Read on Twitter
uber is buying postmates. as a part-time courier who works for both, this is bad news. while both are staunch anti-worker companies, fewer and bigger players means even less worker leverage against platform capitalists. with dwindling options, we'll be exploited even more harshly
i've worked for uber, postmates, doordash, caviar. all are scummy, but running multiple platforms is one of the few ways workers can maintain some control (and earn extra). this is important since we can get penalized or deactivated from platforms arbitrarily with zero recourse.
now uber has bought postmates; doordash has bought caviar. every year doordash loses hundreds of millions, uber loses billions. it's because these platforms capitalists are in an all-out war for market share, to become the last one standing. all while paying workers less and less
make no mistake: the goal of these delivery companies is to become the sole gatekeeper, the interface you're forced to use if you want food (as a customer) or sell food (as a restaurant). then use lock-in to extract data, sell add-ons, and suppress labor. we can't let this happen
i wrote a bit about what delivery workers went through when the pandemic first hit new york. things haven't gotten much better https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/food-courier-coronavirus-pandemic-new-york
