"Shhh... don't let the Plebes know they're still getting robbed. We're going to fight this, negotiate something a little lower and still come out way ahead." -Our Corporate Lords and Vassels
In all seriousness, it goes to show you how little people have come to expect. Some of these strikes historically have had unrealistic expectations in requests from what I recall. Labor rights have declined so far in this country that demands from strikes are now almost fully reasonable, leaving little room to negotiate back from.
I also think instacart workers might be at higher risk of virus exposure because, as I understand it, they need to go into the store and pick out groceries - while food delivery workers only really interact with the food bag at the counter. I'm also not sure how often the different contactless delivery options are chosen, but instacart would include more exposure if you needed to hand every grocery bag to the customer compared to one or two food bags.
Source: https://shoppers.instacart.com/
Haven't worked as an ISS, but I presume that they have no say in their orders as they aren't paid per order. I actually have no idea if they even get a portion of tips.
source: have run for Instacart before.
To save $5? Really?
Right now, I'd pay $25/order to actually get a delivery window.
It's tricky to discuss whether the price is worth the service. Because it depends on many factors (e.g. how much you make)
We'll just vote with our wallets.
Come on now.
Personally, I would be fine with paying $5 extra per order of groceries, but I'm not a user of services like this.
True "delivery fees" are only enacted for non-subscriber or small orders.
source: am infrequent Shipt/IC shopper
Hazard pay is moot for workers who have already caught COVID-19 too, which I would guess is a reasonably chunk of delivery workers by now.
I apologize for the wall of text below, feel free to minimize this comment ([-] sign next to delete above), but it is crucial to demonstrate how broad this support is to the working class.
https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-stimulus-package... (F.A.Q. on Stimulus Checks, Unemployment and the Coronavirus Plan)
> Benefits will be expanded in an attempt to replace the average worker’s paycheck, explained Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a public policy research group. The average worker earns about $1,000 a week, and unemployment benefits often replace roughly 40 to 45 percent of that. The expansion will pay an extra amount to fill the gap. Under the plan, eligible workers will get an extra $600 per week on top of their state benefit. But some states are more generous than others. According to the Century Foundation, the maximum weekly benefit in Alabama is $275, but it’s $450 in California and $713 in New Jersey.
> Are gig workers, freelancers and independent contractors covered? Yes, self-employed people are newly eligible for unemployment benefits. Self-employed workers will also be eligible for the additional $600 weekly benefit provided by the federal government.
> If you’ve received a diagnosis, are experiencing symptoms or are seeking a diagnosis — and you’re unemployed, partly unemployed or cannot work as a result — you will be covered. The same goes if you must care for a member of your family or household who has received a diagnosis.
> What if my child’s school or day care shut down? If you rely on a school, a day care or another facility to care for a child, elderly parent or another household member so that you can work — and that facility has been shut down because of coronavirus — you are eligible.
> What if I’ve been advised by a health care provider to quarantine myself because of exposure to coronavirus? And what about broader orders to stay home? People who must self-quarantine are covered. The legislation also says that individuals who are unable to get to work because of a quarantine imposed as a result of the outbreak are eligible.
I will admit I'm enjoying the schadenfreude of workers finally having some power due to a Congressional response to a pandemic, much to the chagrin of "but that's how the free market works" apologists.
We're only a few weeks in, and we've already drastically expanded benefits to those in need (the stimulus bill I mentioned upthread) much more than we would've under normal circumstances. Quite a bit of change can occur in a year, no?
The Fed is predicting 47 million unemployed [1], at a 32% unemployment rate. That's a lot of folks without health insurance. 68k people in the US die every year because of lack of access to healthcare, and 50% of bankruptcies are due to medical debt, under "normal" circumstances. That is a "failure of capitalism" not replicated in other developed countries.
Sometimes, to fix a system, you must break it. This is the "break it" part. [2]
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/30/coronavirus-job-losses-could...
[2] https://reason.com/2020/03/27/pandemic-related-unemployment-...
I agree it would be terrible to compel anyone to work through violence.
