Read on Twitter
Thread: I'm a part-time courier for @Postmates, @UberEats, @Caviar. I'm young, college educated, and do this on the side, on my own schedule. I am the mythical worker these companies cite to justify CA #Prop22, which avoids giving workers the rights and protections they deserve.
Despite the popular myth, most workers are NOT like me. I have savings, I have health insurance. I have other sources of income. A study in SF found 71% of gig workers work more than 30 hours a week. Most have no other income source. 59% could not afford a $400 emergency expense.
At least 78% of gig workers are POC. As @bigblackjacobin writes, the platform labor model actively hurts Black workers by misclassifying, underpaying, and indebting them, cutting them off from social assistance, effectively locking them into the job. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7kpn9z/civil-rights-groups-say-uber-actively-hurts-black-people
The platforms' profits have boomed during the pandemic. Yet delivery workers have had their pay slashed and given almost zero support. When the pandemic first hit, @DoorDash charged workers as much as $40(!!) to buy hand sanitizer. A report I wrote then: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/food-courier-coronavirus-pandemic-new-york
These platforms have poured $181M into the Prop 22 campaign, arguing gig workers don't want employee status so we can "be our own boss." A farce. What it really does is bar workers from organizing, strip our rights, refuse us benefits, and let platforms exploit us to the bone.
The platforms are only growing more powerful. UberEats bought Postmates; Doordash bought Caviar. Now workers have even fewer choices and less leverage. You're not actually an "independent contractor" or "your own boss" if you have no other options. https://twitter.com/wilfredchan/status/1279969189520965638
I have options. I have leverage. I have a voice and an internet following. Do not be fooled by Prop 22's false narratives: I am not the kind of delivery worker that needs to be prioritized. What we need is collective power and structural change. Please share and vote #NoOnProp22!
