Platform Capitalism - Data and the gig economy STUC workshop Data - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Platform Capitalism - Data and the gig economy

STUC workshop ‘Data and the Gig Economy’, 13 February 2019 Dr Kendra Briken kendra.briken@strath.ac.uk University of Strathclyde, Dept of Work, Employment and Organisation

Prologue There is power and resistance

Over the years there has been an increase in collective action against working conditions at Amazon.

https://www.rosalux.eu/publications/the-long-struggle-of-the-amazon-employees/

I. The Rise of Platform capitalism

Platforms can be understood as economic actors within a capitalist mode of production* – business models: capitalising on big data and the development of their monopolising platforms. – data is a resource ‘to be extracted, refined, and used in a variety of ways’ advertising platforms (e.g. Google, Facebook): extract user data and capitalise on ad space; cloud platforms (e.g. Salesforce): own & rent out hardware and software; industrial platforms (e.g. GE, Siemens), which build the necessary infrastructures ‘to transform traditional manufacturing into internet- connected processes’ (49); product platforms (e.g. Rolls Royce, Spotify), which make use of

• ther platforms ‘to transform a traditional good into service’ (49); and

lean platforms (e.g. Uber, Airbnb): operate on a business model of minimal asset ownership.

*See: Nick Srnicek (2016) Platform Capitalism (Theory Redux). Polity Press. 120 pages.

II. How did we get here? Space is the limit

Cloud computing: enabler for business models

Data collection, generation, extraction, but the crucial point is data storage and recording of real time events i.e.: 15 million Uber trips are completed each day, in 65 countries,

• ver 600 cities, all on one platform

Irony: Uber uses Amazon Web Services Cloud-space allows for auto- scaling and flexible usage, in both directions: For peak and low times! (no payment for no use!)

Platform business models

Platforms – Offer intermediary digital infrastructures – Using network effect But also: – Rely on cross-subsidisation: the most obvious business might not be the one that is the most profitable – Active in constant user engagement: ‘nudging’ and pushing into ‘closed circuits’ organised like gated communities In regards to work and employment: Technology driven: The good jobs for the high skilled, the bad jobs made invisible: ‘Artificial artificial intelligence’ (Bezos 2007, New York Times)

Amazons Christmas advert – and The truth behind the click…

The weight of the material world is burdened by the workers alone. They are ‘employees’ still in fulfillment centres, but micromanaged like gig workers.

References: On delivery drivers: Newsome, Moore, Cillas (2016) Parcel delivery workers and the degradation of work https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/newsome- moore-ross/parcel-delivery-workers-and-degradation-of-work On Microtaskers, Irani (2015) Justice for Data Janitors, https://www.publicbooks.org/justice-for-data-janitors/ On Amazon fulfilment see Briken, K., & Taylor, P. (2018). Fulfilling the 'British Way': beyond constrained choice - Amazon workers' lived experiences of workfare. Industrial Relations Journal .

The work and hardship of

• Delivery drivers
• Amazon workers in fulfilment

centres

• Microtaskers

is made invisible.

Data: Discipline and delegate?

‘Hard HR management’ with a twist Data driven strategies Amazon picks from the handbook of lean management – Handhelds, wristbands – GEMBA walks in the morning Data derives directly from HQ in Seattle. Constant benchmarking of all centres in real time. Workforce management allows to calculate the demand on up to 15min slots Despotic tactics Hands-on direct control and supervision Not meeting the targets: Having a ‘word’, or receiving ‘a visit’, would invariably mean injunctions to work faster. Testimonies and evidence we gathered in our ongoing research. See also paper presented at the International Labour Process Conference in Berlin 2016):

Briken, K., P. Taylor and K. Newsome (2016) 'Work Organisation, Management Control and Working Time in Retail Centre’, paper presented at ILPC Berlin 2016, 2-4 April. The paper is available on request (kendra.briken@strath.ac.uk)

Data and data: Workers perspectives

Workers at Amazon (and elsewhere) are integrated in a data and technology driven system fulfilling the dream of ‘scientific management’: total division of execution and operation At the same time they are trapped in a double dehumanizing closed circuit: – Amazons Datafare system: reducing workers to being a robot

(robota means literally "corvée", "serf labor", and figuratively "drudgery" or "hard work" in Czech)

– The governments Workfare system: reducing them to numbers

(see Briken/Taylor 2018: Fulfilling the 'British Way' : beyond constrained choice - Amazon workers' lived experiences of workfare. Industrial Relations Journal)

Amazon and other companies receive subsidies to ‘create’ jobs areas with high unemployment rates; they are taxed less; But: They also don’t need to care for the seamless flow of labour supply either. ‘I would have rather worked at McDonald’s but there was no bus’ ‘I knew they would sack me but job center would send me back anyway’

Fighting platforms – fighting windmills?

Platforms are resilient and collective action needs a long breath – Good news: The struggle against bad platform employers in the gig economy only has begun – but it has! – There is a need to push also against: Workfare system to get people out of misery first – Plus: Educate the tech world, educate students & school pupils about their rights!