"Why Germany Continues to Fail Its Migrant Workers", 9 Sep 2022

Though some fifty years have passed since the winding down of the Gastarbeiter (guest worker) program in the 1970s, gaps still remain in the protections the Central European nation affords to migrant workers. Those workers continue to be excluded from the collective bargaining agreements that cover the more secure sections of Germany’s working class...

Germany follows a dual system of representation in which works councils and trade unions inform the state in shaping labor policy. In theory, the federal constitution grants all workers, irrespective of their migration status, the right to representation by way of joining either channel. In practice, however, not all workers can go on strike, let alone have their voices heard by the very works councils and unions that are, in principle, there to represent them. This is because laws from the Gastarbeiter era, which impose restrictions on workers’ movement and political involvement, continue to be active today...

Last year was crescendo of migrant worker strikes, especially in the food and grocery delivery sector in Germany. These walkouts also started with wildcat actions, initiated in this case by Gorillas workers...

In response, the company fired workers en masse.

Gorillas workers’ mobilization started roughly around the time they initially conveyed their demands for improved working conditions during a glacial Berlin winter...

Calling themselves Gorillas Workers Collective (GWC), these workers gathered regularly to discuss ways to hold management to account, not just for deteriorating working conditions but also for missing tips and wages. High levels of staff turnover made it difficult for the GWC to work with unions, which required a higher proportion of the workforce to be signed members than the collective could ensure...

[T]he workers managed to organize their own council. Gorillas [...] sought to undermine the democratic process by suing the legally elected works council, not once but twice. Gorillas lost both cases and the workers got their works council in the end, which the company is now suing as an illegitimate representative body.

Having a works council is a necessary step in seeking representation in Germany... Whether the gains of this bold move will prove sustainable is, however, uncertain. Gorillas’s business model, which relies on an ever-changing workforce that it can easily hire and fire, makes building long-term institutions inherently difficult...

Many others have pending court cases in which they will seek to contest their terminations. It is questionable whether the workers have the resources (including time and patience) to continue pursuing these cases and claim their rights in courts.

Nevertheless, the struggles by the GWC, thanks to support from community organizers in Berlin, created the initial sparks for acknowledgment of platform workers and their rights. Today, just like 1973, precarious workers are pushing back against Germany’s exclusionary economic system.