Page 21 - Voice and representation of platform driver in VietNam

CHAPTER 3: Loyalty, exit or voice? Platform workers’ organising strategies 15

areas of members (a specific district or city), their origins spontaneous, loose and fragmented. The leadership, if
(migrants originating from the same province), and any, only emerges during the time of collective actions
gender (groups of women bike-riders in Hanoi). The and is not sustained. One of the leaders of the strike by
organisation of these informal groups varies: most of Grab bike-riders in Hanoi in December 2020 admitted:
groups have no clear leadership and rarely coordinate
for any common activity, while a small number of The Facebook and Zalo groups are mainly for
groups have informal leaders and provide coordinated the riders to pour out their stress. There is no formal
support to members.
organisation. I joined these groups in the hope to
protect the interests of the riders. I tried to mobilise
I am a member of a bike-rider group on Zalo. The the riders to raise our [collective] petitions to the
current group leader is brother M. They advise on Federation of Labour, but only a few riders were
how to prevent fake orders, cheaters or which routes willing to join. Everything was spontaneous and we
are dangerous” did not get the sufficient impact.”

- A woman bike-rider in Hanoi - - One leader of the 2020 strike by Grab bike-riders,
interviewed in March 2021 -
As the survey found, the biggest benefits for platform
drivers in joining the online forums included socialisation
and learning from experiences in handling problems at 3.3. Collective bargaining by riots
work. For nearly 80 percent of the drivers, the online As long as platform driver-partners are not recognised
forums also provided the foundation for mobilisation to as employees of ride-hailing apps, they do not have
fight for their interests (Figure 12). the right to collective bargaining. That is not to say
Figure 11: How did you get to know the online forums? (%) (n=291) that in the case of car-drivers who are registered with
transportation cooperatives, their official employers are
Figure 11: How did you get to know the online forums?
Figure 11: How did you get to know the online forums? (%) (n=291)
(%) (n=291) 39 the cooperatives rather than the ride-hailing apps. On
60.00 the other hand, the platforms have consistently adopted
51.20 the approach of ‘take it or leave it’ when it comes to
50.00 48.11
60.00 their policies. According to a platform, they inform
40.55
51.20 drivers/riders three days before application of a new
40.00
50.00 48.11 policy so partners have time to consider to ‘accept it
30.00 40.55 or leave the app’. However, as discussed earlier, drivers/
40.00
riders have consistently launched strikes to ‘bargain
20.00
30.00 15.12
by riots’ with the platforms. A typical platform driver
10.00 7.90 strike starts with calls on online forums to collectively
20.00
15.12 switch off apps on a specific date. Then a group of
0.00
7.90
10.00 Suggested by the Recommended by Internet Recommended by Others a few hundred to a few thousand riders/drivers will
platform peers social groups
0.00 gather in front of the platform company’s office.
Suggested by the Recommended by Internet Recommended by Others Several representatives of drivers/riders meet up with
peers
platform
Figure 12: Benefits of joining the online forums? (%) (n=248) social groups company management to present their demands. The
Figure 12: Benefits of joining the online forums? (%) platform management will explain its new policy again
(n=248)
40
94.8
92.7
Figure 12: Benefits of joining the online forums? (%) (n=248) and persuade the drivers/riders to accept. Otherwise, it
79.8
94.8 92.7 69.4 will promise to consider the partners’ demands. To put
59.7 extra pressure on the platforms, the drivers/riders also
79.8
69.4 use other tactics such as: posting fake orders on the
59.7 apps (to crowd out real orders), organising a parade
of hundreds of drivers/riders in the streets to catch the
attention of the media and authorities, or blocking the
entrance to the platform company’s office building.
Sharing orders Socialising Experiences in Discussing platform Mobilise to protect
handling work policies mutual interests The police’s presence during these strikes was only to
problems
Sharing orders Socialising Experiences in Discussing platform Mobilise to protect maintain public order.
handling work policies mutual interests
problems
Between 2014 and 2019, the bargaining focused mainly
on economic issues such as the profit-sharing formula
Similar to (informal) networks of workers in traditional between the platform and partners or bonus targets
sectors, coordination among platform drivers is and rates. Since 2019, bargaining issues have extended
39 Note that in this question, the respondents could choose more than one option.
40 Ibid.
Voice and representation of platform drivers in Vietnam