On 23 February, from 5 to 10pm, food couriers will be taking their third day of strike action this month over low pay and poor working conditions.
The strikes have been organised by Delivery Job UK, a group largely run through social media, popular among Brazilian delivery drivers in particular. Strikes on 2 and 14 February were patchy by area, but impressive in many places, with hundreds of couriers stopping services and Deliveroo offering astronomically high prices for scabs to break the strike. Action on the 14th brought dozens of drivers directly outside the house of Will Shu, Deliveroo co-founder, to demand a £5 minimum fee per delivery (the price can currently go as low as £1.90).
Deliveroo’s response shows that the strike is clearly touching a nerve. Emails to restaurants have recommended turning off the app during the strike period, and the company encouraged restaurants to report “anti-social behaviour” and “loitering” to the police — implicitly encouraging strikebreaking tactics. The strike on the 14th saw police guarding dark kitchens in order to ensure deliveries continued uninterrupted by picketing.
The need for strikes is apparent: drivers are being paid amounts per delivery that make even reaching minimum wage a gruelling ordeal. The opaque algorithm used to allocate orders to drivers means that it is often impossible to find out the reasoning for changed rates of pay or to complain. Uber’s CEO recently admitted to investors that the algorithm identifies drivers likely to accept lower wages and adjusts their pricing accordingly — something it has previously denied doing.
To win their demands, strikers will need to work more with a union that can negotiate and spread the action. The IWGB has been playing a supportive role in publicising and building the strikes. Deliveroo signed a recognition deal with the GMB eighteen months ago (as the IWGB was campaigning for recognition), but the GMB has taken little to no action in support of couriers, and has stayed silent on the current strikes.
Workers’ Liberty has been leafleting couriers, encouraging drivers to join the IWGB and spread the strike for it to win.