The Race to Deliver
treated as they bring food to New Yorkers
delivery radius of each dark store, riders
have shorter routes back and forth.
Josh, an organizer and delivery worker
with LDU who asked not to use his last
name, said he has met some people who
work with quick-commerce apps. Many of
the struggles are the same, he said, but “it’s
a different job.”
“They get their own bikes, they get a
more stable wage than we do,” he said.
“The Gorillas bike is supplied by the company,
a lot less likely to get stolen because
they are tracked.”
But just being an employee, rather than
a contractor, doesn’t guarantee better treatment,
Colón said.
“I think that is a false promise,” she
said. “You’re part-time, or you’re earning
minimum wage. But the work that they
do, they should be earning even more. Just
the idea that they are employees doesn’t
mean that they don’t deal with issues of
disqualifi cations, non-transparency, tips
that get stolen.”
When delivery is slow or items are damaged,
it’s the delivery worker who takes the
brunt of the customer’s unhappiness, she
said, not the company.
Gorillas workers in Berlin, where the
company was founded, were fi red last
month after taking part in wildcat strikes
calling for better treatment, saying workers
are often underpaid and are not provided
with appropriate weather gear. German
JOKR rider Chris is getting ready to deliver groceries.
newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
reported that many Gorillas workers
work on contracts, not as employees, and
that many are injured on the job while
carrying heavy deliveries up apartment
staircases.
The Gorillas Workers Collective have
posted photos of broken bicycles and
screenshots they say show long hours
worked and more than 50 miles covered
by bike in a single day.
It’s unclear whether the council bills
apply to the new grocery delivery apps,
since they are not third party and are by
and large working with employees rather
than contractors.
“I think they don’t qualify on those
grounds, on not being a third-party
service,” a Council staffer said. “I think
the language in the bills is individually
portioned food. If you’re not delivering
for something more like a restaurant or a
deli, even, then those services may not be
covered even if they were a third party.”
Having the laws on the books may infl uence
companies to adopt the policies even
if they don’t apply, the staffer said.
“They may be worried the public will see
those things as best practices they ought to
be following, they may also be concerned
that legislation may come down the pipe if
we start having problems with them, stuff
like that.”
Ultimately, Colón said, “there’s no minimum”
for how delivery workers should be
treated, regardless of the company they
deliver for and the status of their employment.
The conversation, she said, has only
just started.
“It cannot be a race to the bottom,”
Colón said. “It has to be a race to the top.
It’s about the people. All of the technologies
you will see doesn’t matter if you just click
a button. There’s human beings doing this,
it doesn’t just happen.”
A Gorillas courier rushes out the warehouse in Chinatown to deliver groceries.
Schneps Media November 25, 2021 13