Striketober and the gig economy



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What does “Striketober†mean for the concert economy?

Something moving among the workers? There are signs of a noticeable increase in strikes internationally. In the United States, where unions have been shattered by decades of neoliberalism, a strike wave, nicknamed “Striketober,” includes manufacturers John Deere, Hollywood movie workers, nurses, construction engineers, auto parts workers and Instacart concert workers.

The Instacart strike, organized by the Gig Workers Collective, took place yesterday [16 October], and followed a campaign for consumers at #DeleteInstacart on the collapse of wages, unsafe conditions and the unfair appraisal system of the Amazon company.

It’s not just in the United States. In the UK, the combination of a labor shortage, rising prices and a supply chain crisis is pushing workers to use their leverage to demand higher wages and best conditions. Glasgow’s climate summit, COP26, will be marked by train strikes, while bus workers are also on strike for three weeks to demand higher wages. Truck drivers at Unite, the union, are taking advantage of the driver shortage by threatening to call a crippling strike over the Christmas season, unless wages and conditions are dramatically improved.

Bigger slice of pie

And in the EU? There are signs in Germany, with inflation hitting a 29-year high of 4.1% in September, that workers want a bigger slice of the pie. The Financial Time reports that the unions enter into negotiations demanding wage increases above inflation, the fall in unemployment being an additional factor to give more confidence to the workers. The number of construction companies reporting a shortage of workers limiting their activities has reached a new high of 27%.

What does all this mean for the concert economy? One possible outcome is that platforms will have to offer higher wages and potentially greater job security to attract and retain workers. If they don’t, gig workers with little rig attachment might look elsewhere, or they might decide that striking is now worth the risk.

Concert workers were treated by the platforms as easily replaceable and therefore easily disposable, but what if that changes? The growth of industrial action we have seen this year in the concert economy in Europe maybe just the start of something. •

Ben Wray is the Gig Economy project coordinator.

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