Season 2 Ep 3: Permanent Wave

Who's the Fairest documents the surprise ending to this season: the wave of protests by beauty care workers in India in late December 2021.  We talk to a journalist who covered the protests about how the women found each other, why they organized, and how they are facing unprecedented company intimidation.  We also continue our interview with Palak Shah of the National Domestic Workers' Alliance about new strategies for collective action in the US.  The season closer also asks what we all can do to support these workers, and a more fair care economy. Guests:  Soumyarendra Barik, Indian Journalist and Palak Shah, National Domestic Workers' Alliance Resources:   La Alianza (National Domestic Workers Alliance) Follow Soumya's reporting on Twitter: @iamsoumyarendra and check out his December 2021 article about the Urban Company protests.

We've learned that platforms have lots of data about workers, and use it to squeeze out more and more work.  But what if all that data was put to use on behalf of workers instead?  In Turning the Tables we continue to explore what happens when you make advocates, and workers themselves, part of the design of platforms.  We learn more about how for isolated and historically vulnerable workers, big data can actually open up new possibilities for rights and social protections.   Guests:  Palak Shah, National Domestic Workers Alliance; Fairuz Mullagee, University of Western Cape Social Law Project; Abigail Hunt, Overseas Development Institute Resources:   National Domestic Workers Alliance Alia Benefits Platform Cooperativism Consortium Abigail's paper (with Emma Samman) Gender and the Gig Economy

Given all we had heard about the gig economy we were skeptical there could be an ethical business model.  In The Company You Keep, one businessperson set out to convince us that better alternatives are possible.  We explore how, if we keep humans in the loop, it's possible platforms for domestic and care work can be an opportunity, not a curse.   Guests:  Aaron Seyedian, CEO, Well-Paid Maids and Sayem, a cleaner working with Well-Paid Maids Resources:  Well-Paid Maids

In Permanent Wave, we go to India and Thailand to talk about all the forms of intimate personal care services that take place in people's homes.  Our guests Khawla Zainab from IT for Change (India) and Kriangsak Teerakowitkajorn from JELI (Thailand) explain how technology is affecting personal care workers who are already low wage, precarious and exploited.  Platforms and clients expect 'emotional labor' from these women but there are big risks of gender-based violence.  We discuss how algorithms may actually increase these risks. Resources: Just Economy Labour Institute  IT for Change Khawla's report, Beauty and the Platform Economy

In Servants to Technology we fast forward from past to future, speaking  with two technologists, one based in New York and the other in  Barcelona, Spain about how new technologies are affecting the future of  work in the care sector.  We ask:  are platforms and digital technology  really doing anything new to address our societies' growing care needs?   Or is it just putting band aids on broken systems? Guests: Alexandra Mateesceu, Data and Society and Olivia Blanchard, Digital Future Society Resources: Alexandra's report, The Weight of Surveillance and the Fracturing of Care Olivia's report, Home Care and Digital Platforms in Spain

In The World’s Oldest Profession, we learn more about what domestic and care work is, and its roots in exploitation and slavery.  We meet organizers in South Africa and Hong Kong and we talk to the former US Ambassador to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons to understand more about the origins of domestic servitude and when and how we stopped seeing care workers as disposable. Guests:  Myrtle Witbooi, International Domestic Workers' Federation; Elizabeth Tang, International Domestic Workers' Federation; Tembi, South African domestic worker;  Amb. Luis CdeBaca, former Ambassador-at-Large Resources: International Domestic Workers' Federation

The Gig:  Who Cares? connects the future of work to the world's oldest jobs: domestic and care work.  It’s work that has been necessary ever since the rise of complex societies - but that has a long history of being performed by slaves.  What can the future of work possibly hold for this sector?  Can you "Uberize" care work? And is technology a curse or an opportunity?  In this season we hear from technologists, researchers, even an ethical businessman, and, of course, organizers and workers with unexpected answers to these questions.

For this flash pod we have two special guests, Ayoade Ibrahim from Nigeria's Union of App Based Workers, and Rey Fuentes from Partnership on Working Families, talking about the corporate dirty tricks around the Proposition 22 ballot initiative on gig work in California, and why even in Nigeria drivers and gig workers support California's Assembly Bill 5.

We've followed the stories of several drivers throughout this season.  It's been incredible to track the progress they have made standing up for their rights in the face of one of the world's biggest platform companies.  In this final episode we reflect with them on what it all means, not just for them but for all of us.  Our collective actions are going to shape the future of work- but how?  We consider the fact that this conversation has never been just about Uber.  It's about the platform economy and gig work generally, and making sure the future doesn't just become a return to an exploitative past.  The drivers we've interviewed- Rebecca, James, Tess, Yaseen, Derick and others- reflect on how to reform the digital economy.

It was hard enough for app-based drivers to find one another and organize even without a global pandemic. Gig workers are inherently isolated and yet they were finding each other not only in their cities but around the world. How were they doing it? And how were they keeping it up even in the face of the increased isolation brought on by a pandemic? I got to join drivers from around the world when they met for the first time in January 2020 and launched a new network. Now those organizers are rising to new challenges, but the momentum continues.