Summer University 2017 of the NPA (Nouveau partie anticapitaliste)
Steven, Bike courier at Deliveroo
Good evening, I'm Steven, I'm a rider for Deliveroo
and a member of CLAP, the collective of independent riders in Paris.
I am a member of the trade union SUD Commerce.
Just this evening, the riders in four French cities are on strike,
they are fighting right now.
They block restaurants in Lyon, in Bordeaux, in Nantes and in Paris.
I would now like to tell you a bit about the struggle in our sector,
and what is currently happening with the couriers.
We work in an "uberised" sector.
This means we are not employees,
labor law does not apply to us at all.
To give you a few examples:
All repair costs for our bike or our scooter
whatever happens, we must bear them ourselves.
We have no unemployment insurance and no pension insurance.
No paid holidays, no social insurance.
But capitalism is well organised:
We can buy expensive private insurance.
Which means that most do not do it.
They ride without any security.
Of course, we have no fixed salary.
And also no workplace guarantee.
That is, they can fire us at any time,
by pressing a button in the office.
We then see in the app that we are now unemployed.
Well... unemployed - there are no unemplyoment benefits of course.
In this situation, in January, we have decided to found a collective,
CLAP, le Collectif des Livreurs Autonomes Parisiens.
The goal is to bring together riders of all platforms.
From Deliveroo, but also from Foodora, Stuart, UberEATS, Glovo,...
and all the others that exist or may exist in the future.
Riders who are organized in different unions, in the SUD or CGT, or in none.
Our first goal is to recreate a shared work experience.
We cannot meet at the coffee machine and discuss about
why the boss exploits us, why our working conditions are shit.
So we are forced to re-create these spaces,
where we can talk about these things.
This what we tried to do in the first months.
We took part in the first actions of the Front Social
at the first Tour Sociale.
CLAP was among the first signatories.
This was very important for us, it helped us structure our organisation,
together with other precarious workers and wage earners.
We held the demonstration together.
So we created a first collective experience,
Solidarity, hold a demonstration, voice our demands.
Although we were not so many and as drivers were not yet bold enough
do do things simply in our own name.
That went on until the end of July, when we received an e- mail:
Deliveroo cancels all existing contracts.
To explain the context to you a bit:
Before, there were some riders with contracts
with which they got paid 7.50 euros per hour, plus 2 to 4 euros per delivery.
Today, Deliveroo sent a message saying,
from now on it is 5 euros per trip for all,
no matter what happens,
no matter how much seniority they have,
no matter how long it really takes.
That is, the payment per task was generall established.
We reject this.
For example, there are often hours without orders.
If you are signed up for these hours,
then you are on your bike, with your phone,
with your large backpack, with the clothes of the company -
and you wait without payment, if perhaps an order comes in.
So you are always available for the company at any time.
Another problem is that the work for us is thereby becoming much more dangerous.
When the evening gets late, after two hours without orders,
you have to ride as quickly as you can to make some money for this evening.
For the evening to become somehow profitable,
to maybe reach 40 euros.
Then you have to rush red traffic lights and ride against one-way streets,
and that is very dangerous.
A few weeks ago I talked to a Spanish driver from Zaragoza
There it has gotten so bad with this payment per order,
that in Spain, in Madrid or Barcelona for example,
they have some privileged riders.
These riders get access to scheduling first,
and then sell their working hours to others,
to those who do not have this privileged access.
That means, one is forced to pay
to get working hours.
In France it is not so bad yet,
because here, youth unemployment is not yet at 70% as it is in Spain.
But it shows where this pay per order leads.
This is a return to exploitation like in the 19th century, if not worse
Against these attacks from the company
they mobilized in Lyon and Bordeaux.
Riders have gathered to discuss,
and to think about what can be done.
We in Paris, as CLAP, have directly called for an assembly,
and for a strike, on August 11th.
At the same time, we tried to invite the Deliveroo riders
together with the riders of other platforms.
Deliveroo is the prevailing platform in Paris.
If we manage to win some rights,
to increase our pay,
all other companies will have to follow suit.
We wanted to proceed according to this scheme, so that
we would not be divided according to the companies we work for.
And to say: We are all together in the same shit,
so we also have to fight together.
