Rapi & others banned.

[sts7049]

Bajo, talking about people delivering meals on bikes for money (pretty decent money btw), slavery and castration in the same sentence is hysterical melodramatic crap.
If you don’t get that, that’s fine but it may be worth your while - just to retain some credibility - to pretend you get it.

Any problems, to the extent they even exist, are eminently solvable. You want people to wear helmets? Make a police operation in which every rappi driver without a helmet means a fine for the parent company and/or the driver. Done.

To be clear, this is a concerted political effort, not just bajo mouthing off. I listened this morning to Radio 10 for as long as I could handle it - this was bajo's slavery claptrap x10. This is now the party line.

And let’s be honest for a minute. This is not about the helmets. Everybody knows it isn’t about the helmets.

What’s it about? It’s about the ongoing fight against the emergence of a new economy in which traditional middlemen and power centers are bypassed. Who does that threaten, you ask? Two words: organized labor.

Uber et al got a foothold in BsAs, notwithstanding that every possible action was taken to ban them. Aside from blocking credit cards, not much could be done to stop it - unlike rappi, nothing identifies an Uber as being such and there is nothing anyone can do to stop people from getting into cars.

The result of the democratization of transit? The cancellation of a transit strike that was to include both buses and taxis. Why was it called off? Because, as noted at the time by yours truly, Uber et al meant that transit had become decentralized enough that a taxi strike would not paralyze the city. It would just underline their own impotence.

This, and not slavery or any other similar hogwash, is what scares the bejeezus out of the establishment here. The entire premise of Argentina-cum-peronismo - and Macrismo has not done very well at distinguishing itself from peronismo - is about using labor, gremios etc as a parallel power independent of that of the state. Where some connected people who purport to represent the workers, become a Mafia who can paralyze society at will. Where if the “wrong” policy is adopted, by the people’s elected representatives, they can quickly mobilize mobs of people who will take the streets, and if need be orchestrate riots and saqueos. In short, paralyze society.

For this parallel power to exist, absolutely depends on workers being subservient to state handouts, to the state and the gremios protecting them from harms and dangers real and imagined. Otherwise, the way people resolve political differences is at the ballot box - and that, these people find unacceptable. They must have a level of power which does not depend at all on who won this or that election. And every time that a part of the economy begins to emerge from under these scoundrels’ thumbs, you see hysterical ranting about slavery, organized crime, and now - I shit you not - castration. Really. Bajo_cero just mentioned castration.

Why this melodramatic nonsense? Because the powers that be are deeply, deeply, scared. Of a bunch of guys on bikes. Of freedom.

i regret that i only have one "like" to give this post. exactly the point i have been trying to make here but much better said than i.

 

[RodalfoWalsh]

Can someone who has the app (I don’t) check and see if it’s actually stopped working... I remember Uber being “banned” too...

 

[sts7049]

rappi works. i just ordered lunch and paid using CC within the app as usual.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Here is the decision:

https://www.diariojudicial.com/public/documentos/000/085/464/000085464.pdf

 

[Bajo_cero2]

rappi works. i just ordered lunch and paid using CC within the app as usual.

FYI a decision must be confirmed by Supreme Court if it is appealed before it is executive.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

So, to recap, in the space of a few short posts we’ve gotten to a place where a new industry that’s popping up all over the world, solving a market need and creating employment, is... less so in Argentina.

In Argentina, you see, the same trends that have taken Paris by storm, are... slavery. Treating humans as animals in fact, because, they use... backpacks. You know, like animals. Mules.

When called out on that, the good doctor makes no further argument, except to invoke... an international treaty against organized crime. While talking about people delivering McDonald’s meals on bikes. In - the horror! - backpacks.

Been off your meds for too long I’m afraid, dear bajo. Take a stronger dosage and get plenty of rest.

FYI the class action against Rappi was started by the companies who give proper jobs to about 5000 people for unfair competition.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

A little alarm goes off in my head when people opine without facts. This thread set off my alarm.

Last night, I was walking through Recoleta Mall and I spotted a group of Rapi deliverers, two Venezuelan guys to be specific. I asked them about the judicial order and the job of delivery for Rapi. On the judicial order, business has not stopped and they were busy last night. They said the law may demand that deliverers become employees of the delivery firms. The most important thing to these two guys was that their jobs are preserved, not that they become employees or wear reflective tape or strap the food box to the bike, rather than their backs.

Economically, both guys are happy to be Rapi deliverers. They said, "If you work at a retail job in this mall or at one of these restaurants here, which are good jobs for Buenos Aires given the tourist crowd and the zona, you are paid $15.000 - $20.000 pesos per month. You work long, hard hours. You have a boss. You get paid every 2 weeks. If you don't show up or are sick, you are fired. You handle food and people, but you also sweep floors and scrub toilets. On a per hour basis, you make very little."

Rapi, on the other hand, they said was a great job. "We make $25.000 - $30.000 per month." I asked if that included tips and they said yes. They said about half of all customers tip. "You make more money than retail or restaurant. You work 8 hours per day, four at lunch and four at dinner. You set your own schedule. If you have a doctor's appointment, no problem. If you are sick, no problem. If you don't want to work that day, no problem. You can withdraw your Rapi funds next day, plus you always get tips. So we always have access to money - we don't have to wait 2 weeks. We do a delivery, then we hang out here and chat with friends until another order comes. Plus, we are in great physical shape from all the riding."

As we were chatting, one of them got an order. He said, "Hold on. I have to get this." He fiddled with the phone for a few seconds then said he had to take this delivery. I asked him to give me the specs before he left. He responded, "I pedal 2 blocks down Quintana and pick the order up. Then 5 blocks towards Centro and drop it. That's 7 blocks in total for 85 pesos. If there's a tip, I'll make even more." I thanked him and he left.

Draw your own conclusions.

Facts! Ja. Here you have real facts from the class action against Rappi:

 

[Bajo_cero2]

The Court decision was based, among other illegalities, in the fact that the law requires to transport food by people who has a sanitation id plus the Rappi bags are illegals because it must be stainless steel boxes and you can only transport dood while Rappi transport insecticides, veterinary goods and many other products that can produce cross contamination:

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Regarding the “individual contractor”, Court explained how it works, that there is no freedom, and even for a working relationship it is an abuse. It also explains that is a LIE what Ben asserted regarding the total success of these companies in Europe as soon as they are heavily fined:

 

[Bajo_cero2]

According to the law, is Rappi who has to full fit the requirements of the transit law which defaults produce a large amount of accidents: