LOST IN THE FLOOD
Brooklynites search for Ida delivery man fi lmed working in deep water
COURIER LIFE, SEPTEMBER 10-16, 2021 19
BY BEN BRACHFELD
Invest igat ive -minded
Brooklynites are searching for
a delivery worker captured in
a viral video wading through
waist-deep fl ood water while
delivering grub in Williamsburg
during Ida’s torrential
downpour — hoping to give
the hard-working hero a hefty
$1,700 tip.
Johnny Miller shared the
harrowing video on his Twitter
account @UnequalScenes
after he saw the delivery
man’s extraordinary effort to
push his e-bike through the
water at Roebling and N. 11th
streets just after 10 pm.
Miller, whose Unequal
Scenes project aims to capture
inequality around the world,
told Brooklyn Paper that witnessing
the worker doing his
rounds during the recordbreaking
storm was a depressing
sight for him.
“That video really captures
both major crises that society
is going through right now,
which is inequality and climate
change,” Miller said. “I
don’t want to say I felt pity, but
it was defi nitely a sense of depressiveness
that this is what
society looks like nowadays.”
Miller made about $1,700
licensing the clip to various
news outlets, he said — but
he wants to give it all to the
worker, if he can fi nd him.
Yet, despite a signal-boost
from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez and stories about the
search, Miller has been unable
to locate the man. Neither
has Los Deliveristas Unidos,
a collective of delivery workers
which advocates on their
behalf against abusive labor
practices, which are plentiful
in the industry.
“Deliveristas are out there
rain or shine, or snow. They
are the essential of the essential
workers,” said Hildalyn
Colon, director of Policy and
Strategic Partnerships for Los
Deliveristas. “Why are they
out there on the street risking
their lives. Well, they need to
be out there to feed their families.”
The 50,000-strong, largely
immigrant deliverista workforce
toil for apps such as
Grubhub, Seamless, Uber
Eats, DoorDash, and Postmates
under oppressive conditions,
with few labor protections
under law.
Grubhub, for instance,
pays delivery workers a base
rate of $2 per delivery, The
City reports, and the independent
contractors rely largely
on tips to make a living — and
they often make below minimum
wage.
Even as the city and the National
Weather Service were
urging people to stay indoors,
delivery apps were increasing
base pay to incentivize workers
to go out even in dangerous
conditions, Colon says.
“It was a bit problematic, on
one side the National Weather
Service is saying stay home,”
she said. “And you have companies
incentivized to get
these people out. That was one
of the issues. Right now, nobody
got seriously hurt, thank
god.”
Colon also said that once
workers are out in the fi eld,
they can reject a delivery in
the app if they so choose, but
they will be penalized in the
company’s internal rating system.
They also must complete
95 percent of their orders or
they won’t get paid, she said
— and, because the food in the
viral video was shown to be
slightly submerged in fl oodwater
for a bit, it’s possible the
deliverista didn’t even get paid
for the order, despite the man’s
over-the-top effort.
Los Deliveristas have
been advocating this year for
a package of bills in the City
Council aimed at providing
protections to delivery workers
in the fi eld, including requiring
restaurants allow delivery
workers to use their
bathroom, setting minimum
per-trip payments, and standards
for how workers are
paid (including weekly payment,
and banning fees to receive
payment).
Another major point of contention
is a proposal to allow
workers to set distance limits
on the app without getting penalized
(one worker who spoke
to The City said they had made
just $5 on a delivery from Astoria
to Brooklyn during the
storm, including tip).
The Council last month
voted to permanently extend a
cap on fees for third-party delivery
apps, but has not yet advanced
the worker protection
package to the Mayor for his
signature.
A Doordash spokesperson
said in a statement that the
company moved to suspend
delivery operations in some
areas affected by fl ooding,
and limiting service to pickup
only, and that the company removes
non-5 star ratings during
extreme weather, but that
there was room for improvement
in its strategy, such as
by suspending all ordering
and disabling incentives.
“This week’s fl ooding in
New York and the surrounding
regions was tragic,” the
Doordash spokesperson said.
“Although we were able to
pause delivery in some parts
of the city as the fl ash fl ooding
occurred, we should have
acted more quickly and comprehensively
to suspend ordering,
turn off incentives to
get Dashers on the roads, and
communicate with all of our
stakeholders. We are actively
engaging our community and
putting in place controls to do
better going forward.”
The spokesperson did not
identify whether the man in
the video was working for
Doordash — a “Dasher,” as the
company calls its workers.
A Grubhub spokesperson
said that the company hasn’t
found any information indicating
the man in the video is
one of their drivers, said that
workers’ safety was a top priority,
and noted that the company
shut down “locations” if
the weather called for it.
“The safety of delivery
workers is a top priority,” the
spokesperson said. “While we
always appreciate the hard
work drivers put in to get the
job done, no delivery worker
for any company or restaurant
should ever take an action that
would jeopardize their safety.”
A representative for Uber
Eats did not respond to requests
for comment.
In addition to fi nding the
man in question, Miller hopes
that the video he shot will provide
some perspective to those
who use delivery apps on the
impacts of their consumption
decisions.
“Photos or videos like that
at least give people a better understanding
of not what the
options are,” Miller said, “but
what are the results of their
choices.”
Anyone with information
about the man’s identity can contact
reporter Ben Brachfeld at
bbrachfeld@schnepsmedia.com.
WHO IS HE?: A food delivery worker treks through the fl ood to make a drop-off. Johnny Miller
Food delivery riders take part in a recent street protest ride organized
by the group Los Deliveristas Unidos demanding better working conditions,
pay and protections. REUTERS/Mike Segar
IDA’S IMPACT
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