The Worker Capabilities Approach: Insights from Worker Mobilizations in Italian Logistics and Food Delivery

Abstract

Following years of declining labour activism, militant forms of worker mobilization have recently emerged in the Italian platform economy and logistics sector, exhibiting novel forms of organization and action repertoires. This article investigates two cases which have been ongoing since 2011, namely mobilizations by logistics porters and food delivery couriers. Both cases seem puzzling since workers have mobilized under circumstances normally associated with non-mobilization, meaning workplaces characterized by technological innovation and absent or ineffective trade unions. How have these mobilizations occurred? We argue that these workers successfully overcame such circumstances by relying on resources and opportunities related to their workplace and external to it, which they have been able to create and develop over several years. We gathered data from semi-structured interviews with workers, union representatives and lawyers, and participated at political meetings, strikes and protest events in four Italian cities between 2018 and 2019.