Building the car while driving it: organising platform workers in the e-hailing sector in Kenya

Abstract

The global decline in union representation offers a grim picture of the future of labour. Nevertheless, the proliferation of platform worker protest and organisation is a reminder that today’s precarious workers may well become tomorrow’s unionised working class. Most platform worker organisations in the Global South have emerged outside of the trade union movement. However, there has been a growing trend towards hybridisation as unions shift their focus to the platform economy in the quest for revitalisation. Drawing on the Power Resources Approach, this article analyses the sources of worker power in the e-hailing sector and how the Transport Workers Union in Kenya has sought to leverage sources of power to improve the conditions of work and social reproduction. The article argues that organising the e-hailing sector is akin ‘to building a car while driving it’. It involves experimentation, learning and innovation. In contrast to other types of digital work, e-hailing is geographically tethered, giving workers structural power. However, in the context of widespread informality, their power can be easily undermined. Weak regulation and platform workers’ misclassification as self-employed pose a further challenge to collective action. Nevertheless, there are emerging forms of organisation, from associations to cooperatives to the trade union. Whether TWU will be able to leverage this moment to wage an offensive struggle against platform companies will depend on its ability to incorporate emerging organisations into its structures, develop new strategies for collective bargaining, and build alliances with other working-class movements.