Beyond borders: Trans-organisational and transnational alliances among gig workers in the United Kingdom and Italy

Abstract

This article examines the activities of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) and Deliverance Milano (DM), the main collective actors that are currently organising food delivery platform workers in London and Milan, respectively. Both IWGB and DM seek to encourage and support alliances across organisational boundaries as well as across national borders, albeit in different ways. Drawing on a combination of participant observation, in-depth semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis, the findings of these case studies suggest that IWGB and DM are successfully developing trans-organisational and transnational alliances and ties. The article contributes to the growing literature on the renewal of workers’ representation, focusing on the relationship between trade unions and other collective actors at local as well as national and international levels. In particular, we propose a distinction between purpose-oriented and value-oriented alliances, both present in the networks of collective actors engaged in organising platform workers.