Ley rider española: movimientos sociales, proceso político y análisis semiótico de las diferencias ideológicas

The Spanish 2021 Rider Law was enacted by the left-wing government, with the support of traditional trade unions. It sought to regulate the work of delivery riders in the new platform capitalism. A description and analysis of the political process involved shows that the corporatism of the left prevailed over the other actors concerned, whereby (bogus) self-employed workers were converted into employees. The article also proposes an analysis based on Greimas’s semiotic framework, which unpicks the ideological frameworks in the informants’ opinions, namely neo-capitalism, socio-capitalism, post-capitalism and ultra-capitalism. The first three broadly outline the reality principle of capitalism, while the latter points to a fully external structure, without a society to sustain it.