10,000+ workers across the country taking part in four days of protests, speak outs, job actions, outreach events, and more
Gig workers to rally in Bellevue & across country for $15+expenses & basic rights on the job
The future of work is about to meet the future of worker power: workers from Postmates, DoorDash, Instacart, and other gig apps will kick off four days of nationwide actions with a rally and march on the Postmates Engineering Office in Bellevue. There, they'll deliver messages from 10,000+workers across the country to top engineers and corporate execs, calling for new laws and policies to make the gig economy #PayUp.
They’ll also have a special delivery for Postmates: bags full of peanuts— after all, that’s what these multi-billion-dollar gig companies are paying.
Who: Gig workers with the national Pay Up campaign
What: Rally, protest, and deliver bags full of peanuts and other messages to the Postmates Engineering Office. Workers will carry bags saying “PAY UP” and filled with peanuts; share their own stories; read written messages from workers across the country (on peanut-shaped paper); and march with grassroots protest signs.
When & Where:
TODAY, Thursday September 5th
11:00am: Workers will gather at the fountain at Bellevue Downtown Park (North side of the park, on NE 4th St between 100th Ave NE & Bellevue Way NE)
11:30am (approximately): March to Postmates engineering office (Lincoln Square, NE 4th Street entrance) and rally outside before making our delivery
Similar Raise Days actions will take place in San Francisco, with protests this afternoon at the corporate headquarters of Instacart, Postmates, and DoorDash. Workers across the country will also be using our pay floor calculators to find out how much a job is actually paying after expenses, and reject jobs which pay less than the standard of $15 + expenses. More details of everything happening with Raise Days are available here.
While fast-growing gig companies like DoorDash, Postmates, and Instacart offer incredible flexibility and convenience, the people who drive & deliver for these apps are typically excluded from basic labor standards, have to pay all their own expenses, and often end up making less than minimum wage.
That’s why gig workers from across the country have come together in the Pay Up campaign around three simple demands for new laws and policies to make the gig economy pay up:
A play floor of $15 plus expenses for all time worked
Tips on top
Transparent, detailed breakdown of pay
Since the Pay Up campaign launched earlier this year, we have successfully moved three giant corporations to stop swiping tips from workers and entirely remake their pay models. Workers continue to organize for better pay and more rights on the job so the gig economy works for workers, too.
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Contact: Sage Wilson, Working Washington: sage@workingwa.org
Working Washington is the voice for workers in our state. Working Washington fast food strikers sparked the fight that won Seattle’s first-in-the-nation $15 minimum wage. Working Washington baristas and fast food workers led the successful campaign for secure scheduling in Seattle, and our members across the state helped drive forward Initiative 1433 to raise the minimum wage and provide paid sick days. We successfully drove Amazon to sever ties with the right-wing lobby group ALEC and improve conditions in their sweatshop warehouses, and got Starbucks to address inequities in their corporate parental leave policy. And we continue to make history by organizing for the landmark statewide paid family leave law in 2017, and winning the groundbreaking Seattle Domestic Workers Bill of Rights last summer. For more information, including our press kit, visit workingWA.org.