13/05/2026
Message of Solidarity from RIDERS-SENTRO
to the 2nd Gig Workers Congress
Los Angeles, California
11-13 May 2026
*Workers Against Platform Exploitation: Building Global Solidarity in a Time of Crisis*
Warm militant greetings to all delegates, organizers, and unions gathered at the 2nd Gig Workers Congress in Los Angeles.
We bring you solidarity from the gig workers and labor movement in the Philippines.
This Congress takes place at a moment of deep global crisis. The widening war in the Middle East is not only destroying lives and communities — it is also intensifying economic hardship across the world. Workers everywhere are being made to pay for a crisis they did not create.
In Asia, and particularly in the Philippines, the consequences are immediate and brutal. Rising fuel prices, soaring food costs, and runaway inflation are pushing working families deeper into poverty. For food delivery riders and app-based workers, this means longer hours on the road, greater risks to safety and health, and even less time with our families — all just to earn enough to survive another day.
While workers struggle to live, platform companies continue to expand their wealth and power by denying us the most basic labor rights. They call us “partners” to escape accountability. They use algorithms to control our work while refusing responsibility as employers. They profit from our labor while shifting all the risks onto workers.
But despite their immense resources, they have failed to stop us from organizing.
Across the world, gig workers are rising. Our movement continues to grow because workers everywhere have realized a simple truth: behind every app, every delivery, every ride, and every platform are workers whose labor creates the wealth of this industry.
We are inspired by the victories of sisters and brothers in different countries who fought and won legislation and legal recognition declaring gig workers as employees entitled to rights, protection, and dignity.
We are inspired by the steadfast organizing efforts of the California Gig Workers Union - SEIU, whose years of struggle have brought the union to the verge of certification and recognition. Your fight strengthens the confidence of gig workers everywhere.
These victories remind us of an important lesson: we are fighting platform companies that operate globally. Therefore, workers must also learn to act and think globally while strengthening our organizing at the national and local levels. International solidarity is no longer optional — it is necessary if we are to defeat a system designed to isolate workers and weaken collective action.
That is why our struggle has now reached the global stage through the fight for a binding standard at the International Labour Organization. We may not yet win everything that gig workers truly deserve, but one thing is already clear: workers across the world are refusing to remain invisible, disposable, and unprotected.
To the platform companies, our message is simple and unwavering:
We will never stop organizing.
We will never stop fighting.
And we will never stop until the oppressive labor relations system created by platform capitalism is dismantled and replaced with one founded on justice, dignity, democracy, and workers’ rights.
The future of work must belong to workers — not to algorithms, billion-dollar corporations, and unchecked corporate power.
Long live international solidarity!
Long live gig workers’ organizing!
Workers of the world, unite!
RIDERS-SENTRO
Philippines
