“Chlorine attacks and daily harassment: why Mexico’s female delivery drivers are organising”

… Berline Augustin, a food delivery driver originally from Haiti…was waiting to get an order, when a fellow repartidor pulled up alongside and threw chlorine at her…

… it was another example of the misogynistic aggression that female delivery drivers, especially non-Mexicans, face every day…

…she is regularly subjected to racist remarks from the male repartidors…She is also cognisant of her foreign national status…

… despite reporting the incident she received little support from the company...

…she joined the National Union of App Workers (Unta)…The union campaigns to regularise the status of its members as workers…

reform proposals backed by Unta that would have classified app workers as employees hit a brick wall…

…workers in Mexico are considered business partners, or socios. But the situation in Mexico is worse than in some other countries because non-contracted workers do not get basic social security benefits…

The anger over these injustices is being channelled into the growing union movement…

The union is calling on the delivery app companies to follow its lead and set up monitored hubs across the city where female drivers can wait for orders free from harassment…