strike, ask for more money and protection. F the rest. Placing the life on the line for less than living wage, just not worth it.
Delivery workers are keeping California fed. They say no one’s keeping them safe
21–30 of 59 posts
Re: Delivery workers are keeping California fed. They say no one’s keeping them safe
#22There was a recent article on HN about nurses being evicted from their homes for being nurses because of the pandemic. So it's really honest to god not just gig workers who are getting shafted here and treated like "lepers" so to speak. Some of the stuff described in the article is really unfortunate and all too often an outcome of a large bureaucracy. That doesn't make it okay. They need to come up with better proce…
> ...all too often an outcome of a large bureaucracy
> If the US had universal healthcare, this would be less of a problem.
Italy's socialized healthcare apparently didn't cut it. There are plenty of examples of the existing U.S. healthcare bureaucracy royally screwing up in the covid response.
Do I'm not buying the logic that an even bigger bureaucracy is the solution to Kafkaesque bureaucracy, at least not for this problem.
I especially don't understand people who are railing on the responses of Trump or BoJo also arguing that the U.S. president should be even more in charge of this sort of thing.
Re: Delivery workers are keeping California fed. They say no one’s keeping them safe
#23The great part about the flexibility afforded by participating in the gig economy is that gig workers can't get unemployment, and you don't have to provide them with health insurance. That was the major innovation of the last business cycle. It's coming home to roost in a truly spectacular way over the past month.
Before gig delivery workers, all I could get delivered was on behalf of Domino's or UPS. It's a complicated question to answer, so it's probably rhetorical, but if delivery workers needed to work full time and get significantly higher compensation, would we even have the same magnitude delivery service we're talking about here?
Re: Delivery workers are keeping California fed. They say no one’s keeping them safe
#24strike, ask for more money and protection. F the rest. Placing the life on the line for less than living wage, just not worth it.
in some cases they might not have a choice. One of my friends is a nurse at the largest hospital in Croatia which has so far not too many cases and they're still bracing themselves for what happens when they reach capacity. They're not allowed to speak up about what's happening inside the hospitals or complain - they are in fact threatened with prison if they decide to speak up.
Despite this 2 nurses have tested positive but are asymptomatic. They aren't allowed to stop working as long as they don't develop strong symptoms. To add insult to injury there are no PPE and even if there are limited quantities available they're not allowed[1] to use it due to rationing. Visiting a hospital right now can be deadly if you're not certain to be positive already or if not in a life-threatening condition. I'd imagine it's similar in many other undeveloped or poor countries.
[1] in Croatian https://www.medicinskasestra.eu/2020/03/25/medicinske-sestre... images from article OCR'ed and google translated: https://pastebin.com/nVXTdDgT
Re: Delivery workers are keeping California fed. They say no one’s keeping them safe
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the chances of getting contaminated food are incredibly high Source?
Why do people keep asking for a source to back up pretty straight forward statements. Was that an unusual or surprising statement? It would seem like common sense at this stage that if someone with an infectious disease sneezes on your raw salad leaves or your cold lasagna, you're probably getting it too no? If you think the OPs comments are important, maybe you could also go verify this information yourself and post…
I clarified which statement I wanted a source for. It was a surprising claim. I had not heard about contaminated food.
Re: Delivery workers are keeping California fed. They say no one’s keeping them safe
#26The great part about the flexibility afforded by participating in the gig economy is that gig workers can't get unemployment, and you don't have to provide them with health insurance. That was the major innovation of the last business cycle. It's coming home to roost in a truly spectacular way over the past month.
Before gig delivery workers, all I could get delivered was on behalf of Domino's or UPS. It's a complicated question to answer, so it's probably rhetorical, but if delivery workers needed to work full time and get significantly higher compensation, would we even have the same magnitude delivery service we're talking about here?
Maybe we shouldn’t. The companies don’t make money and the workers are getting shafted. What’s the point of it?
Re: Delivery workers are keeping California fed. They say no one’s keeping them safe
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think you can use your own anecdotal case to disprove a huge societal movement affecting tens of millions when in some cases the current market offerings albeit inflexible in some of their aspects and need a revamp already exist and cover the great majority of the market ie: cabs vs uberlikes. Edit1: Could you clarify, I'm curious as to what kind of the jet set class items would be accessible at the entry lev…
I had portable income and the freedom to go where I wanted more or less at will. My case doesn't prove that millions of people aren't being given a raw deal. It just indicates that gig work doesn't have to be a raw deal and it is possible to design systems that work well. I've tried to promote that idea in the past. It didn't really catch on. Most people basically agree with you and feel that I'm some bizarro statist…
Thanks for the elaborated answer!
I'd like to see the source for the estimated 60% if you can send it later.
One thing is since companies like Uber are prime example of how gig-econ works and treats its workers, and that I do not agree with those standards and work ethics I would postulate the opposite. I do not condone the gig-econ style of jobs one bit. I would rather see more flexibility from the work place towards limited workers with proportional social benefits but the gig-econ from my understanding does not even offer that little.
If the 60prct holds then you're not the statistical outlier but rather a proper representation of who the gigs are for and I think that would validate their existence but I still see them not necessarily as a raw deal but rather a cheapskate move. But yes some are raw af.
Re: Delivery workers are keeping California fed. They say no one’s keeping them safe
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think you can use your own anecdotal case to disprove a huge societal movement affecting tens of millions when in some cases the current market offerings albeit inflexible in some of their aspects and need a revamp already exist and cover the great majority of the market ie: cabs vs uberlikes. Edit1: Could you clarify, I'm curious as to what kind of the jet set class items would be accessible at the entry lev…
I had portable income and the freedom to go where I wanted more or less at will. My case doesn't prove that millions of people aren't being given a raw deal. It just indicates that gig work doesn't have to be a raw deal and it is possible to design systems that work well. I've tried to promote that idea in the past. It didn't really catch on. Most people basically agree with you and feel that I'm some bizarro statist…
> I began doing gig work while deathly ill and homeless.
> 60 percent of people are at least moderately handicapped. Most downplay it and don't want to wear the label "handicapped" or "disabled." Such people benefit enormously from having more control over their lives
I don't know you nor your story and this isn't a comment about you personally, but writing that kind of sentences with a straight face to defend the gig economy is such a weird thing. You shouldn't have to work while "deathly ill", you shouldn't need the gig economy to survive while handicapped.
Re: Delivery workers are keeping California fed. They say no one’s keeping them safe
#29Thats the whole point of creating a precariat: rich peoples lives get safer and easier, poor peoples lives become less secure and harder. The system is working as intended. Three cheers for the gig-economy!!
At least the wealthy have placed the urgency of the situation above the economy.
Re: Delivery workers are keeping California fed. They say no one’s keeping them safe
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had portable income and the freedom to go where I wanted more or less at will. My case doesn't prove that millions of people aren't being given a raw deal. It just indicates that gig work doesn't have to be a raw deal and it is possible to design systems that work well. I've tried to promote that idea in the past. It didn't really catch on. Most people basically agree with you and feel that I'm some bizarro statist…
Thanks for the elaborated answer! I'd like to see the source for the estimated 60% if you can send it later. One thing is since companies like Uber are prime example of how gig-econ works and treats its workers, and that I do not agree with those standards and work ethics I would postulate the opposite. I do not condone the gig-econ style of jobs one bit. I would rather see more flexibility from the work place toward…