E1: Form a Works Council in these Six Easy Steps

The works council (also known as the Betriebsrat) is a key institution under German labour law and illustrates the aspect of mitbestimmung or co-determination at the level of the workplace. Broadly speaking, workers, through this body directly elected by and composed of those working in the company, have rights to participate in the management of the companies they work for. 

In the Delivery Charge podcast, host Aju John explores how platform delivery workers are organising for fairer conditions of work in India where he is from, and in Germany, where he lives. In 2021, the delivery workers of Gorillas, many of whom were recent migrants to Germany, navigated several intimidating procedures, to campaign for, conduct elections to, and establish a betriebsrat for the company in Berlin. This episode contains the story of the Gorillas Workers Collective.

Gorillas was established in Berlin in May 2020, not long after the city had imposed its pandemic containment measures. The company’s services rapidly spread to several other cities in Europe and attracted large amounts of capital investment. In the process, it became the fastest European company to become a unicorn. The company’s key attraction was its promise to deliver groceries quicker that it would take someone to visit the supermarket for the same purchases. The company’s growth at breakneck speed and its aggressive strategies to acquire customers during the pandemic, may have come at a great cost to its workers. 

Some riders and warehouse workers began their resistance through stoppages at some warehouses in the city during a snowstorm in February, 2021 that was supported by a campaign on social media under the name Gorillas Workers Collective. This perhaps set in motion a cycle of retaliatory firings and wildcat strikes. In April of 2021, the Gorillas Workers Collective began the legal process to establish a betriebsrat for Berlin. By the time the elections were concluded and a betriebsrat established in November, the company had altered it operational structure and there were doubts about whether the betriebsrat could discharge its duties in these changed circumstances. 

Listen to experiences of organising of Ahmad Hadeda, Avik Majumder, Jakob Pomeranzev, and Camilo Alvarez, who were all part of the Gorillas Workers Collective in 2021, and Maria Coelho, who was elected to the Betriebsrat for the Friedenau warehouse in 2022.