling against oppression. Kurds of Syria
with which the United States playing a very dirty game, helping militarily against ISIS
but also supporting the murderous regime Erdogan who do not miss an opportunity to attack
them. Palestinians who for decades not bow their heads and fight for their freedom. All
the peoples of the Middle. East, Asia and Latin America who refuse to yield to.
Even in the heart of the beast, however, within the US developed resistances. Not long ago
the big nationwide strikes of workers in the food supply as required and managed increases
in the minimum wage. The Black Lives Matter movement also fighting for years against
police violence and murder but also in general against racial and class oppression that
never ceased to exist African Americans. Also a great movement has begun to grow in
prisons where prisoners combining many forms of struggle as strikes, riots and hunger
strikes resist unpaid forced labor forced to give private contractors, ie they resist
turning them into modern slaves.
Indigenous Sioux recently dug up the hatchet of war resisting the passage of a
catastrophic oil pipeline through their lands. These are just some examples of the
oppressed in the US struggles remind us that the struggle against imperialism and
capitalism has no national colors, is not determined by national borders nor can it be
achieved by allying with the various bourgeoisies.
This Tuesday, November 8 we intervene at the American Consulate in Thessaloniki. We wish
in this way to get involved early in the protests against the arrival of US President. We
invite all / s to go down the road the day of Obama's visit to the war against the state,
capitalism and imperialism.
Unearth the hatchet internationalists SOCIAL-class war
SOLIDARITY THE WEAPON OF PEOPLES, WAR, WAR OF THE BOSSES
Libertarian Thessaloniki Initiative
Anarchist Collectivism Rubicon
members ANARCHIKIS FEDERATION
------------------------------
Message: 4
from libcom: Foodora in Italy ...It's been sold for a figure of several tens of million of
euros yet Foodora has the typical appeal of a startup: young and friendly international
people working in an open space office in Berlin and young students delivering food by
bike as an easy side-job. ---- It landed in Turin as a mirror image of the Berlin base.
The managers, all under 30, meet every so often in a co-working space in the city center,
are informal and speak using English words. The fleet of couriers are also young,
educated, and are paid €5 per hour. ---- This image started to crack when in August
Deliveroo couriers in London went on strike and a month later their counterparts in Paris
also protested. The reason was, oversimplifying, that once the company had attracted
enough "workers", pay shifted from a fixed scheme to per-delivery compensation only.
Ever since the company opened in Italy, workers had been meeting and talking to one
another informally, especially where they are waiting for new deliveries. They had held
informal assemblies, sometimes even meeting with management in order to discuss many
issues. When a change in contract similar to London and Paris happened at Foodora in
Turin, the protest flared up.
The usual problems affecting all delivery workers are that deliveries may be in harsh
weather conditions and usually involve moving a lot (60-80 kilometers per shift in
Foodora's case). Nor is it new that there are long waits for the food to be ready or the
next delivery.
There are, though, completely new aspects connected to the digital nature of the work
relationship. Working time is 24/7 meaning there is no such thing as work/non-work
division. Riders can theoretically decide when they are available, though they do not know
whether they will actually work as the management decides to accept, modify or even delete
the shifts, at any time, even during the shift itself.
As an algorithm decides in real time the work rhythms (according to volume of requests and
positions of the couriers), there are hours of absolute rush and hours of complete
stand-still. Not to mention that both bike and phone are provided by the courier, with all
the related costs of maintenance and repair.
In some interviews workers even mentioned privacy issues as continual geo-localization
goes against privacy law, especially if done by an app from the Apple and Google Play stores.
All of this for €500 a month, working 25 hours a week.
3. New conditions and first strikes
Riders demanded better working conditions. In May 2016, they wrote a letter signed by 85
out of 100 workers, but the requests were answered with a mix of procrastination and
excuses, such as that the head of the company was elsewhere at the time. Finally, in July,
a meeting took place but management said the contract could not be modified. What turned
dissatisfaction into protest was that the contract could actually be changed, and the
company did that.
In September Foodora issued a new contract, applying to all new riders, and from November
30, to all riders. This new contract eliminates the fixed income and replaces it with a
variable one: €2.70 per delivery. The number of deliveries per shift is not a factor that
riders can influence, as if they were factory workers, but it will still determine their
income. For an income of €500, they will have to make a delivery every half hour, at any
hour, regardless of the day, time or period of the year.
The managing director, Gianluca Cocco, refused to discuss the new terms with the base
union, SiCobas, that the workers had chosen to represent them, saying that autonomous
workers have no right to unionise. The management agreed only to face-to-face meetings
with individual workers and many were removed from the group used to communicate with them
or blacklisted.
The informal connections between riders turned into the platform for a strike: on October
8th in Turin there was the first strike in Italy of workers employed through an app.
