Data-Driven Unionising

• In Event: Data Bodies at Work

Abstract

Trade unions are increasingly aware that the datafication of the workplace and the worker is happening in unionised and non-unionised sectors. As such, unions are faced with the issue of getting up to speed with respect to the challenges that union members’ face, while also considering how to organise and potentially unionise individuals working in less organised, but highly data-driven work environments, such as platform-based labour and call centres. In Scotland, the Scottish Trade Union Congress is making a concerted effort to learn from platform workers and is in the process of establishing “worker data observatories”, which will allow workers across various sectors to learn about the ways their data is collected and analysed and potentially request their data from employers.

This paper draws from ongoing discussions with the STUC, as well as interviews with Deliveroo riders in Edinburgh, to explore the relationship between data awareness and organising. While the STUC is hopeful that increased understanding of the value and role of data in shaping modern business models will encourage greater union participation, current interviews suggest that data capture is not a primary concern for these gig workers. However, recent events, which have resulted in drawing the attention of UK Visa and Immigration to Deliveroo riders, has inspired conversations about the role that worker data might play in driving harassment of migrants, who make up a considerable portion of Deliveroo’s workforce. This paper suggests that this turn of events is useful for understanding how and where data does matter to highly data-ified workers.

Author

• Karen Gregory, University of Edinburgh