CALGARY—Efforts by hundreds of Foodora couriers in Toronto to unionize could open the doors for better working conditions in one of Canada’s most precarious sectors — the gig economy.

Foodora couriers in Toronto are preparing to vote beginning this week on union certification with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). The vote before the Ontario Labour Relations Board starting on Friday marks the latest major case of gig economy workers organizing in Canada, and experts are divided on what it might mean for the burgeoning sector.

The term refers to a growing number of companies who rely on third-party workers, usually referred to as independent contractors, to do incremental work. Ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft are one example, but the gig economy also includes apps like Fiverr, where people sell skills like graphic design and editing, and of course, couriers for food delivery companies like Foodora.

The couriers have been vocal about their concerns regarding working conditions, including compensation and safety standards, since May 2019. Efforts to quietly organize Toronto’s Foodora workers began in late 2018, but the campaign wasn’t publicly announced until May 1.

The exact number of Foodora couriers that could be represented by the union is tough to pin down, but Aaron Spires, national union representative for CUPW, estimated it to be in the “high hundreds.”

Flexible hours are one of the touted benefits of gig economy work. Many of Foodora’s couriers do enjoy the lack of structured hours, Spires said. However, in his own conversations with these workers, he saw the mad dash by couriers to score a Foodora shift. Out of a group of 10, he said only two secured work.

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“Some of them do enjoy the flexibility, but some of them also think it’s a bit of a mirage,” he said.

Several major Democratic candidates in the U.S. — including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg — have proposed allowing gig economy workers to unionize under U.S. labour law. In June, organizers with United Food and Commercial Workers announced that hundreds of Uber drivers in Toronto had joined their union.

It’s hard to tell just how many people work for the gig economy, and it’s difficult to measure the scope of that work, since hours vary. However, a Bank of Canada survey in 2018 saw 30 per cent of respondents say they participate in some form of informal work. Fifty-eight per cent of those were youth, and many had other jobs outside the gig economy.

The Bank of Canada estimated in their report that gig economy workers amounted to roughly 700,000 full-time equivalent jobs, or 3.5 per cent of the labour force in the second half of 2018.

For some, these apps or websites offer nothing more than a bit of extra cash, whether it’s through a once-a-week Uber run or the occasional editing job. But for others, many of whom work for more than one app or website, the gigs are their primary source of income.

Linda Nazareth, economist and author of Work Is Not a Place: Our Lives and Our Organizations in the Post-Jobs Economy, said those two groups have very different expectations of the companies they work for.

It’s the second group, those who may have joined the gig economy out of financial necessity rather than convenience, who may start to push for things like benefits, income stability or regular hours, but that’s where things get tricky, she said, as those perks start to sound like, well, a regular job. And gig economy companies aren’t built on that kind of system.

That’s why Nazareth said she doesn’t think Foodora couriers’ call to unionize — even if it is successful — will necessarily set a precedent.

“I don’t think this is the end of the gig economy,” she said. “I don’t think it makes sense.”

But Nazareth said increased pushes to unionize gig economy workers could have other effects, namely on how the companies might deal with the pressure.

She said some may start offering more to their workers — higher wages or certain types of benefits — in a bid to avoid union drama and be competitive. Other companies may accelerate their shift toward tech-driven services. Uber, for example, has never been secretive about the fact it plans to switch to self-driving cars in the future and calls to unionize could speed up their efforts to make that happen, she said.

Larry Savage, an assistant professor at Brock University’s department of labour studies, said he thinks the move by Toronto Foodora couriers to unionize could open up all sorts of opportunities for gig workers across the country, including Uber and Lyft drivers. But there could be a number of roadblocks.

In many cases, companies have reacted to such calls by telling their workers they are, in fact, independent contractors and therefore have no right to unionize. Savage doesn’t believe that’s the case.

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“It’s clear that these workers are employees and therefore they do have the right to unionize,” he said. “And I think these sorts of things catch on — in particular, if the union is able to successfully build negotiation power for those workers.”

Spires said the question of whether Toronto’s Foodora couriers will be considered independent workers or regular employees will be litigated between them and the company itself after the votes are cast, but before they’re counted.

One question that’s been raised by commentators about gig economy unions is the viability of organizing workers who are scattered across a wide area, don’t punch in at a traditional office, and have no set hours. But Savage said the Foodora drive in Toronto this spring showed that organizing gig economy workers isn’t impossible, especially with the use of social media.

“If the union was able to go out and sign up at least 40 per cent of those Foodora workers on union cards, they obviously found a way to organize,” he said.

Another question is the viability of striking in a gig economy with such a flexible workforce. Walking off the job to demand better working conditions is the ultimate legal way for unions to get concessions from employers, but Savage pointed out it’s not the only way. For example, police officers, firefighters, Toronto transit workers and emergency medical services personnel are all forbidden from striking, but are allowed to access mediated labour arbitration — and still earn good benefits and pay.

“I think the determining factor is that the employer knows that they are legally required to bargain with the union and that there is some strength in numbers,” Savage said. “It’s the threat of a potential labour dispute that would disrupt the flow of profit — that really is what gets the employer interested in bargaining.”

Savage also said he expects the Canadian Union of Postal Workers will be pushing their unionization campaign into other Canadian cities if the company’s Toronto workers vote yes.

Spires wouldn’t confirm or deny whether the union was organizing Foodora workers in other Canadian cities. But he said CUPW believes all workers deserve to have a union and believes their efforts are testing the gig economy model.

Unions build power on the basis of density, Savage said: the bigger a union’s membership, the more leverage they’ll have at the bargaining table.

“I’ll be very interested to see the results of this vote because it’s new,” Savage said. “But if they are successful, you can bet that the CUPW is not going to rest on its laurels.”

Andrew Cash, former NDP MP and founder of the Urban Worker Project, a Toronto-based advocacy initiative for freelancers and contract workers, said though apps like Uber and Foodora may be relatively new to the labour market, workers’ rights haven’t changed.

Whether Foodora’s union vote is successful or not, Cash thinks it’s inevitable that gig workers will increasingly push for more stability and benefits. Ultimately, he doesn’t think the gig economy model is sustainable — nor does he think it’s new. From the historic push for better working conditions during the Industrial Revolution to the fact that writers have worked as freelancers for decades, if not centuries, Cash sees these recent union pushes as just the next wave of workers fighting against companies whose business model is essentially “to not have employees.”

But the framing of the gig economy as something new and innovative has resulted in the widespread idea that this is what people increasingly want from their work, he said.

“It suggests that everyone, especially millennials, really love working multiple low-paying, crappy jobs,” he said.

“This is the same old labour battle that’s always happened. This is just a new frontier.”

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