Solidarity across boundaries: a new practice of collectivity among workers in the app-based transport sector in Indonesia

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses new practices of collectivity among drivers in the app-based transport sector in Indonesia, with a case study of motorbike taxi drivers in the country’s two major platform companies Go-Jek and Grab. It describes the emergence of transport-related digital platforms and replacement of indigenous transport. The author analyses the labour process and labour control in app-based transport and how drivers resist such algorithmic control. It also highlights the current three models of drivers’ organizing (community, association and union), and argues that drivers’ practices of collectivity offer invaluable lessons and insights into the development of a new strategy of labour solidarity, relevant for the broader labour movement.