It is well enough to call a strike,
as a precarious driver who is self-employed.
We also asked ourselves this question:
How is it possible to go on strike in this situation?
We have made contact with collectives in Spain and England,
who already had experiences with striking.
In Spain, for example, they had a strike in early June,
by and large for the same reasons.
They attempted a classic strike:
They logged out, and gathered on a square, with flags,
with the trade unions, and held speeches.
After the speeches, after an hour,
all were fired, they could no longer access the app on their phones.
The strategy we have chosen to prevent this,
was that one week before the action
we contacted the media as much as possible, and explained our working conditions,
to destroy this myth of the "uberisation",
which says that the young people are happy to have no boss,
and just want to make quick money.
So we made public our working conditions.
That worked very well.
I think we've managed to change a bit
this startup propaganda of the Macron government.
Every evening, we also distributed leaflets on front of the restaurants.
We talked to the riders to create confidence.
To say, come on, let's do this together,
the more of us the stronger we are,
and the better we can protect each other.
The stronger we are, the less repression we will face.
We wanted to convince them that an action is possible.
August 11 was a complete success.
Between 75 and 100 riders were at the meeting.
Plus 300 to 400 supporters,
from politics, unionists from SUD and CGT, people from the Front Social,
all sorts of people who supported us.
We spent an hour talking among ourselves, about our working conditions.
After that, we had an unannounced demo to block the restaurants.
We went to the restaurants, lighted our lamps and called slogans.
We prevent the Deliveroo orders from leaving the restaurant.
Until the restaurant owner turns off the Deliveroo app for the evening,
that way Deliveroo loses a lot of money.
We prevent the riders who are working from picking up their orders.
We want them to call the company and say they could do nothing, they were blocked.
That means they will still get paid for that trip.
Then they can log out and join us.
The whole thing was a big success, many people participated,
and this happened in a sector which is so precarious and so atomized,
many young people from the banlieues, students,
in the middle of August.
It was a success, and encouraged many of the riders.
And it has resulted in collectives being formed in many other cities.
who are now trying the same thing there.
From abroad, from Germany, we were asked how we went about it.
They try to discuss with us.
We now hope that we get what we demand.
Still, we have no answer from Deliveroo.
Except that they have sent an e-mail to all restaurants,
to reassure them.
For us this is a good sign, they are starting to panic.
So, what we're demanding is an increase from 5 to 7.50 euros per trip.
And, more importantly,
a guaranteed minimum number of working hours.
That is, 15 euros for every hour of waiting,
and 20 euros for the hours with orders.
We want to end this payment per order,
and return to wage earning as in the 19th century.
So as I said at the beginning... (applause)
So, as I said, there are currently movements in Nantes, Lyon, Paris and Bordeaux.
In addition, solidarity assemblies in Berlin and London.
I just got a call from a friend from Paris,
They say the 8 largest restaurants of the platform are currently blocked,
You cannot order from them.
This is a great way to increase the pressure!
And we have to build up pressure,
as tomorrow at 3 o'clock, we riders will gather at the Place de la République,
to demonstrate together,
and we will then pass by the Deliveroo office.
They must answer us, after all.
So we'll be knocking on the door, asking for an explanation.
This is not our only perspective, however,
we will continue and will not give up,
because we have absolutely nothing to lose.
From 27 September we are planning
together with the Germans, the Italians, the English and the Spanish,
to organize a genuine transnational strike.
For if the exploitation has no boundaries, our solidarity cannot have any boundaries either!
And on the national level
we will start from early September
awith the organization of the riders of the various platforms.
We want to extend this to the other uberised workers:
the ones that are driving cars, proofreaders, museum guides, social workers,...
generally to all victims of precariousness.
Also, to those with supported employment contracts, thousands of those contracts now being terminated.
We are trying to channel this dissatisfaction.
To bring everyone together, to prevent isolation.
Everyone who, like us, already knows what the Loi Travail XXL means.
This is what the Macron government wants to implement.
We want to have joint demonstrations, like the parade of the Front Social,
We will gather as often as possible, and not remain passive!
Because if we want to win against precariousness,
we must bring together all sectors and involve the entire working sphere.
And this is what we will try to do from early September!
Thank you!