Labor Unrest and the Future of Work: Global Struggles Against Food Delivery Platforms

Abstract

Labor struggle and workers ’ collective agency are central concerns of labor studies researchers. Such an appreciation seems particularly apposite given contemporary debates around the future of work. As Schulze-Cleven and Vachon (2021) note, much future of work debate has been inscribed by technological and market fundamen-talism. The actions and experiences of workers are often absent from a narrative that instead tends to focus on predicting the extent of technology-driven job destruction or state policies that help workers navigate a future of profound industrial transformation. Against this, Schulze – Cleven and Vachon ’ s edited volume stands as an important corrective, offering an analytical approach that revalues labor within a human-centered future of work that extends beyond a purely technological focus to also incorporate environmental change and social reproduction. This symposium contribution builds on Schulze – Cleven and Vachon ’ s analytical approach to focus on labor struggles inter-nationally in the platform economy. For Schulze-Cleven (2021), core features of a labor studies approach include putting the experiences of working people and how they look to defend and advance their interests through collective action at the center of analysis. While platform work still accounts for a small proportion of total employment, platforms are often seen to be key drivers of capitalist restructuring predicated on more insecure and precarious jobs. Platform work is typically characterized by dubious forms of self-employment, set against historical ideals of a standard employment contract, whereby tasks are