Introduction
B. (Anonymous) is a 29-year-old delivery rider originally from Guinea who lives in Monza (Lombardy). He arrived in the area before COVID and has been working as a rider for several years. He has witnessed how working conditions in this sector have changed: the majority of riders are foreigners like him, and not all are formally registered or have access to health services. This made the lack of contracts during the COVID period, combined with the boom in home delivery services, an even more significant issue.
In Italy, the struggle led by delivery riders during that period became an example for other sectors as well and attracted widespread attention, as it demonstrated genuine, direct participation by workers and their real involvement. This is not always the case: union struggles often remain political and non-participatory.
B.’s role is particularly valuable because of the linguistic and cultural mediation he provides, both between colleagues and the company and between colleagues and trade unions, which are often entirely Italian.
What I’m interested in is the situation and how it was at the time. What was it like to do your job during the COVID period? How did you deal with that time, also from the point of view of being a union activist, in terms of workers’ rights? If you feel like it, I’d like you to tell me how you experienced that period.
First of all, thank you for the opportunity and for this interview.
I started working as a rider in 2018. At that time, I was working for Uber Eats while I was still in school, in lower secondary school. I started in October 2018, toward the end of the year, and I worked for Uber until August 2019.
Then Just Eat started bicycle deliveries, because before they only accepted scooters and cars. I applied while I was still working for Uber, and they accepted me to work with them.
At that time, there was no contract like the one that exists now. It was a collaboration contract [non-employee status, no guaranteed hours, limited or no social protections]. They gave us weekly shifts. If you wanted to work, you showed up. If you didn’t want to work, there was no problem.
From 2019 to 2020, we worked without a proper contract [no employment contract with full worker protections]. Then COVID arrived.
The unions began to talk about the problem of contracts and the fact that we did not have the rights that come with a formal contract. They said we needed to do something to obtain a contract. They went to the starting point, where we meet before work, to talk to riders and to organize demonstrations.
When did you join the union?
I joined the union in 2022. Before that, they used to come and talk to riders to encourage them to join, to become union members. They were few, and they didn’t have enough strength to do anything on their own. So they went there and talked to people gradually, step by step, to increase the number of members.
In 2022, I joined the union.
Did COVID push the demand for a contract in any way? Did it help?
When they had many members, they managed to form, let’s say, an agreement between the unions and Just Eat to create a contract [employment contract with formal worker protections]. But before that collaboration, there were many strikes and demonstrations.
At that point, Just Eat understood that maybe it was better to introduce a contract, because the riders were already united with the unions. There were many of us. Sometimes I wouldn’t go to work, and everyone would stop. Everything would come to a standstill. And Just Eat understood.
In your view, was the COVID period significant for unions in terms of raising awareness among workers?
In my view, yes. It was significant because the risk was very real, especially for us riders. Working during COVID without an employment contract was very risky. If something happened to you, you had to stay home without pay.
That period was important for motivating riders to demand a contract. It was a decisive moment for workers’ awareness, and in 2021 that battle was finally won. At that time, all riders working with Just Eat received a permanent contract [open-ended employment contract].
And you also joined the union yourself. Why did you decide to become part of the union?
As I was saying earlier, when the union representatives first came, they were looking for someone who could act as a point of reference.
Someone who could speak, possibly translate things for others, and someone who could organize small groups.
I was there, and they saw that I might be someone who was able to organize small groups and also translate, because I speak some English and French.
So they asked me to join because I was already able to organize small groups.
They said, “People listen to you when you speak.” For them, that was better.
From there, I signed an agreement of collaboration to become an RSA [union workplace representative].
In your view, have people’s labor rights improved compared to before, as well as their ability to self-organize? Is there more awareness among your colleagues about their labor rights?
In my view, yes. Before, it really wasn’t there at all. There weren’t many of us with this idea, and we didn’t know how riders’ labor rights worked. But now, with the presence of the unions and with the small groups we organize, there is greater awareness of rights. People already know what their rights are and what their rights are not.
You are both a worker and a union representative, so you have a kind of dual role. Does that put you in a difficult position with your colleagues, or how do you experience having this double role, being both a colleague and a union representative?
It’s not difficult for me, because I’m already used to this kind of role. Even back in my home country, I was already someone who helped people.
Helping my colleagues is not difficult for me. I like helping people. That’s also why I made the decision to become a union representative, because many of my colleagues, especially those who speak English, have difficulty communicating with the authorities.
So I step in when they have a problem. I take their problem as if it were my own and do what I think is right. Helping others is something I’ve always done. It’s part of my character, you could say.
Even today, when I told you yesterday that I needed to go help a friend at the hospital, I went there today to see how he was doing. Helping people is already part of who I am. When I see that others are having difficulties, I’m available. It gives me pleasure to help.
It’s part of your character and your spontaneity. Personally, did the COVID period teach you something? What memory do you have of that experience? If you had to summarize it, as a person, what do you remember from that strange period and what did it do to you?
Personally, during COVID, I actually had COVID myself. I got COVID in 2022. That is a very bad memory for me.
At the time, we were six people living in a reception center. The other five were together in one room, and I was alone in another room. It’s a bad memory. I did everything on my own in my room, while all the others were in another part of the house. I spent a month without leaving the house.
And then there are also the many people who lost their lives during COVID. In my view, it’s a very bad memory overall.
The positive thing during COVID, if I can say that, is that many people learned to work online, to work from home. Remote work really grew during that period. Many people were working, but always from home. That is a positive thing, if we can call it that.
In your view, did COVID bring people closer together, among your colleagues or your friends? Did it create more unity, or not?
I don’t know. Yes, in my view it did. When I had COVID, they were always there to help me, even though they were afraid, because COVID was scary. When you hear that someone has COVID, some people distance themselves from that person. In my case, it wasn’t like that.
I was there, and I didn’t really have symptoms, like coughing or fever. I didn’t have those. So yes, in my view, it brought people together. We became a bit more human.
What are your relationships like with the company? Since you are both a union representative and a worker, do you have good relations with the company, with Just Eat? You still work for Just Eat, right? What kind of relationship do you have? Are you able to dialogue with them, given that you have multiple roles?
There are no problems between us, because as a union representative, I act as an intermediary. If the company needs me, for example to communicate something, I’m available. If the riders need me for communication, I’m also available. Always, during my shifts, without any problem.
I’ve never received a disciplinary warning [formal reprimand from the company]. So yes, I’m an intermediary. I’m not 100 percent part of the riders, and I’m not 100 percent part of the company either. It’s more like fifty-fifty. That doesn’t bother me.
Even during strikes, sometimes, if I see that I have many work hours scheduled, sometimes I take part in the strike, sometimes I don’t. My colleagues don’t say anything, because they know that participating in a strike is not mandatory. If you want to take part, you do it voluntarily. If you don’t want to, you can also choose not to. That doesn’t bother me.