THE RACE TO DELIVER
treated as they bring food to New Yorkers
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | NOV. 19 - NOV. 25, 2021 35
Tuesday. He was assaulted twice this
year, he said, once violently.
He immediately called LDU’s policy
director Hildalyn Colón Hernández
and the police, he said, who came
immediately to take a report. In the
past – before the Deliveristas had
gained so much attention — it was
hard to be taken seriously.
“Calling 911 for any emergency,
they never came,” he said. “If they did
come, they refused to write a report.”
Protections for workers
The biggest accomplishment,
though, has been the passage of a
package of bills promising more protections
in the City Council, including
requiring companies to provide
their delivery workers with the insulated
bags they need for delivery;
mandating that restaurants allow
gig workers to use their restrooms;
allowing delivery workers to set limits
for how far they are willing to go
to make a delivery; and providing a
clear breakdown to customers of how
their tips were being distributed.
“There’s gonna be improved enforcement
next year, but it helps,
it helps,” Ramirez said of the bills.
“Baby steps, little by little.”
From their inception, some of the
apps have abided by the rules set by
the Council bills, providing gear,
paying at least minimum wage to
their employees and, in some cases,
providing a breakdown of tip distribution
on the apps. Given the small
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
share his last name, said he has met
some people who work with quickcommerce
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
disqualifications, 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
fired 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
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
has posted photos of broken bicycles
and screenshots that 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 thirdparty
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
influence 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.
JOKR rider Chris is getting ready to deliver groceries.
/QNS.COM
