Resistance under the radar: Organization of work and collective action in china’s food delivery industry

Abstract

As services have come to account for an ever growing portion of employment in China, platform-based delivery work has grown exponentially, incorporating millions of workers. Based on a study of food-delivery company Ele.me, we first provide a detailed account of the structure of the platform-based food delivery industry, as well as worker grievances and resistance. While Ele.me workers are subjected to algorithmic control and intensive evaluation, the subcontracting structure of employment presents workers with new forms of leverage. Workers engage in quiet, small-scale, and WeChat-mediated strikes that target the subcontractors who are their direct employers, a phenomenon distinct from the occasional acts of collective resistance among food couriers in other countries. While these strikes have limitations in advancing worker interests, we show how labor unrest has emerged among such workers despite an increasingly constrained political environment and a high degree of online censorship.