Happy May Day - and TENTH anniversary of the Fight For $15!

Happy International Workers’ Day and happy 10th birthday to the Fight For $15! A decade ago, workers stood up for fair pay and strong workplace standards against fierce corporate opposition and WON. Seattle workers then kicked off a wave of wins for low-wage workers nationwide, bringing greater economic justice and resilience to millions of people. The fight to protect and advance fair pay and dignity at work continues today, and we’re proud to be in that work.

We celebrated this past decade of greater economic justice for all at a press conference with our partners at SEIU Local 6, MLK Labor, and the Mayor of Seattle. Here’s an absolute banger from Kyle Graham, a gig worker and leader, who spoke at the conference and summarized the importance of this day so well.

“I want to remind everyone here that for every single minimum wage win in history, someone had to be the first to challenge an industry to be better. They had to look around and say, we’d all do better if we all do better. That’s not an easy thing to do. Restaurant workers had to do it, hospitality workers had to do it, health care workers had to do it. I’m proud to say that now, gig workers are doing it too.”

And our executive director, Danielle Alvarado, gave a speech reminding everyone an important truth about successful labor organizing: that workers know our industries best and we are the ones who know what we need.

"Time and time again, we have shown that workers know better than anyone what needs to change about the economy. Listening to them is how we ensure every Seattle job is a good job. Without a doubt, there's more work that we still need to do, but looking over the last decade, I am confident that with strong partnership collaboration between worker organizations, businesses and local elected officials that we will continue to show the way for the rest of the country."


#BreakingNews: Seattle City Councilmembers deliver for DoorDash for a week, gain respect for gig workers

April 1, 2024: 

The Seattle Council has been considering a rollback of gig workers’ rights to a minimum wage, but that all changed when they signed up to be Dashers.

After dealing with the hazards that come with being a delivery driver, and seeing how much less than “$26.40/hour” their pay shakes out to be, this council of Dashers vows to protect Seattle gig workers’ hard-earned labor protections.

Even Council President Sara Nelson saw the light when she got deactivated after being unable to complete an impossible order: “I was tasked with getting from Capitol Hill to deliver in Renton within 8 minutes at 5pm. For $2! I find that unreasonable. I believe the app corporations created a problem, and it’s our responsibility to fix it.” 

The council has now suspended all future meetings with greedy DoorDash lobbyists seeking to revert Seattle gig workers to making less than half the city’s minimum wage with a simple note on council letterhead: “Nevermind, Seattle. Implementing minimum wage for low-wage workers is good governance."

As reported by Ivana Livingwage

#AprilFools

Our statement on the 3/28 Seattle City Council Hearing on Minimum Pay for Gig Workers

“The Seattle City Council is trying to cut low-wage workers’ pay. 

The council is about to tell tens of thousands of workers in our city that, actually, they don’t deserve the right to minimum wage after all. They’re poised to take money out of the pockets of workers and put it into the profits of corporations that pay their CEOs millions of dollars.

Through a rushed, closed-door process that has taken place less than two months after the implementation of the #PayUp gig worker minimum wage law, Council President Nelson has allowed the app corporations to present ‘solutions’ to a problem they created by imposing massive new fees on customers. The corporations have recklessly gouged everyone in Seattle’s regional economy and made it harder for workers to realize our minimum wage win, and have used misinformation and massive lobbying resources to convince the council that the law is the problem.

The law was organized for and written over the course of several years with gig workers, corporations, small businesses, agencies, and policymakers at the table. It was voted on unanimously by the council and supported by the mayor. Workers then and now support the law and regularly report making living wages because of it. The law is the product of good governance, shaped thoughtfully and deliberately by a workforce that is largely made up of immigrants and refugees, people with disabilities, working parents, and young people – with buy-in across sectors.

Rolling back minimum wage for gig workers who have always been exploited by this industry but were deemed essential over the past four years – after barely two months of the right to fair pay – would be irresponsible policymaking informed by nothing but unverified claims from the app corporations.

Seattle is better than this.”

#Appmath - Gig Corporations’ Fees Are Driven By Nothing But Greed

Gig workers in Seattle and beyond came together to fight for minimum wage because gig companies have shown since the beginning that they can’t be trusted to pay workers fairly.

And after nearly two months of tracking the retaliatory efforts of corporations like DoorDash and Instacart against Seattle’s minimum wage ordinance, we’ve seen how far the apps will go to gouge us all.

These tactics have included:

- DoorDash, UberEats, and Instacart all piling excessive new fees onto Seattle customers (who already are expected to cough up money for mysterious service and operating fees), and then misleadingly suggesting the new fees are required by Seattle law – hurting Seattle’s customers, businesses, and workers alike. These fees have no apparent connection to order cost or worker pay, and have jacked up order fees.

- UberEats was caught charging the same “local ordinance” $5 fee on orders in places nowhere near to Seattle, including Lake Stevens – a city nearly 40 miles away, in an entirely different county. The company then quietly walked that fee back once local press started asking it to explain itself, but not before continuing to rake in some extra cash by charging the fee for 4 more days just to see if it could get away with it.

- And now, right after insisting its fees are driven by “operating costs,” UberEats has started cutting the fees it charges in cities around Seattle. Hard to believe they’re the cash-strapped little businesses acting in good faith that they pretend to be when they’re wildly and confusingly manipulating customer experiences like this.

No matter how the apps try to spin it, the takeaway is clear: these fees are not driven by operating costs, or workers being paid fairly, or by a desire to support Seattle’s local businesses or consumers.

They are all about finding ways to make sure the companies’ profits continue to grow. The apps are in total control of the fees, and as they’ve shown, they can cut them whenever they want, with no delay. 

The apps are using workers being paid minimum wage as an excuse to price-gouge Seattle restaurants and customers along with workers. The result has been rising costs for customers, less business for restaurants, and inconsistent work for workers. 

The good news? This is a manufactured crisis that the apps could put an end to right now. All they have to do is cut it out with these outrageous new fees. If they don’t, we’ll start looking for ways to rein them in. 


Been ripped off by an app lately? Send us your order screenshots here!