Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Instacart’s gig workers are planning a nationwide strike

vice.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 159 posts

Re: Instacart’s gig workers are planning a nationwide strike

#21

Post by sabujp »

Instacart's Web UI does not work. The search feature is completely broken and always shows a picture of the sad milk bottle, as is the update cart feature (before the shopper starts shopping) where you can search for an item and add it to your cart. I tried the same update cart feature in the app and while it is able to find items, tapping add to cart just shows the button depress animation and the item never gets added to the cart.

Not only that, they're using enterprise signed ios apps for their shoppers and deliverers which requires them to do the settings -> trust app thing to run the app. Seems similar to what made Apple revoke Google and FBs enterprise cert for a while, very sketchy. You're only supposed to use enterprise signed apps for actual employees. It seems these "gig workers" aren't considered actual employees by the company but when it comes to abusing the cert it's ok? Apple should revoke their cert until they get an actual deliverer/shopper app.

Edit: Seems I've angered some Instacart folks, care to respond about the issues on the web ui, app, and usage of the enterprise cert for signing your deliverer/shopper app?

Re: Instacart’s gig workers are planning a nationwide strike

#22

Post by imgabe »

mindslight wrote: post #18
imgabe wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many grocery stores already have strong unions. Nobody is "sending in" gig workers. Isnt the whole point of gig work that the worker can choose whether to pick up a gig and go in or not?

It's nonsensical to assert that someone has a choice when they need income. The actual cost of living (food, utilities, and home maintenance) is quite low compared to the amount that just gets funneled upwards as rent. This rent treadmill has been created by decades of artificially low interest rates, an explicit government policy. Sadly most of this surplus doesn't even go to Scrooge Mcducks swimming in vaults of we…

Needing an income is not the same as needing one particular specific source of income. It is nonsensical to assert that any particular gig or even gig work itself is the sole available source of income.

Re: Instacart’s gig workers are planning a nationwide strike

#23

Post by bogomipz »

From the Instacart post linked in the article:

>"As we previously shared, we’re offering up to 14 days of pay for any hourly employee or full-service shopper who is diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed in individual mandatory isolation or quarantine, as directed by a local, state, or public health authority."[1]

So there is no benefits for workers who develop symptoms and self isolate? This statement reads like you have to go a hospital and be fortunate enough to be able to get a test. In many hotspots there is a shortage of tests. There also seems to be any mention of providing hand sanitizer, gloves, masks etc to these workers.

If you read the "previously shared" link in the above it states:

>"All Instacart part-time employees now have access to sick pay, an accrued benefit that can be used as paid time off if you are absent from work due to illness or injury. We’ve previously offered sick pay in select states — now, all part-time employees across North America, including in-store shoppers, will be able to accrue sick time to use as needed in the event that they become ill. All sick pay accrual will be backdated from the start of the year, so all hours worked by our in-store shoppers since then will count towards their current, individual sick pay balance."

An "accrued" benefit that will be backdated to the beginning of the year(we're only in month 3 of the year.)I'm guessing this would yield maybe 2 or 3 days max. That barely puts a dent into two weeks of self-isolation and no work.

This all rings quite hollow.

[1] https://medium.com/shopper-news/shopper-health-safety-update...

Re: Instacart’s gig workers are planning a nationwide strike

#24

Post by mindslight »

imgabe wrote: post #22
mindslight wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's nonsensical to assert that someone has a choice when they need income. The actual cost of living (food, utilities, and home maintenance) is quite low compared to the amount that just gets funneled upwards as rent. This rent treadmill has been created by decades of artificially low interest rates, an explicit government policy. Sadly most of this surplus doesn't even go to Scrooge Mcducks swimming in vaults of we…

Needing an income is not the same as needing one particular specific source of income. It is nonsensical to assert that any particular gig or even gig work itself is the sole available source of income.

It is when the options are limited and tend to move in lockstep - this is likely the best job these workers can find. If this were a functioning market, we'd see undesirable jobs commanding higher salaries than most desk jobs.

Re: Instacart’s gig workers are planning a nationwide strike

#25

Post by RhysU »

claudeganon wrote: post #6
imgabe wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many grocery stores already have strong unions. Nobody is "sending in" gig workers. Isnt the whole point of gig work that the worker can choose whether to pick up a gig and go in or not?

> Many grocery stores already have strong unions. Some but not most: https://laborunionreport.com/2019/04/23/eight-of-the-top-10-... > Nobody is "sending in" gig workers. Isnt the whole point of gig work that the worker can choose whether to pick up a gig and go in or not? Oh yes, the US economy, in its majestic equality, allows the rich as well as the poor to expose themselves to a dangerous, novel virus in exchange…

Precisely. Each group can equally seek wages per whatever marginal utility it attaches to obtaining that particular form of marginal income.

Re: Instacart’s gig workers are planning a nationwide strike

#26

Post by wpietri »

tryptophan wrote: post #19
wpietri wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only gather you don't know many gig workers. The ones I've talked to aren't doing it for fun. They're desperate.

Great. Lets ban gig work and make sure that instead of a crappy income they have no income!

It always amazes me how the discussion can go so quickly go from "The mighty market solves all problems!" to, "The market is an incredibly fragile flower, and the slightest worker protections will result in mass unemployment and starvation!"

Before Instacart, people went to the grocery store just fine. If Instacart has to pay workers a living wage, some people at the margins might return to shopping themselves, but I doubt it would make a huge difference. And if it did, that just means Instacart would have been a business built on worker exploitation, meaning it's a bad allocation of labor.

Re: Instacart’s gig workers are planning a nationwide strike

#27

Post by claudeganon »

RhysU wrote: post #25
claudeganon wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many grocery stores already have strong unions. Some but not most: https://laborunionreport.com/2019/04/23/eight-of-the-top-10-... > Nobody is "sending in" gig workers. Isnt the whole point of gig work that the worker can choose whether to pick up a gig and go in or not? Oh yes, the US economy, in its majestic equality, allows the rich as well as the poor to expose themselves to a dangerous, novel virus in exchange…

Precisely. Each group can equally seek wages per whatever marginal utility it attaches to obtaining that particular form of marginal income.

Great. Now examine the history, power relations, and social structures that determine all of the inputs into your imaginary model.

Re: Instacart’s gig workers are planning a nationwide strike

#28

Post by xenihn »

tryptophan wrote: post #19
wpietri wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only gather you don't know many gig workers. The ones I've talked to aren't doing it for fun. They're desperate.

Great. Lets ban gig work and make sure that instead of a crappy income they have no income!

I hope you realize this is the same argument used in support of child labor.

Re: Instacart’s gig workers are planning a nationwide strike

#29

Post by claudeganon »

bogomipz wrote: post #23

From the Instacart post linked in the article: >"As we previously shared, we’re offering up to 14 days of pay for any hourly employee or full-service shopper who is diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed in individual mandatory isolation or quarantine, as directed by a local, state, or public health authority."[1] So there is no benefits for workers who develop symptoms and self isolate? This statement reads like you have…

It’s a joke. I know people who have been to the ER with severe symptoms who were turned away without testing (mostly because they’re young and “expected” to recover).

Every company that’s using testing as a precondition for benefits, when testing has been widely reported to be unavailable, is despicable.

Post reply on HN