The Gig Economy Project was in Barcelona last week to witness the mobilisation of the 'Taxistas' of the Elité Taxi Association, in a 'slow march' through the city to resist attempts by Uber, Cabify and 'Free Now' to gigify the city's private hire car service. We were not disappointed.
There were many impressive things about what I saw A, from the passion of the drivers who were clearly as motivated as the leaders of the union to resist uberisation, to the respect with which the union's leader, Alberto 'Tito' Alvarez, is held by Catalan politicians when we jointly attended the Catalan Parliament following the mobilisation. It's very clear that Elité Taxi, a union that was only created within the last decade to resist Uber's attempts to get a foothold in the city, is a force to be reckoned with.
However, what perhaps struck me most was how Elité Taxi and Tito were perceived by those who are outside of the political-media bubble, and even outside of Barcelona. I spent time in the nearby city of Vilanova i la Geltrù, where Elité Taxi are not present, and asked people there about whether they knew of the union and its leader, Tito Alvarez. I was surprised that he was both known by all and with strong opinions held about him, mainly positive but some questioning whether the union was too aggressive in pursuing its demands. They were also very surprised to hear that other major European cities were not like Barcelona; they believed Uber's extremely limited presence in the Catalan capital to be a general phenomenon, when it is anything but.
Two things strike me about this. First, we live in a time when union leaders generally are not recognisable figures in public life, in stark contrast to the 1970s when they would regularly be featured on public television and their opinions known in working class households. Arresting the decline of trade unionism will require leaders like Tito and unions like Elité Taxi which are willing to do what it takes to make their presence felt, including speaking out on issues like Uberisation and its impact on public services and society as a whole, i.e. in a way that everyone can relate to.
Secondly, it is no coincidence that Barcelona is an outlier in Europe in terms of the weakness of Uber in the city. Since 2014, Elité Taxi Barcelona have put intense pressure on regulators and politicians to prevent the liberalisation of the sector. The point is that strong, militant unions - willing to do the things that others may perceive as overly aggressive - are effective. They deliver in a way which unions that focus more on sitting at the top table and striking compromises with the platforms do not. In the face of an aggressive and uncompromising platform capitalism, aggressive and uncompromising unions are essential.
Ben Wray, Gig Economy Project co-ordinator
