Gorillas quits striking drivers

Some employees have been arguing with the company for months. Now the ten-minute delivery service is taking drastic steps and the labor dispute is escalating.

The rapid growth of Gorillas has its downsides. Several employees have been in dispute with the company for months, and there have also been several strikes. They blocked warehouses and other buildings. The workers want to protest for better working conditions and more pay. Now the company has reacted drastically - and has dismissed more than a dozen drivers, as several media outlets have reported.

However, this is likely to further fuel the labor dispute rather than bring it to a premature end. The Gorillas Workers Collective, an association of drivers protesting against the poor conditions at Gorillas, wrote in a Twitter message in English: "@Gorillasapp is mass firing workers! Some have been striking, some supporting. Others were not involved at all. This is not only #unionbusting anymore. Management is threatening our lives. This has to stop! #DeleteGorillas. Give low ratings on App Stores and Search Engines!" The German translation would be something like: "@Gorillasapp is laying off employees en masse! Some have gone on strike, some have supported. Others were not involved at all. This is no longer just #unionbusting. Management is threatening our lives. This has to stop! #DeleteGorillas . Give low ratings in app stores and search engines!"

This is no longer just #unionbusting. Management is threatening our lives.

Twitter account of the Gorillas Workers Collective

According to Spiegel , it has received the termination letters. It reads: "We hereby terminate your employment contract without notice for good cause". However, the company does not specify the good cause, but apparently it was about the strikes. A spokesperson for Gorillas told Der Spiegel that non-union strikes were not legal.

With the dismissal, the dispute at Gorillas has now escalated completely. New strikes have already been announced for Wednesday, although only a few weeks ago, boss Kagan Sümer had boasted about how fairly they would treat everyone. In an interview with the FAZ newspaper, when asked whether he was exploiting employees, he said: "We at Gorillas certainly aren't." His drivers, or at least some of them, obviously see it differently.