FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM NOVEMBER 18, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 23
Race to Deliver
treated as they bring food to New Yorkers
they are willing to go to make a delivery;
and providing a clear breakdown to customers
of how their tips were being distributed.
“Th ere’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
o r g a n i z e r
and delivery
worker with
LDU who
asked not to
share 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 diff erent job.”
“Th ey get their own bikes.
Th ey get a more stable
wage than we do,” he said.
“Th e 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 aft er taking part in
wildcat strikes calling for better treatment,
saying workers are oft en 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.
Th e 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 third-party service,”
a Council staff er 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 staff er said.
“Th ey 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.
Th e 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. Th ere’s human beings
doing this; it doesn’t just happen.”
A Gorillas courier rushes out of a warehouse in Chinatown to deliver groceries.
JOKR rider Chris is getting
ready to deliver groceries.
/WWW.QNS.COM
