Ahead of the valentine’s day strike we sent our demands by e-mail and registered post to deliveroo, who were kind enough to copy us into the e-mail instructing their staff not to respond. Believe it or not, we’ve just had the follow-up:
It’s always good to know what calibre of adversary you’re up against in the Class War.
You can support the riders by not ordering food on Valentine’s day!
Couriers affiliated to Dorset IWW are taking industrial action this thursday 14th February 2019. We are demanding:
• Return to July 2018 fee level.
• Increase distance fees for journeys over 2.5 miles (amount to be negotiated).
• Reduce the delivery zone (size to be negotiated).
• Stop on-boarding* new riders and drivers immediately.
• Remove double orders that show only one address.
• Give reasons and supporting evidence when terminating contracts.
* This is deliveroo’s euphemism for recruiting scabs to break a strike. It is to be hoped prospective riders will have nothing to do with this despicable tactic.
Please don’t order a takeaway on Valentine’s day. Why not join your partner in the kitchen and cook something together? It’s a lot of fun, and no-one wants to f*** a scab.
https://iww.org.uk/iww-couriers-network/
It has been reported in the press that the Home Office have been coordinating police raids on gig economy couriers suspected of working with false documentation.
In some cases, under the ‘substitution’ clause in the courier contract, account holders will rent out their accounts to other workers. Deliveroo claim that this puts the onus on the account holder to perform background checks.
It is clear that these companies wish to benefit from access to a highly vulnerable workforce by using the ‘substitution’ system to shirk liability for illegally employing people.
We don’t condone or support any form of rent-seeking – the lowest form of capitalist profit making – and particularly condemn those who rent out their ‘right-to-work’ and make a profit at the expense of some of the most vulnerable in our society.
We stand in solidarity of all those making deliveries for Uber Eats and Deliveroo, regardless of immigration status or “right-to-work”, and condemn the police and Home Office victimisation of workers.
As Brexit looms on the horizon, it seems likely that the ‘hostile environment ‘ is going to intensify and expand to more of our fellow workers. In recent months, we have already seen police raids against other groups of workers in precarious jobs, notably sex workers.
If you witness, or hear of, police gathering to conduct raids, we encourage you to let your fellow couriers know so they can avoid the area.
An injury to one is an injury to all.
Further information and advice the Anti Raids Network is a loose network of groups and individuals working to build the resistance to immigration raids by producing and sharing information and materials.
Open to all interested parties.
Invitation:
Gig Economy Organizing Round Table Thursday January 24th, 7-9pm, May Day Rooms, Fleet Street, London
Open to: Labour organisers and union members
The roundtable will function as a sort of focus group centred around the conceptualization of work and organiseable conditions. The aim will be to recognise new conditions in platform work organizing, like digital communication, precarious hours, and dispersed solidarity, better understand how organisers are responding to gig economy conditions, and envision future tactics.
The central question will ask how organisers conceptualise work, and how the shift to platform organising has changed their perception of what work is possible to organise. From this starting point, we will discuss the effect of digitization on solidarity, the use of physical pickets, and how legal channels fit into the gig economy.
The London IWW would like to invite organizers from the IWW and any union involved in gig economy work to attend. Ideally, attendees will be union organisers or members who have had some experience with gig economy campaigns. If they also work in the gig economy, even better!
It is free to attend and the London IWW has set aside funds to help defray the costs of IWW members from new or smaller branches.
Please let us know if you or someone from your branch/union is interested in attending. If you would like the London IWW to assist with transport cost, please let us know in advance how much you would like to request.
For further information or to reserve your place, please contact Tom and Gaby at redandblack83@gmail.com & gabrielle.jeliazkov@gmail.com.
WeyPAW is a community action group who want to give the people of Weymouth and Portland a pay rise. We take action on the streets, in the media and online to help people understand the various problems they have in getting paid properly, as well as the various legally required payments they are entitled to as employees of businesses in and around Weymouth and Portland. These include Statutory Sick Pay and Holiday Pay, but at the very simple, to ascertain whether they are receiving the UK legally mandated Minimum Wage.
Policy Proposals – Discussion
We need:
See WeyPAW policies at www.weypaw.org and on Facebook. Contact WeyPAW at weypaw@gmail.com
Industrial Workers of the World Dorset 