IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/soudev/v18y2023i3p431-456.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Learning to Strike in the Gig Economy: Mobilization Efforts by Food Delivery Workers in Hyderabad, India

Author

Listed:
  • Mohammad Sajjad Hussain

Abstract

This article discusses protest efforts undertaken by platform-based food delivery workers during the first wave of the pandemic. Following the lockdown, food delivery platforms were categorized as ‘essential’ to ensure that their operations continued. Several changes were made during this time to hiring practices, platforms diversified into providing grocery services and incorporating safety protocols to enhance customer ‘confidence’ in their services. The article starts by showing how the pandemic helped to strengthen the platform’s position in the market on the backs of delivery partners’ who were reliant on platform work as a means of livelihood. Though publicly glorified as ‘superheroes’, their remunerations were slashed during the pandemic, triggering a series of strikes. Since June 2020, workers across several cities have resorted to protest the worsening conditions of work. It gives an ethnographic description of two strikes that took place in June and Sept 2020 in Hyderabad. It then compares these two strikes to discuss workers’ motivation or the lack of it to strike, the strike tactics used by them, as well as the responses of platform companies to the strike. I then focus on the structural and contingent factors which rendered worker’s bargaining power weaker, despite them being providers of ‘essential services’.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohammad Sajjad Hussain, 2023. "Learning to Strike in the Gig Economy: Mobilization Efforts by Food Delivery Workers in Hyderabad, India," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 18(3), pages 431-456, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:soudev:v:18:y:2023:i:3:p:431-456
    DOI: 10.1177/09731741231182877
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09731741231182877
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09731741231182877?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bessa, Ioulia, & Joyce, Simon, & Neumann, Denis, & Stuart, Mark, & Trappmann, Vera, & Umney, Charles,, 2022. "A global analysis of worker protest in digital labour platforms," ILO Working Papers 995192093002676, International Labour Organization.
    2. Vincent Pasquier & Alex J Wood, 2018. "The power of social media as a labour campaigning tool: lessons from OUR Walmart and the Fight for 15," Post-Print hal-01903758, HAL.
    3. Christina Purcell & Paul Brook, 2022. "At Least I’m My Own Boss! Explaining Consent, Coercion and Resistance in Platform Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(3), pages 391-406, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Soriano, Cheryll Ruth, 2024. "Interactions of Filipino platform workers with AI systems: implications for design and governance of labour platforms," MediArXiv adeyt, Center for Open Science.
    2. Ana Alacovska & Eliane Bucher & Christian Fieseler, 2024. "A Relational Work Perspective on the Gig Economy: Doing Creative Work on Digital Labour Platforms," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(1), pages 161-179, February.
    3. Lee, Horan & Staples, Ronald, 2018. "Digitale Solidarität unter Arbeitnehmer*innen [Digital Solidarity among workers]," Industrielle Beziehungen. Zeitschrift für Arbeit, Organisation und Management, Verlag Barbara Budrich, vol. 25(4), pages 495-517.
    4. Arora Swapan Deep, 2023. "Contemporary challenges of consumption: a Kafkaesque and critical marketing perspective," International Journal of Contemporary Management, Sciendo, vol. 59(4), pages 58-73, December.
    5. Michael David Maffie, 2020. "The Role of Digital Communities in Organizing Gig Workers," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 123-149, January.
    6. Joanna OCTAVIA, 2022. "Networks of trust: Accessing informal work online in Indonesia during the COVID‐19 pandemic," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 161(3), pages 487-508, September.
    7. Vanessa Beck & Paul Brook, 2020. "Solidarities In and Through Work in an Age of Extremes," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(1), pages 3-17, February.
    8. Jeemol Unni, 2023. "Platforms and Shared Economy: Precarity of Work or Building Agency?," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 66(2), pages 355-370, June.
    9. Li, Xue & Tan, Alexander Jun Hao & Wang, Xueqin & Yuen, Kum Fai, 2023. "Investigating gig workers’ commitment to crowdsourced logistics platforms: Fair employment and social exchange perspectives," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    10. Gorwa, Robert, 2024. "The Politics of Platform Regulation: How Governments Shape Online Content Moderation," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 299876, December.
    11. Meri Koivusalo & Arseniy Svynarenko & Benta Mbare & Mikko Perkiö, 2024. "Disruptive (dis)engagement: platformisation as a global social policy," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    12. Charles Umney & Mark Stuart & Ioulia Bessa & Simon Joyce & Denis Neumann & Vera Trappmann, 2024. "Platform Labour Unrest in a Global Perspective: How, Where and Why Do Platform Workers Protest?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(1), pages 3-26, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:soudev:v:18:y:2023:i:3:p:431-456. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.