Gig workers set a deadline
App-based drivers warned of an indefinite strike if demands aren’t met after August 8. Organisers named Ola, Uber, Rapido, Swiggy, Zomato and more. The date itself is doing what the Centre’s “guidelines” did — shifting.
App-based workers have warned of an indefinite strike after August 8 if their demands are not met.
Telangana’s app-based drivers and delivery workers have drawn a line: meet the demands, or face an indefinite strike after August 8. That warning followed a statewide flash strike on July 22 called by the Telangana App-Based Drivers Forum, with platform workers across cabs, autos, food delivery and logistics joining in, according to a report. Their list is not exotic: a minimum base fare, fair per‑km and per‑minute rates, welfare and social security, regulation of aggregators, notification of the Gig and Platform Workers Rules, and implementation of the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines, 2025.
Platforms named by organisers included Ola, Uber, Rapido, Swiggy, Zomato, Zepto, Blinkit and Porter. Trade unions met in Musheerabad to back the action, and TGPWU’s founder-president Shaik Salauddin said the fight is for “fair fares” and “decent livelihoods”. The intent is clear; the calendar is less so. Reports differ on whether the indefinite action would begin on August 8 or August 10 — the form, scope and participant numbers have not been published by the organisers in a primary notice.
If the BJP‑led Centre’s “guidelines” for aggregators were meant to protect workers, drivers wouldn’t be threatening to log off in the first place. Telangana’s workers have put a date on it; the platforms and the parties that cheered them on when it suited them can quit hiding behind moving goalposts and answer it.