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

121–130 of 159 posts

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

#121

Post by lotsofpulp »

monadic2 wrote: post #119
taylorlapeyre wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as a former employee with many friends on the front lines of this event, the lay-offs have very little to do with the team that (previously) wanted to unionize, and much more to do with COVID financial impact and the retail team, of which many many more are now out of a job (vs the team where some percentage of the members previously wanted to unionize). Whoever the person running that account is, they are n…

Why was the company (and many like it) so vulnerable? Many of my friends wear everlane.

Sales of everything non essential are expected to drop drastically.

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

#122

Post by slfnflctd »

jefftk wrote: post #34

Unfortunately for these workers, with the unprecedented spike in unemployment [1] I suspect Instacart will be able to find a lot of desperate people willing to cross the picket line. [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ICSA

Instacart should be considered a last resort by anyone actually thinking about this. To start with, the whole way they distribute work is a complete shitshow (first come, first serve after jobs are posted at a preset time-- so in many markets, you have to login at exactly the right minute or all the worthwhile jobs get scooped up, yes literally within one minute).

Also the pay is crap, and you sometimes end up with orders of multiple cases of bottled water that are very difficult & time consuming to wrangle, and you'll get paid the same as if they bought the equivalent dollar amount worth of breakfast cereal. Customers frequently don't tip.

I found Uber & Lyft to be a far, far easier job for probably twice as much pay. Of course, right now I'm doing none of it. Fortunately my S.O. finally found a decent job and is able to work from home.

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

#123

Post by jkestner »

granzymes wrote: post #106
toomuchtodo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s great that gig workers were included in the CARE bill. This was specifically advocated for by Senator Sanders. He threatened to tighten the restrictions even further on the $500 billion bailout of corporations if this condition was not met. https://twitter.com/RespectableLaw/status/124303461436252569...

Is there a source for this that isn't random twitter accounts? Looking at the Senate record[0] I can't see anything about the Senator and there doesn't seem to be any news coverage of his involvement in the bill other than the fact that he missed procedural votes for the initial draft. [0] https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/354...

I’m sure a lot of negotiations are not done on the record—that’s how it works—but here’s a clip of Sanders advocating: https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4863928/user-clip-corona-viru...

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

#124

Post by toomuchtodo »

jessaustin wrote: post #88
toomuchtodo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s great that gig workers were included in the CARE bill. This was specifically advocated for by Senator Sanders. He threatened to tighten the restrictions even further on the $500 billion bailout of corporations if this condition was not met. https://twitter.com/RespectableLaw/status/124303461436252569...

I want to admire him for that, but then I re-read that "$500 billion bailout of corporations" part. This movie was terrible the first time I was forced to watch it...

The people who desperately need this relief are going to look past that. Compromise is inevitable.

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

#125

Post by sneak »

jefftk wrote: post #34

Unfortunately for these workers, with the unprecedented spike in unemployment [1] I suspect Instacart will be able to find a lot of desperate people willing to cross the picket line. [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ICSA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_wages

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

#126

Post by sneak »

jariel wrote: post #54
tryptophan wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

"Great. Lets ban gig work and make sure that instead of a crappy income they have no income!" There's a much easier answer and that's just to pay them better.

The consumers who place the orders already have the option, today, of paying them as much as they think the service is worth or should be additionally paid. It’s called tipping.

Nothing is standing in the way of them being paid better other than consent.

Forcing people to pay for things to which they do not consent is deeply immoral.

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

#127

Post by adwi »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #85
woofie11 wrote: post #39

I would rather pay a higher delivery fee and (1) have enough workers to deliver my goods (2) Have them (and me) protected adequately. The whole way delivery works is broken right now.

> I would rather pay a higher delivery fee In New York, we have Caviar [1][2], a mid-tier to premium food-delivery company. They differentiated based on premium food. I haven't heard any complaints from their delivery staff, though this may be on account of their size. Is there a premium player in the grocery delivery business? Something like FreshDirect, but with better service? [1] https://www.trycaviar.com [2] htt…

In NYC the high-end restaurant supplier Baldor just started doing home deliveries for individuals... Prices aren’t great, think like high end Costco delivered.

http://baldorfood.com/

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

#128

Post by grosswait »

markdown wrote: post #43
cameronfraser wrote: post #40

Everlane workers tried to form a union and they were all fired https://twitter.com/EverlaneU/status/1243615472307695618 When there are a ton of people looking for work it is not really a good time to be striking

Thank god I don't live in a society where people get fired for unionising. I don't understand how such a thing happens in any democratic society. Do workers really not like the idea of collective bargaining, or are there more business owners than workers in your state/country?

Because we see incompetent employees constantly protected by unions and unions themselves become corrupt money making operations that become a business into themselves with a focus on self service and self preservation over that of their members long term interests. Very similar to politicians.

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

#129

Post by stefan_ »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #9
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't companies not pay taxes for gig workers to get unemployment? Is there going to be any change to that?

No. Gig workers are "self employed", who traditionally do not pay unemployment insurance such that traditional employers do (as a sole proprietor; if you incorporate and pay yourself as an employee, you would then be eligible for unemployment insurance; I imagine this is very rare as a gig worker, and unsure if any platforms support such a configuration). This legislation doesn't change that, but it likely pulls some…

I think you took this question too literal. Uber et al. have not paid unemployment and other benefits for these "contractors" that are now supposed to receive exactly these benefits. It is literally a bailout for their workforce.

Which I'm happy that we are doing, these are real persons after all, but then we must necessarily dismantle them afterwards to make sure it doesn't repeat.

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

#130

Post by ausbah »

grosswait wrote: post #128
markdown wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank god I don't live in a society where people get fired for unionising. I don't understand how such a thing happens in any democratic society. Do workers really not like the idea of collective bargaining, or are there more business owners than workers in your state/country?

Because we see incompetent employees constantly protected by unions and unions themselves become corrupt money making operations that become a business into themselves with a focus on self service and self preservation over that of their members long term interests. Very similar to politicians.

That still isn't an excuse to completely destroy unions tipping the business vs labor competition completely in favor of business. We don't completely dismantle businesses whenever they exhibit "corrupt behavior".
Post reply on HN