Delivery Platform Workers during covid-19 Pandemic in the City of Buenos Aires (Argentina): Deepened Precarity and Workers’ Response in a Context of Epidemiological Crisis

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic took the world by surprise in early 2020. By March 2020 many countries had taken drastic measures to contain the virus. In Argentina, on 20 March, the government suspended most economic activities. Delivery workers continued with their jobs in a context of high epidemiological risk. In this article, we analyze the work and organizing experiences of these workers from 20 March to 1 July of 2020. First, we look at the consequences of job precarity in the sector during the pandemic. Second, we analyze workers’ perceptions regarding their work in this new context. Finally, we study conflict dynamics between companies and workers under the new circumstances. We analyzed semi-structured interviews with workers and activists conducted by phone and WhatsApp during the aspo and supplemented them with secondary statistical information about their working condition before the pandemic and the analysis of documents published by different workers’ organizations.