Rights against the machines! Food delivery, digital platform, informal unions: the case of Riders Union Bologna

Abstract

Alongside the explosion of digital platforms, we are also facing the rise of worker’s unionism, especially for what concerns food delivery sector. An unexpected phenomenon which is not only challenging the difficulties that such an environment presents to organizing processes, but also long term de-unionization tendencies. However, more than traditional unionism, it is a sort of urban based informal unionism that it is rising in this sector, experimenting new and effective practices. This paper will try to better understand this phenomenon by focusing the case of Riders Union Bologna, which became one of the most popular of such experiences after signing Bologna’s Bill of rights of digital workers in urban context. Thus, after presenting the factors which have facilitated the rise of digital platform in food delivery sector, the paper will provide an empirical study by analyzing organizing practices, claims, struggling strategies and the results which characterized the struggle of Riders Union Bologna.

Keywords

• platform economy
• food delivery
• informal unions