Building coalitions on Facebook: ‘social media unionism’ among Danish bike couriers

• Published date: 01 November 2023
• Author: Mark F. Hau,Owen G. Savage
• Date: 01 November 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12261

Received: 14 January 2022

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Accepted: 17 November 2022

DOI: 10.1111/ntwe.12261

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Building coalitions on Facebook: ‘social media

unionism’among Danish bike couriers

Mark F. Hau

1

|Owen G. Savage

2

1

Department of Sociology FAOS,

University of Copenhagen, Kobenhavn,

Denmark

2

SAXO Institute, University of

Copenhagen, Kobenhavn, Denmark

Correspondence

Mark F. Hau, Department of Sociology

FAOS, University of Copenhagen,

Kobenhavn, Denmark.

Email: mfh@faos.dk

Abstract

Platform work represents an important challenge for

the ‘Danish model’of unionisation. Using interviews

and ethnographic data, this article analyses the

strategies of the Danish grassroots union movement

the Wolt Workers' Group, representing principally

migrant couriers using the food‐delivery platform Wolt.

This study is an attempt to map an emergent form of

flexible labour organisation based on horizontal,

informal online networks while supported in different

ways by established unions. We term this strategy of

balanced autonomy and support ‘social media union-

ism'. Wolt couriers' attempts at grassroots organisation

via social media is an important and understudied

issue, especially their complex relationship to union

actors. The ‘social media unionism' explored in this

article allows for the formation and maintenance of

nimble grassroots mobilisation among workers that are

otherwise hard for unions to reach, such as migrants

platform workers. We argue that this strategy holds

both great possibilities and challenges for the labour

movement.

KEYWORDS

coalition building, collective action, connective action, labour,

networked social movements, platform work, social media

New Technol Work Employ. 2023;38:529–547. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ntwe

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529

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2022 The Authors. New Technology, Work and Employment published by Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

INTRODUCTION

In February 2020 around 150 couriers from the food delivery app, Wolt organised the strike

action #NoPayCuts in Copenhagen. They collectively stopped working in the peak hours of

17:00–20:00 and took to the central Kongens Nytorv square where they banged pots, chanted

‘No more pay cuts!', and gave rousing speeches on solidarity and poor working conditions.

These unorganised couriers were supported in their strike action by union allies from the

construction sector of The United Federation of Danish Workers (3F), bike messengers from

Bring Express and couriers from rival food delivery service Just‐East, who had recently entered

into a collective bargaining agreement with 3F. This support turned an otherwise minor strike

into a relatively large event, and images of blue‐vested Wolt couriers standing side by side with

construction workers waving red union flags appeared on the front pages of major Danish

papers. In terms of sheer visibility, the strike was a resounding success, even if only a minority

of Wolt couriers joined.

This strike action was exceptional for several reasons. It was the first large‐scale attempt by

Wolt couriers to fight for better working conditions and was organised exclusively via social by

the grassroots initiative Wolt Workers' Group (WWG). While the strike was clearly supported

by members of the large 3F union and news of it appeared in several articles on union websites

and the union journal Fagbladet 3F, the leadership kept their distance. They did not issue

official proclamations related to the strike or seek to participate, choosing a purely backstage

role in the fight for couriers' rights.

Actions like these show the social and organisational dynamics involved in the interplay

between on‐and offline mobilisation. Such dynamics are currently understudied in industrial

relations. This article represents an attempt to explore an emergent form of flexible,

nonhierarchical and digitally powered hybrid labour organisation which principally uses social

media to organise, and while supported in different ways by established unions, acts as an

autonomous network. As a case study, we analyse the Danish grassroots union movement

WWG, representing principally migrant delivery couriers using the food‐delivery platform Wolt

and their relationship with the large and established union 3F. We term this organising strategy

‘social media unionism', where unions harness the power of social media by sponsoring

horizontal online networks while keeping their distance in a careful balance between

autonomy and support. Social media unionism helps to bridge the ‘different organisational

morphology' between digital networks and unions (Vandaele, 2020, p. 6). Still, it presents

significant challenges due to the differences in size and organisation of unions and online

grassroots networks.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Previous studies have emphasised the importance of online social networks for modern labour

organisations (Hodder & Houghton, 2015; Kerr & Waddington, 2014; Panagiotopoulos &

Barnett, 2015; Upchurch & Grassman, 2016). Facebook, in particular, provides a powerful

means for improving union engagement with diverse audiences (Thornthwaite et al., 2018). It

enables new forms of engagement (Blodgett & Tapia, 2011) and allows workers in precarious or

nontraditional fields to connect (Patrick‐Thomson & Kranert, 2020; Ward & Lusoli, 2003).

In the context of labour union decline, one strand of research has been characterised by

careful optimism about the transformative possibilities of social media (Bryson et al., 2010;

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