On November 18th, dozens of delivery workers from across New York City gathered outside the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) to call for a fix to a major crisis in our industry: app lockouts that cut workers off from their income without warning.
In 2023, after years of organizing, New York City finally established a minimum wage law for food delivery workers. We feared that the law as written would lead to lockouts by the app companies, and we were sadly proven right. To avoid paying workers fairly, platforms like UberEats, Grubhub, and DoorDash are locking us out altogether, preventing thousands of workers from working and earning income when we need to.
The rally, led by Justice For App Workers coalition member the United Delivery Workers Association, brought together delivery workers and allies to demand the DCWP put a stop to this exploitative practice.
Many delivery drivers don’t just live paycheck to paycheck, we live shift to shift. These lockouts come without warning, and add even more uncertainty to work that is already challenging and unpredictable. If we can’t work when we need to, then we can’t make rent, pay our bills, or support our families.
We know a solution is possible. Rideshare drivers were facing lockouts by Uber and Lyft, until this past June when the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) passed new rules to prevent them.
Those protections don’t apply to delivery workers, and that’s why we’re still fighting.
We sent a clear message to the DCWP: we’re essential to this city, and we will not be shut out of our own jobs. We organized to win fair pay, and we won’t let billion-dollar companies take it from us!