Platform Workers of the World, Unite! The Emergence of the Transnational Federation of Couriers

Abstract

This article provides an introduction to the Transnational Federation of Couriers by presenting the results of ongoing processes of participant observation carried out by the authors. First, it gives an account of the formation of the TFC out of preexisting networks. Second, it moves onto a discussion of how the TFC was able to formulate a set of demands which applied across the different contexts and environments of its member organizations. Third, it discusses how the TFC has functioned in practice, focusing on collective actions and responses to deaths at work. The article finds that workers in platform capitalism have the capacity to generate new forms of collective self-organisation adequate to their recomposed technical and social composition. These forms are not limited to the level of the city or nation, but also exist on the global scale of platforms themselves.