A landmark new ordinance introduced by Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda would for the first time ensure gig delivery workers and TNC drivers receive paid sick days, regardless of whether they are classified as employees or contractors.

Postmates workers get paid as little as $2 to spend half an hour delivering a burrito bowl. Two dollars is about what Chipotle charges for a scoop of guacamole. That’s why Postmates workers are calling for a #GuacOff — they’re rejecting Chipotle jobs from 4/29 to 5/1 to demand 14 days paid sick leave, $5/delivery hazard pay, and safety protections like PPE, no-contact delivery, and the right to cancel unsafe jobs.

TODAY we are releasing a new website — ThisIsACrisis.com — where Washington workers are sharing powerful stores about how the coronavirus crisis is affecting their incomes, their health, their lives, and their sense of basic economic security.

If gig work is now officially essential, workers need essential protections: we’re calling on gig companies to take four immediate steps to protect public health & provide workers some basic economic security during this crisis. And we’re calling on the government leaders who deem this work essential to require that workers get these essential protections from companies that continue operating during shelter-in-place orders. 

Billions of dollars are pouring into gig economy platforms like DoorDash, Instacart, and Postmates — but this vast wealth isn't trickling down to the people who do the work. In fact, gig workers aren’t covered by minimum wage laws. They’re not protected from tip theft. And they’re frequently not provided the information they need to know what a given job will actually pay, or why. That could all change as we launch a breakthrough campaign to win a first-in-the-nation city labor policy covering independent contractors working in the gig economy

Voters support secure scheduling by large margins all across Washington, with support especially strong in more working class areas of the state and areas which typically see more contested legislative races. Most notably, the poll finds 63% - 15% support for secure scheduling statewide, 75% - 8% support on the Olympic Peninsula, and 63% - 25% support in Pierce County.

“Under the state’s new overtime rule, hundreds of thousands of salaried workers will once again have a right to overtime pay when they work overtime hours. It’s about time.”

Gig workers with the Pay Up campaign will 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.

If the gig economy is the future of work, then gig workers are launching the future of workers rights next week, with protests, speak-outs and other Pay Up campaign events at Seattle City Hall, the Postmates engineering office in Bellevue, and additional locations across the country to mark the week of Labor Day.

Leading immigrant rights, women’s rights, and public health advocates have added their support for the state’s bold plan to restore overtime protections for salaried workers paid up to about $70,000/year. Public hearings are set for next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Tumwater, Seattle, and Bellingham.