Sunday, March 29, 2020

Last Call For Deliver Us From Evil

The billion-dollar corporations exploiting the gig economy are running headlong into the COVID-19 era and the realization that if they don't have workers to exploit, the corporations crumble to dust.

As some Instacart workers prepare to strike Monday, the company is making more updates in a bid to appease them. 
Instacart said Sunday that it will soon begin making hand sanitizer available to its "full service shoppers," who shop and deliver groceries for the company. It is also making it easier for customers to set their own default tipping percentage in the app. 
Instacart is one of several companies delivering essentials to households and now expanding rapidly at a time when much of the American economy is at risk of contracting. Last week, the company announced plans to bring on another 300,000 "full service shoppers" in North America over the next three months to service demand. 
But while the company has seen a surge in customer orders in recent weeks and introduced an option for customers to have orders left at their doorsteps, workers have criticized the company for not doing enough for them. 
The strike, which is being called for by Instacart shoppers and a newly formed non-profit called Gig Workers Collective, has a list of demands including providing workers with safety items including hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and sprays, hazard pay, and an expansion of its coronavirus pay to include those with underlying health conditions. The workers specified in a Medium post that they wanted an extra $5 per order and a default tip of at least 10% of the order total.

Reagan busted air traffic controllers 40 years when they tried to strike.  I fully expect Trump to try to do the same here, and it won't just be delivery guys who go on strike soon.  It'll be the people keeping the lights on in the hospitals.

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