That'll sell well in an election year with states and the federal government overextending themselves already due to a woefully inadequate initial response. We can't even get masks and ventilators manufactured at the necessary rate, and we're going to send force to assist Amazon Fulfillment? We're not even sending in force to assist first responders and medical practitioners.
Amazon workers have options during this, including just going home. That's Amazon's problem, not the country's. No one is entitled to cheap delivered ecommerce services. If Amazon can't make the economics work without coerced labor, good riddance.
Additionally, we, as a society, should value minimizing the number of people working in these roles and their interactions to ensure they remain healthy and don't become transmission vectors.
But Instacart is just grocery shopping. At a certain price point, people will go into stores themselves, or self organize to do bulk purchases for a small group. Right now in NYC, some people have started a charity to deliver goods to older residents in apartments for free. Instacart can’t compete with that.
Serious question, not being combative with you.
Doesn't Amazon have a very real hazard here which could result in burdensome regulation and or customer defection?
I appreciate that you either can't see that or don't buy it so I end my participation here having tried to make the point as clear as I could. That is not a sly way of saying "I'm right, you're wrong" by the way. I am just out of words and ideas and time to re-express the relationship again.
Very best to you.
The biggest problem here is that this is one of the most "expendable" workforces we've ever seen–hiring cost is rock-bottom, training is done through an app (requiring no human interaction or pay), and shoppers are just sent a shirt and prepaid card (Shipt) or a lanyard and card (Instacart).
I feel like the organizers understand this and know that if the overlords decide they don't want to deal with the strike, their accounts can be deactivated with the click of a mouse, wasting less than $50 in resources (though usually less because of the ROI they've already exhibited). All the company has to do is ramp up advertising or add some new hire incentives.
Keeping the demands reasonable is how they're self-preserving. Anything too extreme, and they just get replaced with no change. It's a good _starting point_, but there definitely need to be more protections for our gig economy workers in the future.
Have empathy both ways.
If their job is so important that you can't make do without it, pay them more, or consider doing it yourself for less.
Just generally too: if Amazon announced they were hiking prices 50% overnight, how would you react? This move is pretty scummy.
default to 10% instead of 5%; it's a UX nudge. The user can always change it.
For the record, I'd be perfectly happy with the price of these delivery services increasing by $5 if it went to the gig worker fulfilling it. That's already a lot less than I tip food delivery drivers.
Again, how would you feel about Amazon hiking the price of hand sanitizer 50%?
It will be great to see this play out though. I live somewhere (unf) that had unions running govt for a period of decades. The US never really had this so is under the illusion that this kind of thing achieves it aims. It doesn't. What happens is most of these people don't have jobs anymore, you have to hike interest rates so most people lose their homes (and bye bye, VC funding...that will just stop overnight...I would guess the majority of the people on here will lose their jobs, and modify their opinions too late), and the price of food starts increasing daily.
And btw, this should be obvious but apparently isn't, this is going to go on for at least a year. At some point, people are going to have to learn how to go about their daily life without infecting other people. The alternative is: most of these jobs stop existing, and the economy shrinks significantly (10%+). Lockdown and people deciding they need "hazard pay" to do their normal job isn't a permanent solution (central banks will be watching this closely and will be ready to hike rates as soon as it starts).
As I specifically mentioned: this is going to last for a year (probably more). Everyone is going to have to learn how to continue doing their job with that.
There is no other option: the govt doesn't have enough money, business doesn't have enough money, consumers don't have enough money...everyone is going to have to do their job with this happening.
Not equally. You can't possibly be saying that someone who is able to completely self-isolate by working at home is in the same position as the person who is out grabbing groceries?
As a bonus, we might just start addressing the extreme and ridiculous levels of wealth inequality we have in society today through that process.
i can't understand what might prevent amazon and instacart from assenting to these demands as soon as they have the logistical ability to provide the necessary items to their staff.
the national situation isn't permissive of corporations dragging their feet when essential services are down at the moment.
on the other hand, workers treated to a hopefully quick victory will not forget this when the pandemic ends. if we're lucky, the balance of power will shift to their favor.