A seminar with Valentin Niebler (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) and the participation of Marco Marrone (Università del Salento) and Davide Blotta (Università di Urbino).
Wednesday 14th of June, 2023. Aula Ardigò, Palazzo Hercolani, Strada Maggiore 45, Bologna.
During the recent economic and fiscal crises, tech companies have promised growth, circulation and exchange. Not surprisingly, the opposite has been true for most of its workforces, who often face new degrees of fragmentation, alienation and austerity. A surge of labour struggles across the globe has aimed to challenge these developments. Strikes, protests and blockades have been launched by platform ‘gig workers’ in delivery and ride-hailing and by logistics workers in warehouses. More recently, even higher paid ‘tech workers’ have launched unionizing campaigns and walkouts to protest labour conditions and ethical standards in the industry.
Although collective action of gig and tech workers mostly evolves separately, dynamics of common coordination have been observed and discussed. Arguments in the debate resemble earlier discussions around the relation between white-collar and blue-collar work. What is the relation of high-status workers and low-status workers in the tech industry? To what extent are the class interests of these workers aligned, to what extent are they in conflict? Based on ongoing fieldwork in Berlin, my presentation introduces a case of cross-status alliances in tech industry and discusses some observations following from it.
