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May be working in poor conditions:
a gorilla driver at work
Photo: Arnulf Hettrich / imago images
It is nothing new that aspiring tech start-ups are getting into trouble with their employees because the working conditions may not meet the standards of established companies. Now such a conflict is boiling up at the Berlin food delivery service Gorillas: on Wednesday dozen of the start-up's delivery drivers struck and blocked two warehouses in Charlottenstrasse and Torstrasse. After a blockade that lasted for hours, the gorillas management later temporarily closed the camps.
The reason for the protests, which a union-affiliated group had called, was the dismissal of a gorilla driver, according to a report by the Tagesspiegel. The protesters called for his reinstatement and better working conditions, the newspaper said. For a while, there had been internal criticism of the working conditions. In this way, the management is pushing the pace of expansion and is not concerned about grievances. Drivers are being exploited and the establishment of works councils is hindered. The dismissal of the driver named "Santiago" has apparently brought the barrel to overflowing.
The "Gorillas Workers Collective", an association of gorillas drivers, posted regular reports on the actions on the short message service Twitter.
There it was criticized, for example, that the Berlin gorillas management did not speak to the dissatisfied drivers, but instead called the police.
According to "Tagesspiegel", the deputy managing director
Harm-Julian Schumacher
prevented an escalation by not allowing the protests to be resolved.
In response to a request, gorillas did not initially receive any response to what was going on.
Meanwhile, further strikes and blockades have already been called on Twitter for Thursday.
The history of the current events: The Gorillas drivers first established a works council in Berlin on June 3rd.
This led to disputes between the organizers and management.
The Gorillas management accused the organizers of denying employees access to the meeting and then announced that they would review and challenge the elections legally.
The organizers, however, spoke of executives who had tried to gain unlawful access.
Management tried to prevent employees from participating.
Gorillas CEO
Kağan Sümer
said
to manager magazin
in April: "We absolutely support the formation of works councils."
The Gorillas Workers Collective had previously repeatedly criticized the working conditions at the delivery service.
Among other things, there are complaints about high time pressure and the heavy burden of many deliveries.
The drivers earn 10.50 euros per hour.
The conflicts are likely to continue: According to internal documents, Gorillas loses money with every order - and wants to reduce delivery costs in the future in order to work profitably.
Gorillas is one of the best financed start-ups in Germany.
The company, which was founded only last year, had raised 245 million euros in April and achieved a valuation of one billion dollars.
According to information from manager magazin, the company is currently soliciting further financing of around one billion dollars from investors.
cr, jr