Matthew Cole is a lecturer in technology, work, and employment at the University of Sussex. He is currently writing a study of wage theft and technological change for Verso Books.
Thousands of workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Coventry, England, are on the verge of winning union recognition. After facing 18 months of harsh resistance, they are taking the first steps toward holding the $2 trillion company to account in the UK.
Aaron Benanav argues that deindustrialization and the growth of services are key to the instability of global capitalism and the decline of working-class living standards. But neoliberal assaults on the bargaining power of workers are the real culprit.
Uber and Lyft have made profits by exploiting their ambiguous legal status to avoid paying workers billions in wages, but taxi unions recently sued the corporations for millions. Their victory is part of a broader wave of worker attacks on the gig economy.
With the support of the GMB union, British workers at Amazon’s Coventry fulfilment center have turned a wildcat strike into a fight for a collective bargaining agreement.