Translation: Waqas Interview on Standnews

# Behind the foodpanda strike: An interview with Waqas, a South Asian labour activist, from Omani manager to Hong Kong rider: fighting against the bad guys

[Chinese text](https://www.thestandnews.com/society/a_%E5%B0%88%E8%A8%AAfoodpanda%E7%BD%B7%E5%B7%A5%E5%A7%8B%E6%96%BC%E4%B8%80%E5%BF%B5%E4%B9%8B%E9%96%93-%E7%99%BC%E8%B5%B7%E4%BA%BAwaqas-fida-%E8%A6%8B%E5%88%B0%E8%87%AA%E7%94%B1%E7%9A%84%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF)


When I opened the door of the Pakistani restaurant, I was greeted by the smell of roasted chicken and the strong smell of milk tea, the familiar "taste of home" of Waqas Fida. Waqas says he has gotten to know most of the people in the restaurant as he comes to eat with his friends whenever he can. Waqas said that many of his fellow countrymen who work as delivery workers remembered his name after the foodpanda strike two weeks ago.

The foodpanda strike, from the start of the strike to the consensus reached between employers and employees, took place in just six days. This is a rare success in a social movement downturn. In the post-union era without a big union, the birth of this labor movement begins with this Pakistani man. He was born in Pakistan, moved to Oman at the age of 16 to work as a manager in the Middle East, and came to Hong Kong to start a different life for a marriage, and ended up in a labor movement.

### Wandering: Left home at 16 to work in Oman

I remember the first time I met Waqas was under the pandamart building in North Point. At noon that day, only two or three delivery workers gathered. Later, Waqas and other South Asian riders pushed their motorcycles in from another street. The delivery man who was chatting with the reporter pointed to the street and whispered, "That's 'Big Brother'".
"As the eldest son, Waqas left Pakistan at the age of 16 after high school to live with his father in Oman, a Middle Eastern country where he shared the burden of supporting his family. Upon arrival, he learned Arabic and English from scratch. He quickly adapted to his new life and became a marketing agent for an advertising agency, and soon after was promoted to marketing manager. The company covered all his expenses and gave him a car, so he could live without worries.

Since he was engaged to his wife in Hong Kong at an early age, he came to Hong Kong with her in 2018 and now has two sons. The cost of living in Hong Kong and Oman is very far apart. At present, their family of four has to squeeze into a tiny one-room flat in Sham Shui Po, with four people sleeping in one bed; Waqas also has to buy a motorcycle at his own expense to be a rider. He also lamented that the cost of living in Hong Kong is expensive.

### Due to Language barrier ,manager becomes delivery man

He admits that it is difficult to go back to his old job in marketing in Hong Kong because of the competition, the educational requirements, and the need to speak Cantonese and Mandarin, making it necessary for him to change careers. he does not feel sorry, but thinks that Hong Kong has more job opportunities and better income than Oman. His income at foodpanda is enough to support his family. In addition to supporting his wife and children in Hong Kong, his income also supports his family in Pakistan. In Pakistan, men who work overseas are responsible for providing for their families, not only for their wives and children, but also for their parents, siblings and even relatives.

### A thought: suspended work account and keyboard warrior in a group

During the week of his strike, he did not call his parents, which made them very worried. He did not tell his parents that he was in Hong Kong to prepare for the strike. After the first day of negotiations, news footage of his presence circulated on the Internet, including a scene in which he is negotiating with police officers. His friends forwarded the footage to his family in Pakistan. His mother, who does not speak English, thought he had been arrested by the police and called his wife in tears to ask what was going on. After his wife explained and reassured him, his mother calmed down. For many years, they were separated from each other and there was not much information flow.
He had never thought he would be in this position.
In recent years, foodpanda has been restructuring and adjusting its service fees, which has greatly reduced his income. Earlier this month, his work account was suddenly suspended due to a complaint he received. Later, he also saw other couriers complaining about foodpanda's problems in a news group. He bluntly criticized them for being "all talk but no action", but they "pushed him to the front line" and asked him to take action, which made him think of a strike. In the days leading With the help of his wife, he learned to use Telegram to set up groups. The link spread through WhatsApp and Facebook, and the number of people reached over a thousand in just a few days.

