Fragmented solidarity: self-employed platform workers and employees in the hospitality sector

Drawing on a qualitative study conducted in the Netherlands, this article examines how solidarity is shaped in the hospitality sector, in which solo self-employed platform workers and employees work side by side. Our findings show that divergent identities and interests, reinforced by legal frameworks, may undermine solidarity both among self-employed platform workers and between them and regular employees, while also weakening trade union efforts to construct a shared identity along the traditional labour-capital divide. Competition further fragments platform workers and sharpens boundaries with employed staff in their daily interactions. This creates a central challenge for union strategies. Although unions in the Netherlands and elsewhere have successfully pursued lawsuits to have self-employed platform workers reclassified as employees, our study suggests that their organising strategies will fail to engage those who deliberately choose self-employment, without parallel legal reforms.