This article is written to raise awareness of the upcoming Platform Cooperativism Consortium Conference happening at the New School from November 5-7. Tickets are free for TNS students, and $5 for others. Get your ticket here.
So, I’m sure many of you have heard of app based companies such as Uber, Grubhub, etc. They are convenient for consumers. Who doesn’t enjoy getting delivery right at their door? Why call a questionable taxi when Uber is more trustworthy with its rating system? From the perspective of the everyday consumer, these apps seemingly have no issues, and provide accessible services at just a few taps away. But what about the worker’s experience?
In the modern capitalist gig economy, (this refers to temporary work based on the needs of an employer), a convenient service for users can be harmful for its workers. This applies to a vast amount of people who are self-employed. But, the gig economy is most harmful to individuals who work in overlooked sectors, which includes but is not limited to home cleaning, creative arts, freelance, and most “under the table” type jobs.
What about this is bad? For starters, the vast majority of workers aren’t represented. The gig economy targets minorities, leaving them with no defense against inequality. Many of these workers are trapped in low paying jobs, unable to find more meaningful work, and without any opportunity to advance. In addition, they don’t have benefits, because they are not affiliated with organizations that provide basic workers rights. Not exactly an ideal situation right?
I’m going to use food delivery apps as an example. In this system there are four groups: the consumer, the driver, the restaurant, and the company. When you place an order, you will pay for the food, the delivery, taxes, and maybe give an optional tip. The company will take a percentage commission from restaurants. This actual percent varies from each app, however some go as high as 30%. For a lot of restaurants, this can significantly reduce profits and sometimes can prove more harmful than good. Next, the delivery fee. Depending on the app, you get paid based on the time it takes to deliver, or make an hourly salary. Drivers who are paid by delivery take a 25% cut from their profits, and the ones who get an hourly salary don’t receive any profits from the delivery fee. Tips usually go directly to the drivers, but in some cases companies put a max limit on how much revenue drivers can make through tips.
Basically, money is going to the big companies, and not the local restaurants or drivers. This is a form of capitalism where the “big dog wins” and one’s gain causes the majority’s suffering. After learning about such inequality, I no longer want to partake in this system.
Now in comes platform cooperativism, or platform co-ops for short. I’d say the best way to describe platform co-ops is democracy in the digital economy. They are defined as businesses that use a platform such as an app, website, etc and operate with shared ownership and risk among its workers and users. Co-ops focus on bringing opportunity to unheard and overlooked individuals by uniting them to meet common goals.
In the previous example, drivers and restaurants were cut short on profits. Under a platform co-op, a much larger profit would go to the drivers and restaurants, and maybe about 5% would go to operating the co-op company/organization. In other contexts, platform co-ops could provide solutions for people who are often overlooked, or provide necessities such as workers rights. They can benefit anyone from freelancers, business owners, policy makers, union leaders, activists and more.
Other advantages to platform co-ops include transparency with regulations and money distribution, higher quality jobs with higher productivity, and a lower employee turnover rate. This allows co-ops to be a more resilient business model, as it can grow with its workers, and benefits the majority instead of a select few. I’d say that platform co-ops are a much better alternative to capitalist monopolies, and definitely made for us, the people.
So yeah, I’d say platform cooperativism is a win-win situation. What about you?
If you’re interested in learning more about platform co-ops, you can visit https://platform.coop/, the official website for the Platform Cooperativism Consortium. And if you’d like to listen to the stories of individuals who have made or support platform co-ops, you can attend the upcoming conference next weekend.