Amazon drivers mobilized a narrow identity frame demanding recognition as skilled logistics workers.
Evidence
During the mobilization, the workers organized collectively, calling on Amazon and its subcontractors to recognize them as logistics workers with specific skills and the accordant contractual standards. At the same time, they pushed the unions—at this stage, principally the FILT-CGIL—to increasingly adopt social movement tactics with high public resonance, like pickets outside Amazon stations and blockages of deliveries. The first cycle of strikes thus marked the emergence of a new collective actor claiming not only certain rights but also a new form of solidarity at the level of the workplace. As a collective actor, Amazon delivery drivers displayed an identity framing based on their demand for recognition of their skills as qualified workers, on the importance of their work for the labor process, and on resisting the regime of algorithmic management. — Donatella della Porta et al., Mobilizing Against the Odds, 99
Categorization
- XREF: This is the Amazon-driver side of the Cini & Sacchetto comparison the reader is hunting for, to be weighed against food-delivery couriers’ broader precarity frame. — connects to: Amazon drivers’ unionization won recognition as logistics workers but stayed workplace-bound without broader politicization. — Donatella della Porta et al., Mobilizing Against the Odds: Solidarity…, 85; Amazon drivers built workplace-only solidarity while couriers developed broader political identity frames. — Donatella della Porta et al., Mobilizing Against the Odds: Solidarity…, 116; Amazon drivers organize around narrow pragmatic goals, not political identity — Donatella della Porta et al., Mobilizing Against the Odds: Solidarity…, 105 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Amazon drivers organize around narrow pragmatic goals, not political identity
#corroborates(0.88) — Donatella della Porta et al., Mobilizing Against the Odds, 105 - Amazon drivers built workplace-only solidarity while couriers developed broader political identity frames.
#expands(0.85) — Donatella della Porta et al., Mobilizing Against the Odds, 116 - Amazon driver mobilization is deliberately depoliticized
#qualifies(0.78) — Donatella della Porta et al., Mobilizing Against the Odds, 108 - Amazon drivers’ specific skills both enabled union revival and pushed unions toward militant tactics.
#qualifies(0.72) — Donatella della Porta et al., Mobilizing Against the Odds, 105