### The progress was more optimistic than expected.

After that, he started to contact local people with experience in the labor movement. The courier, who had "fought" with the employer in the past, said that the employer would not respond to his demands "in black and white". In September of last year and July of this year, there were attempts by delivery workers to launch industrial actions, but both ended in failure. So Waqas is also prepared for a long battle. He had already planned that if negotiations were unsuccessful, he would visit all parts of the territory, meet with drivers and infantry, and personally lobby people to join the strike every Saturday afternoon. This is the busiest time of the week for foodpanda, which is in great need of delivery workers to help deliver food.

photo:Oiyan

### The biggest weakness of the funders: pandamart

According to the original plan, if there is no improvement after six months, he will call on everyone to refuse orders from foodpanda's online supermarket pandamart. He said that foodpanda Hong Kong has invested a lot in pandamart, which is one of their major weaknesses. He also plans to appeal to the drivers infantry, after 6 p.m. not to take foodpanda orders, and switch to Uber Eat, Deliveroo and other takeaway platforms and other services. He analyzed that the night is a busy time for delivery, "customers just returned home, just want to eat something, if foodpanda can not provide service, they will switch to other takeaway platform. Over time, foodpanda will lose business to other takeaway platforms.

Everything went better than expected. The two-day strike alone has already made foodpanda feel the power of the strike. A number of pandamart, including Kowloon Bay, Hung Hom, Sham Shui Po and North Point, service was suspended or delayed. According to the photos provided by the delivery staff, on the first day of the strike, many orders from the Hung Hom pandamart were not taken and the status was "DELAY". The employer soon approached the labor representative to negotiate.

During that week, he devoted all his time to the labor movement, producing propaganda, preparing for the strike, meeting with the media, and preparing for negotiations with other labor representatives, which lasted more than 14 hours. He said that at first, the employers did not expect the long negotiation time, and soon after the first day of negotiation, the director of operation proposed to adjourn the meeting. The company also did not expect the negotiators to be so well prepared to rebut all their arguments.

### Compromise: The "best deal" that could be reached

But Waqas said they also knew that the company could not meet all their demands, so they compromised when the company was willing to respond to all their demands "in black and white" and promised not to lower the service fee again. Waqas said it was the "best deal" they could get and that the company had lost a lot of money and needed to deliver on its promise. He insisted that if the company went back on its word, they would organize another strike.

### He has never felt malicious in Hong Kong

After the strike, he just wants to take a good rest. His hobby is photography, and he has recently taken his camera to different places to take pictures. He is still curious about the city. He says it's an international city that has opened his eyes to a lot of people from different places. In Oman, he was one of the few people there, and there were very few foreigners. In addition, he has never felt malicious in Hong Kong and does not think he has been discriminated against. For example, he can pray freely; when he takes his children to pre-school, the school staff asks him if he needs Urdu; and when he saw a doctor after a car accident years ago, he was treated very well: "The government doesn't divide us, we have all the benefits that the locals have. Even though he has had some unpleasant experiences at work, such as a verbal altercation with a security guard over registration and being treated rudely when picking up take-out at a restaurant, he doesn't think the unpleasantness was due to discrimination, but rather a language barrier.

### Contentment: In Pakistan, it's possible to protest, but it's hard to succeed

But after the strike, he says he has more confidence in Hong Kong. "In Hong Kong, you can fight against people who do bad things to you, like we did against foodpanda. But in Oman, as people of other ethnicities, it's hard to speak out in front of the media and fight for your rights. In Pakistan, we can also protest. But it's very difficult to succeed. If you have to fight against big corporations or strong parties, they will buy the media and then the media will show the other side of the protest and it's very difficult to win. Compared to where he has lived before, this is still the best place he has lived for the time being.

He is very happy with his life in Hong Kong now and hopes to continue to settle here and has no intention of going back to Pakistan. He also said that his eldest son will go to school in September this year, and he hopes that his two children will learn Cantonese and Putonghua well to have a better future, and that they can do good things for Hong Kong like he did. In recent years, Hong Kong is sinking so fast that many Hong Kong people can not see the future. "As a Muslim, I don't worry about my future because I don't know when I'll die. ...... I want to live in the present and enjoy what I have now," he said.