Foodpanda riders’ strike: a look behind the scenes of 2-day action and what it says of Hong Kong’s labour movement
- Showdown between online meals delivery platform and couriers ends in ‘very good package’ accepted by riders, who organised themselves in chat groups
- Union member involved in talks say despite the disbandment of major workers’ body in city under political pressure from authorities, labour activism still has much to offer
A November weekend showdown between delivery giant Foodpanda and a group of its Hong Kong couriers, one that placed the welfare of the city’s gig economy workers in an unfamiliar spotlight, was a decidedly grass-roots affair.
Within two days of setting up a group on the Telegram messaging app, a chat that began with just a handful of friends had 1,300 members making their voices heard, according to Waqas Fida, the 27-year-old face of the strike.
On November 13 and 14, 300 food couriers unhappy with their sliding wages would ultimately walk off the job of their own accord. They were, notably, not represented by a union.
“A lot of the riders are ethnic minorities; some of us don’t have higher education degrees; we don’t know much about app development and the technical aspect. What we do know is that the pay per order in 2020 was HK$50 [US$6.40] and now in 2021 it’s HK$40,” Fida told the Post. “That’s what we wanted to fix.”
While no terms were disclosed, Fida called it “a very good package”.
The two-day work stoppage marked the first major industrial action since the Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU), once the city’s biggest opposition-leaning umbrella group for workers’ rights, folded in September under mounting political pressure.