Video Transcript

Great are you gonna let us know when more about said I think we're good Okay. So I should have broadcast and go Welcome Thank you so much for joining us my name is Emily and I'm an organizer with working Washington on the Pay up campaign mood at most an organizer in North Washington and campaign and we are here today with Postmates workers from across the country who are standing together for better pay so today you're gonna hear from some Postmates workers who have been leaders on this campaign about what's going on with pay on Postmates and why Dozens of workers are coming together today in a blitz up so to start us off Darren from Miami is gonna give us a little bit of background on Postmates and on what's going on with the pay cuts So go for it. Join All right, Cameron Can you guys hear me Yeah I need you. Okay Alright thanks for joining us everybody on this first livestream that everyone all of us here on the call to Action. 30 work Purpose meets the food delivery app and we're here speaking of because of dramatic pickles that happened last month in mid May Postmates caught pay overnight with no warning at all It was like a Cinderella story and at the stroke of midnight everything change on lakes in Orlando The authors of our story have no time for happy Andy They cover my They cut permanent rates and they got rid of the minimum guarantee per job This isn't the first time Postmates has workers fee but it's an incredibly huge court for some of us up the 30 percent I call that comes in a period of this June is the longest period of economic expansion in the history of the country in this driving economy, food delivered services has seen strong road and are expected to continue on this trend In a recent report by Allied market research food deliveries forecast to become a 16 point six billion dollar industry in 2023 in September 2018 Postmates Ceo appeared on JC unconfirmed that Postmates is profitably 90 percent of the markets they operate in what why is my pay being cut Postmates is no paying in many cases significantly below the minimum wage and they're trying to frame it as a good thing seeing their new pieces in someone removes the need for a minimum guarantee and helps us know exactly what we're earning workers Definitely still need I pay that's guaranteed and we're demanding from force needs We are calling for a new policy that would give us $6 personally close to cost of marriage We're making it happen with a blitz of idea of action that doesn't postmates workers like you and I across the country up signed up to take part in All of us will be rejecting jobs unless they have blitz bonus attached so the app will have to going to blitz more to get orders field What that means That will make hardly mind a reality by turning the app against itself, so we can literally get paid more for the just a few more facts cuz I like Fox back in May 2018, bastan up here on Cnbc team formed a panel that in 2017 to fleet earned 200 million dollars at an average of $18.23 percent for or for each lead worker and made it a point is show to point out that this was 153 percent over the minimum wage fast forward To me 2019 and I strong currencies go chronicles Alright to go post me say that in 2018 the average pay was 18 pour and it isn't expected to increase $90 for our in 2019 This article published three days after the pay could hit my region in South Florida Well baskin It's Santa for your money where your mouth is and here's a ferry $6 per trip plus manage noless Stay tuned And you'll hear from some of the workers who have stepped up as leaders in the blitz blitz of about what's really going on with pay on Postmates How we're fighting back and how you can support a cause Leave a comment down below to let us know if you're approached meets worker who's fixing activity Postmates customer who just wants to show solidarity workers are supporter who came to hear us out Thank you for being here and for standing with workers when we come together that's when we can make change You so much there and thank you for stepping up next up is Maria and she's joining us from Virginia to talk about what Postmates pay cut to mentor her Hello. Can everyone hear me Okay. Great I'm joining the blitz off today because he's pay cuts have affected me and my hometown of California The mileage, the pickup and drop rates drop off, raise him suddenly reduce also my pay out is of delivery is around $45 work needs to be some eight dollars post offer guarantees during the week and promised to give us a certain amount of money if we did My orders that they're almost impossible to achieve if I was trying to get on payment if I was trying to get get by Postmates with the current pay structure I would have to work about a hundred hours a week In many cases It basically cost me money to do an order The cost of gas is going up and, meanwhile, Postmates is deciding that they're going to could pay We didn't even get a heads up that they were going to make these cuts in the first place Postmates of those a very big email about making improvements to the app and it turned out that the improvements they were talking about were lowering the rates they pay Moving minimum guaranteed for job whatever this gig companies think about whenever this gig companies think about doing an idea. The first thing you do is send out an email saying they're gonna be more transparent and make changes and the next thing we know they're slashing the rates they actually pay out I've seen it across the board from other parents, Postmates workers It's not even working to turn on our cars to do delivery I started doing it because I thought it would be a good transition to getting a full time job but basically every company I signed up with pay since I started and they all Saturday Markets workers so they don't have the pay us what we're worth We are being exploited They started by paying us fairly and then go back on their pharmacies The one thing that gives me hope is that workers across apps have been able to ban together and support one another to get therapy and more transparency and that legislators and the public are paying attention I'm so glad that I connected with gig workers involved in the pay of campaign across the country Whatever progress we Just improve our pay or quality of life is going to help every get worker across the board Thank you Maria. That's absolutely true and next up we're going to hear from Chris who is a postal worker in Everett Washington Go for Chris Hey guys Can you hear me Yeah. Okay. Good Alright so my name is Chris and I'm from Everett Washington and I'm joining the blitz out because other 30 percent pay cuts recently just that changed overnight I've been working in the gig economy on and off for about five years now and I value the flexibility and being able to choose when and how I work I love what I do I mean it It's fun It's it's it's not like traditional employment You know you can be your own boss I've been working And I gave equal economy already so that but when companies pay the way that that postmates step do the flexibility that goes out the window If you have to work 70 hours a week to make ends meet you don't get true flexibility instead you're in a position where at push of a button postmates just can completely change their pay structure when I when I broke down the math on what I got paid with Postmates