Hello from the Hill!
This week, we’re joined by Ligia Guallpa, executive director of Workers Justice Project (WJP), a group that organizes low-wage, immigrant workers in New York City, including the app-based delivery workers who call themselves Los Deliveristas Unidos. WJP and the Deliveristas just won the passage of a mandatory minimum wage, a huge improvement for e-bike and car delivery workers on GrubHub, Uber Eats, and other platforms. (13:30) Ligia details the unique dangers that spurred the emergence of the Deliveristas as COVID hit New York and (31:00) offers some lessons learned from going against these big-tech titans and their algorithms.
In this episode, we ask:
How substantial was the shift towards app-based gig work during COVID, and what did that mean for workers?
Is it necessary to focus on fighting worker misclassification?
How did delivery workers overcome the immense challenge of organizing in a disparate, deliberately siloed workforce?
For more, read:
A 2021 piece in The Verge about the early days of organizing among Los Deliveristas Unidos
Another horrific fire this week that may have been caused by improperly maintained e-bike batteries
A report on the backlash that threatened to derail WJP’s minimum-wage fight
News that the NLRB recently reverted to an Obama-era test that could make it easier for gig workers to organize
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How NYC delivery workers won a minimum wage, with Ligia Guallpa