4.5 Igniting ‘improvisational unionism’ The case of Deliveroo couriers in Belgium and the Netherlands A wave of labour action by food delivery couriers created the opportunity for traditional trade unions to respond to new challenges in the platform economy. By Tom Cassauwers 1 In 2018, the location of Deliveroo’s Brussels headquarters was a by­word for idyllic. Based in Ixelles, a well-heeled suburb of the Europe­an capital, the building was right next to a beautiful park that is also home to a former monastery. But one day in January, this suburban calm was shattered by a few dozen angry Deliveroo couriers who showed up on their bikes. Until that point, the riders had been able to invoice Deliveroo via SMart, a Belgian labour market intermediary which acts as a proxy employer of freelancers, and which had managed to negotiate stand­ardised pay and acess to social security for Deliveroo riders in Bel­gium. But then, Deliveroo decided to terminate its collaboration with Smart, forcing all of its couriers to become self-employed, meaning less wages, no labour protections and more administrative hassle. The protesting workers, a fleeting group numbering no more than 15 to 20 people at any one time, ended up staying for almost a week, occupying the office of the British food delivery giant. Out of the 1 Tom Cassauwers is a freelance journalist from Belgium. He currently writes about startups, technology, social movements and Latin Ame­rica. You can read his work at tomcassauwers.com. 66 Riders on the Storm