Self-Organization Among Delivery Platforms Workers in Neoliberal Latin American Countries. The Cases of Peru and Chile

Abstract

Recently in Latin America, numerous mobilizations of workers against the precariousness of work in delivery platforms have been developed. In this study, we argue that consolidation into strong organizations for defending platform workers’ interests is strongly related to the socio-political and institutional contexts they are involved in. Drawn upon the understanding of solidarity among workers as a phenomenon rooted in the labor process, as well as the relevance of socio-political and institutional context for the organizing processes among precarious workers, this study addresses the cases of self-organization of platforms deliverers in Chile and Peru. Based on ethnographic research, the results show common characteristics of workers’ self-organization, which are related to similar labor processes in delivery platforms. In addition, results shed light on the relevance of the socio-political and institutional context in providing resources for the consolidation of grassroots organizations, especially after platform counter-actions.

Citizen‐rentier‐ship: Delivering the Undocumented to Labour Platforms in Paris

“…Innovative methods have shown, by geolocating the trajectories of riders, how platforms are playing a role in shaping cities and upper-class neighbourhoods, for example (Gregory and Maldonado 2020). Researchers from Latin America (Miguez and Menendez 2021;Munoz and Martinez 2022) have also explored how platform delivery riders organise, develop various solidarity projects, and contest deregulation and neoliberal models (Vargas et al 2022). Moreover, work in political economy has focused on collective agency, social movements, and grassroots organisations (Cant 2019, 2020; Tassinari and Maccarrone 2020; Veen et al 2020).…”