TRFI Statement

July 1^st

Third international strike of delivery workers

The world crisis has been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic and has laid bare the capitalist system and its forms of domination. One of the most emblematic cases of the relationship between capital and labor in this period are the so called "Apps". Their workers are playing a very important role in the midst of the pandemic, while companies are making fortunes. The business of the Apps companies is based on greater flexibility, no health and safety conditions and the refusal to establish any kind of labor relationship. In addition, they are protected by governments, which allow this type of exploitation and try to give a legal framework to these forms of work.

This third international strike takes place in the midst of mass turmoil after the murder of George Floyd in the United States and when the epicenter of the pandemic is taking place in Latin America. That’s why it’s of enormous importance that a sector of workers come out to the struggle, in an internationally coordinated way, to show the strength of our class and its methods, such as strike.

The third international delivery strike will take place on Wednesday July 1^st. The action was voted in a virtual assembly with the agreement of Raiders Unidos (Chile), Glovers Unidos (Ecuador), Treta no Trampo (Brazil), Entregadores Antifascistas (Brazil), Repartidorxs Unidxs (Costa Rica), Motociclistas Unidos (Mexico), Ni un Repartidor Menos (Mexico), the network of precarizados and Agrupación Trabajadores de Reparto from Argentina.

Delivery workers continue to take firm steps in the direction of organization and struggle. This July 1st we will carry out a new international strike with a day of mobilizations in several countries. In Argentina, the demands are for a 100% increase in the rate for orders (which today makes up the salary), for health and safety elements, for justice for Emma, Franco and all the dead delivery workers, for labor risk insurance paid by companies and for an end to layoffs and suspensions (rehabilitation of the suspended accounts). In the face of the pandemic's advance, for testing of workers exposed to the virus and for isolation.

In Brazil, the mobilization of delivery workers took shape in the anti-racist protests and against the Bolsonaro’s government with the slogan "Hunger!" and with the speech "we are not entrepreneurs, we are work force". Delivery workers, who receive an average of R$ 936 per month (less than the minimum wage) with 12 hours of work per day, demand snacks during the work period, in addition to an increase in the minimum wage and in the number of kilometers travelled, and an end to the arbitrary blockades by companies. In addition, they demand life and accident insurance and pandemic relief (PPE and medical leave).

In Chile, different groups have been organizing themselves to be recognized as workers with full rights and for the right to form a union. They have raised different initiatives like MAREA (mancomunal de repartidores por app de Chile) where different groups like Riders Unidos, Rappiteros and Repartidores Penquistas (Concepción) come together. These groups have been actively participating in the process of struggle and organization that emerged after October 18^th in the country, raising demands for recognition by the accident insurance mutuality, after accidents in which workers have been left prostrate for up to two years, as in the case of Cristobal Pinilla. They are also fighting against the exploitative points system, which forces workers to stay connected at high hours during curfew, and puts their physical integrity at risk, losing their means of mobility or even having to return the amount of their orders.

This organization process in Pedidos Ya, Glovo, Rappi, Uber Eats, Ifood and other applications, has been growing day by day. It didn’t stop despite the quarantine, the militarization of neighborhoods and streets and repression.

We delivery workers are leading the way in demands for better wages and working conditions. We repudiate the murder of workers by these companies, which, with their policy of increasing rates and reducing pay, are taking the lives of more and more of our fellow workers who are being killed at work. We must demand an initial basic salary and a single contract, to replace the current form of single payment or fee slip, which these companies use and abuse. Delivery workers need to move firmly along the path of union organization independently from the State, beyond the initial stage of movement, which some call "network". In this sense, the support given by the CSA is important, which groups union centrals such as the CUT in Chile and Brazil, the CGT and CTA in Argentina, CNT in Mexico, AFL-CIO in the US, among others, but it is necessary, at the same time, to raise the methods of workers' democracy by questioning the ties of these bureaucratic leaderships with the bosses and the States.

Clearly, the task of strengthening and establishing the trade union organization of delivery workers, independently from the State, is one of first order and cannot be postponed. It goes hand in hand with fighting for the recognition of true representatives voted by delivery workers, to discuss and defend their demands against these companies.

We're going forward to the third international strike of delivery workers for the victory of our demands.

LOI Brazil - COR Chile - COR Argentina