Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
17ème Congrès national de l’AFSP, Grenoble, Fransa, 2 - 05 Temmuz 2024
With neoliberalism, flexibility, and precarity in production and circulation processes have become widespread phenomena. In this context, the so-called gig economy, which blurs the relationship between work, time, and space, has an important place in today's world. The gig economy, which is growing worldwide, is also characterized by the recent protests of couriers.
This study delves into the Turkish context, where both conventional and unconventional action repertoires have played a role in the rising wave of gig economy workers’ mobilizations. Couriers from many delivery companies, such as Trendyol, Getir, and Yemeksepeti, carried out a series of actions in 2022. Demanding wage increases, couriers stopped work and staged days-long protests in front of the companies' head offices. In addition to these actions, workers at Yemeksepeti embarked on a struggle for unionization, the first of its kind in the sector.
In the Turkish gig economy, the prevalent employment model adopted by employers is the “artisan courier” system. While this model entices workers with the promise of high income in a short timeframe, its impact is the erosion of avenues for unionization, thereby undermining workers' job security and social rights. Unlike the broader sector norm, however, the predominant workforce at Yemeksepeti comprises wage workers employed directly by the company, which legally facilitated the initiation of unionization efforts.
Yemeksepeti was established as Turkey's first online food delivery company in 2001. The multinational Delivery Hero, well-known for its union-busting practices, bought Yemeksepeti in 2015. The unionization efforts in this gigantic company, with 8500 workers and 185 warehouses at the national level, started in 2020. During these three years, Yemeksepeti stood out due to its anti-union stance, workers' counter-strategies, and experiences with unionization.
This experience in Yemeksepeti is significant in revealing Turkey's enormous legal and practical challenges to unionization and union-busting practices. On the other hand, the strategies developed by the workers are exemplary experiences against the obstacles to unionization. It is an original example showing how workers can self-organize in a large, fragmented workplace.
In addition, two different unions have been struggling at Yemeksepeti. One of them, Nakliyat-İş (the Progressive Land, Air and Railway Workers Union), carried out an activity by actively using social media and raising its hand against the boss. On the other hand, the currently authorized union TÜMTİS (All Transport Workers’ Union) was organized secretly based on workers' committees. While Nakliyat-İş has consistently pursued a strategy of centralized actions and press releases, TÜMTİS has focused on organizing at the workplace level and meeting directly with workers. Comparing the two different strategies of these two unions is valuable for understanding the possibilities and capacity of the working class in the face of the challenges to unionization.
This study is based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with Yemeksepeti workers as well as participant observation during their labor protests and resistance actions. We also conducted content analysis concerning the gig economy workers’ mobilizations of editorial mass media and workers' social media accounts.