The Worker Capabilities Approach: Insights from Worker Mobilizations in Italian Logistics and Food Delivery

Abstract

Following years of declining labour activism, militant forms of worker mobilization have recently emerged in the Italian platform economy and logistics sector, exhibiting novel forms of organization and action repertoires. This article investigates two cases which have been ongoing since 2011, namely mobilizations by logistics porters and food delivery couriers. Both cases seem puzzling since workers have mobilized under circumstances normally associated with non-mobilization, meaning workplaces characterized by technological innovation and absent or ineffective trade unions. How have these mobilizations occurred? We argue that these workers successfully overcame such circumstances by relying on resources and opportunities related to their workplace and external to it, which they have been able to create and develop over several years. We gathered data from semi-structured interviews with workers, union representatives and lawyers, and participated at political meetings, strikes and protest events in four Italian cities between 2018 and 2019.

Dynamics of contention in the gig economy: Rage against the platform, customer or state?

“…Second, by providing an individual level, micro-mobilisation account we elaborate on existing research that seeks to explain the heterogeneity of platform worker action through resource mobilisation and organisational actors (e.g. Cini and Goldmann (2020); Joyce et al, 2020). Vallas and Schor (2020) argue that extant gig economy literature has been plagued by the theoretical presentation of workers as a homogenous group.…”

Mobilizing precarious workers in Italy: two pathways of collective action intentions

“…Bandura, 1997), identification with organized political groups incentivizes people to develop a sense of collective efficacy (McAdam, 1982), which may lead them to engage in collective action (Simon & Klandermans, 2001). As similarly highlighted by studies exploring the labour context, the role of political groups has also been documented in contemporary studies of workplace mobilization (Cini & Goldmann, 2020). Bonds with unionized workers or union representatives increased workers' sense of efficacy and, therefore, their propensity to act collectively.…”

“…If an abundant bulk of research has made sense of these labour market transformations over the last two decades (see, for instance, Kalleberg, 2011), only a limited number of studies have investigated the worker mobilization attempts to oppose such transformations (Grote & Wagemann, 2018). Non-standard labour is associated with specific processes of work fragmentation and precarization (Heiland, 2020), which are designed to isolate workers (Huws, 2014), and therefore jeopardize their capacity of collective action (Cini & Goldmann, 2020). Considering such circumstances, these workers have often remained voiceless and unable to organize collectively (Crouch, 2019;Giugni & Lorenzini, 2016).…”

Working with Wolt

“…While there are similarities between food delivery and other types of platform work, there are also particularities such as the need for the food to arrive hot and to be treated with care. Furthermore, food couriers work in what Cini and Goldmann call an "ambivalent spatiality" in which they work in physical proximity to each other, yet lack a shared physical workplace [12]. These particularities all shape the interactions we report from the study, and serve as interesting points of departure, but our focus remains on the algorithmic management present on the platform.…”