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A thread: Calling out @lyft for their bullshit "How we're holding each other up" corporate-speak email note and the complete, hypocritical lack of support for the drivers that work day-after-day to put money in their pockets. 1/12
My dad is a Brazilian immigrant and has been a FULL-TIME Lyft driver for four years. He has a perfect 5/5 star rating (go dad!) over a total of over 6,000 rides. He has made friends with riders, gotten people to places on time, and made people's days with his jovial nature! 2/12
I would show some of the lovely comments my dad's received over the years, but Lyft has suspended my dad's account. Why? Well, he's 57 years old and only has a lung and a half because he was diagnosed with a cancerous lung tumor in 2015 and needed to operate. 3/12
Because of his age and the fact that he literally does not have half of one of his lungs, he faces a risk of severe complications if he contracts COVID-19. As a full-time Lyft Driver, he's very exposed as well. His surgeon told us this much and recommended a quarantine. 4/12
Lyft has announced that they would be providing funds directly to drivers put under quarantine based on "an amount determined by the driver’s previous activity on the Lyft platform" (source: search "funds" on this page https://www.lyft.com/safety/coronavirus/driver) 5/12
(This was reiterated in an email sent last week to Lyft drivers, the same email as the first tweet in this thread) 6/12
A driver of four full-time years with >6,000 rides and a perfect rating should be one of the first to receive these funds! But when we reached out to Lyft, we received a cookie-cutter response that he would be given a one-time payment of $250 and have his account suspended. 7/12
To contextualize this, my dad made, on average, $950/week with Lyft before he had to quarantine at the end of March because of his surgeon's recommendation. The single payment he received is barely two days' work. 8/12
Due to the lack of support from his employer, we've had to file for unemployment, (another shitshow, thanks NC), food stamps, and terminate his lease two months early because he could no longer afford the rent. He's lived in this house for five years. 9/12
Lyft is more interested in patting themselves on the back than actually supporting the often working-class people who are the source of their profits. My dad is lucky to have family support him, but given how useless Lyft has been in this situation, I can only imagine— 10/12
that there are thousands of people left in even worse situations. Thousands of people with their blood on Lyft's hands during a global emergency. If you're in a better spot during this crisis and you're willing to help out, my dad's Venmo and Square are $Nizio. 11/12
My dad's in a luckier situation than many given family support, even though that's limited. Please reply to this thread with any mutual aid networks that you know of for others to donate to. We have to help each other out during this crisis because companies aren't ~ 12/12
