Delivery partners reject Sheinbaum’s initiative

A week ago, the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, signed an initiative to reform the Federal Labor Law to provide social security to delivery drivers. At that time, the head of the STPS, Marath Bolaños, said that they had already held 30 meetings with representatives of the delivery drivers, companies such as Uber, Didi and Rappi and government institutions; However, the delivery drivers point out that this is false.

Saúl Gómez, whom the other delivery drivers referred to as one of the leaders of the Ni Un Repartidor Menos association, was the one who entered the premises for the meeting with Marath Bolaños. The delivery drivers indicated that it is the first meeting with the representative of the Secretariat.

The association of United Distributors of Mexico (RUM) indicated that they were unaware of “the unions that now applaud the reform and that were received in the STPS, since none of them” represent them. The union they refer to is UNTA, which they comment “is known to be close to the government.”

In an interview for Expansión, Gómez pointed out that the reform is due to decisions that the STPS made in 2022, so it is not aligned with the current needs of the workers of these apps.

“They made the decisions unilaterally and that is not fair for us. There are many colleagues who could lose their jobs and that worries us (…) There is no union that can represent us, there is no union organization that can exist since there is no note taken or a collective contract granted,” said Gómez.

These types of situations “permeate the ‘charro’ unions, weaken the workers, the people and do not allow us to be in tune with what should happen,” added the leader of the delivery workers.

Antonio Flores, one of the delivery drivers present yesterday and who has been working in this way for four years, said that their main objective is for social security to maintain the flexibility and freedom that they currently have.

“We simply want the government to be more flexible and allow us to outsource and find the best way to work. Many students, single mothers, people looking for additional income and vulnerable people depend on this work,” Flores said.