Small-scale worker resistance impacts food delivery economy in China
ITHACA, N.Y. – Small-scale. Short-lived. All digital. Out of public view. That’s how a new form of collective worker resistance is unfolding in China’s app-based food delivery economy, new Cornell University research finds.
Though highly fragmented and not always successful, “mini-strikes” by small groups of food couriers – conducted via WeChat – reflect a new form of leverage, suggest Chuxuan “Victoria” Liu and Eli Friedman, associate professor in the ILR School.
Food couriers are able to maintain complete physical invisibility, and each individual worker can ‘strike’ from anywhere, they write.
The scholars interviewed couriers, in-person and online, who delivered food for Ele.me, an Alibaba-owned company that controlled nearly half the nation’s food-delivery market.
Platform-based delivery work has grown exponentially over the past decade. In 2020, Ele.me and Meituan, a slightly larger competitor, together had more than 8…