Around 50 riders blocked the service for the whole Saturday, biking through the city
distributing leaflets in the restaurants affiliated to Foodora. There were basically three
demands:
abolition of the "temporary collaboration" contract described above, as well as the
per-delivery pay, and introduction of a flexible part-time (20 hours minimum) contract.
This kind of contract guarantees sick leave, insurance and vacation.
a basic salary (€7.50 per hour) with a variable bonus (€1 per delivery).
halting of any threat towards and disciplinary sanctions of the protesting workers.
Further demands include a proper formal communication channel with the employer (rather
then a whatsapp group and an app), fair assistance from the company towards the cost of
bike and phone, and proper insurance covering not only accidents but also recovery days
and illness.
4. Evolution of the struggle
The protest was so successful that it carried on all day, was joined by many locals and
was immediately reported by newspapers, mainly because of the newness of the technologies
involved. There was significant disruption of the brand image: ‘modifications' of the
company logo (from a hand carrying a tray to one carrying an iron ball with chain) and a
"shitstorm" on social media where the company had to delete insults and messages of
solidarity. The over-exposure of Foodora's brand on these platforms made them a great
place to show digital solidarity. All this was linked to local assemblies and street
action: going to each restaurant to give out leaflets and speeches. The message spread
wider, a proper boycott was launched, and restaurants started to join it. In the end a
meeting with the managing director to discuss their requests was fixed for October 10. At
the end of this meeting the management, both Italian and German, promised to issue a
statement in response to every point. It's worth mentioning that during the meeting a
group of people from the co-working space used by Foodora came together to show solidarity
and that the co-working space dissociated itself from any connection to Foodora.
While management was deciding how to answer, an indirect answer came through a ‘rather
strange layoff'. Two promoters who went to a riders' assembly to understand and show
solidarity were excluded from the app. Their contract was not over, but they were
effectively laid off as they were not being given any shifts. The clear written answer to
the protesters arrived at 00.02 of the 14th (despite a deadline of the 13th): not €2.70
euro per delivery but €3.70. The same morning the riders went to the Turin office but
found it empty. No one from management showed or picked up the phone. Two labour
inspectors were sent directly from the Ministry of Labour, though, to check the legality
of the situation, while the Minister himself expressed solidarity with the riders.
Unfortunately more and more riders were locked out of the app as they spent their day
giving out leaflets about their protest. A group went to the main HQ in Milan twice, once
finding it unexpectedly closed and the next time forcing the management to lock themselves
in the office for three hours. Both occasions were used to meet some colleagues in the
city, organizing info-events for the coming week and spreading the strike.
Under the pressure from the workers the company decided to answer at least one of the
demands. It issued a statement that three bike shops were authorized to give 50% discount.
According to the riders, no-one has ever received such a discount. The company's real
reaction, though, was to employ a massive number of new riders, promising them at least
two deliveries per hour, a promise that has been broken by either fewer deliveries per
hour or fewer hours per week, and blame laid at the door of the striking riders.
Two weeks after the first strike not only workers but even restaurants that expressed
solidarity have been denied access to the app. From the beginning the striking riders have
used different methods to decentralize their struggle: frequent change of the
representative speaking with management, use of fake names and distorted voices. Once
Foodora identified who it thought were the leaders, they were completely banned from any
communication, although not officially fired. There are, though, interviews where workers
who were ready to accept the new contract were subjected to the same sanctions, just
because they took part in assemblies. How the management knew about their participation is
a matter of speculation.
Meanwhile labour inspectors are investigating and the workers have been received by both
the municipality and the Labour Ministry. Since both occasions proved unfruitful (Foodora
failed to attend the meeting with the municipality), the strikers kept on organizing
several public meetings. The role of social centers and squats cannot be underestimated:
media reporting and coverage as well as practical solidarity and support came immediately
from local grassroots movements. Public assemblies in Milan were held at social center
COX, and in Turin assemblies were promoted by activists at the local university and at the
social center Cavallerizza, while a solidarity dinner was held in anarchist squat Asilo.
5. Flexibility and the Italian labour market
Further reflection should be given to the bigger picture. The truth is that Foodora was
able to offer such low salaries (compared, for instance, with France where a rider gets
€7.20 an hour + €2 per delivery) because the Jobs Act and previous reforms have
deregulated the Italian job market and removed general protection for workers. When the
deregulated market meets the hyper-fragmented employment form of Foodora it results in a
terrible mix. Furthermore, Foodora has been accused of taking advantage of the high youth
unemployment rate in Italy (around 40% in 2015, according to ISTAT): what the company
terms a "side job" is, for the riders, one of the only ways to have an income.
Luckily the struggles of the riders and many others keep our eyes open and our hopes high.
You can find info and statements (in Italian) about the striking riders on their FB page:
Deliverance Project. Feel free to express your solidarity to them, or on the Foodora FB page.
Original article from the Struggles in Italy blog.
http://www.classwarparty.org.uk/foodora-strikes-italy-dark-side-sharing-economy/#more-14814
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