last week after accounting for the cost of mileage I was taking home four Dollars and 15 cents an hour ridiculous for that for that time, spend actively on fog delivery Okay that's about a quarter of a minimum wage in Seattle Postmates relies on people not doing the math and realizing how little they're really pain When I saw the numbers I was shocked I don't understand how they're getting away with it How they can defend themselves normally, if you do a good job you get a raise but instead we get our pay cut lower and lower Even as the cost of living rises it's terrible Postmates keeps telling us they care about workers voices but we've been speaking out about what we really need that what you really need and they haven't listened if if they then listening to us they wouldn't drop our rates overnight with no warning That's exactly what we are all coming together today to fight back gig workers are Separated from each other and that's how they have planned Now, I'm standing together I and you know is the only way we can get power working in the gig economy has its ups and downs I went through a time period where even though I was putting in as much time as I could doing gig work I became homeless now because of the way Postmates has cut my pain I'm on the verge of becoming homeless again I can't Live in a in a $4 and 15 cents an hour Nobody could nobody could nobody could Nobody should have to live in fear of becoming homeless Well working 70 hours a week at their job put that much time I should have the ability to take a vacation I should have some money to fall to fall back on but I don't that's why we need everybody to stand by us for us Postmates doesn't seem like they hear it but I'll make them listen with your support. Sorry about my dog Darren agrees with you that your dog few as well we do We're gonna hear for uses like I do Sorry. I postmates worker in Silverdale Washington about what needs to change on Postmates and why we're coming together today Hey guys Can you guys hear me We're good to go this Okay. Hey guys I'm joining the blitz up today because I think our time is worth more than what. Postmates Paying the cost of gas insurance in our time when you add all these up we're basically working for pennies on the dollar a lot of time in places that we have to go or 10 to 15 miles away and when you add the miles up and what you're putting on your car when you talk about like you know oil and and you know the mileage on the car it just it adds up and then you start to to look and you're like oh my God. I'm not even making minimum wage You know these pay cuts have really affected our ability to just pay the bills I'm a combat And I have a sense of honor, courage and commitment that the Marine course is still the and when I see workers suffering because of Postmates greed I have a burning desire to stand up for those workers including myself like the great doctor Doctor Martin Luther King said in Justice anywhere affects Justice everywhere Postmates is a two billion dollar company That's a billion with a B And they can't pay us a living wage Why I don't understand that nobody can give me an answer to to why a two billion dollar company can't pay us a living wage I'm not expecting to get rich on this company but I am expecting to live You know, I'm lucky that I have to be a lean on when I talk to other my Postmates workers and they tell me they're not going to the doctor They're not going to school because they can't afford the tuition you know And they can't even take the time off to go to school or go to the doctor because they can't they have to pay their bills But ultimately wellness we're almost together in the same boat to all my fellow Americans and our fellow workers We stand together whether you're a Postmates worker an Uber driver or barista when workers unite and come together It helps everybody a job is a job but if you're not paid enough to live it's not a dignified job We're not doing real work and we're human beings. We're doing real work and we're human beings and it shouldn't matter whether we're kid workers or classify As contractors an hour of work an hour of work we need to be paid for our time All the things we have accomplished in the last 40 years I mean in the last decade of 40 hour work week minimum wage child labor laws all that came from workers demanding and standing together for things that change and that's exactly what we're doing today Postmates is trying to violate these labor standards and we're fighting for rights and respect and one last thing I wanna say is that we can do I can do this We can do this but most importantly you can do this Thank you very much Thank you so much blitz last up we are going to hear from Daniel who's gonna let us know how the blitz up today works and how you can take part go for Danielle Can you guys hear me? Okay Okay Awesome So as you leave she's were saying we're on this together but today the point of all of this is send a message A message to post means that we will not stand for this less than $3 per delivery or $4 because you know they said they took the minimum way but it's really actually $3 a minimum So we're being lights were being manipulated and the whole point of all of this is to send a message so we're Landing that we get $6 per delivery plus the cost of mileage and a hundred percent of tips This is what we're fighting for They were not fighting for you know maybe a hundred bucks an hour but you know we're asking for fair pay for fair work If you do more than an hour work you deserve at least you know minimum wage in in your area wherever you minimum wages and your in your area So here's how the blitz of works The blitz up is designed to make the app Work against itself and this is ingenious because we're not protesting at an actual place. We're not protesting you know Postmates headquarters or anywhere we're using the app against itself which is pretty ingenious if you really think about it So here's how it works Blitz is a bonus incentive. They get sent out to drivers So when you have when we're doing the blitz up make sure that you turn off auto accept and turn on blitz notifications in the app is very important because if you don't have blitz notifications on you will not see Blitz on vacation anywhere and even though back then we haven't seen any I went back and made sure and make sure it's on because if it's not you will not be able to participate as much in this in this campaign stay offline to you see the blitz notification. This is crucial because blitz is only sent out when when you're not online this is a demand to get drivers out on the road So so when you get that blitz notification, make sure to go online right away so once Online reject any jobs that don't have blitz on bonuses on them Alright so they have to have at least one point five attached. If you see job that does not have blitz bonus attached Do not take it if it's above one point five take it Do it That's the best thing you can do here in this campaign We're not we're not we're not refusing work We're working but we're only taking jobs pay higher So that's the best thing you can do right here So what can you You're not a Postmates worker or even if you are make sure to call Postmates customer service and let them know that you don't stand for what they're doing Let them know that you stand with us as drivers and then we stand together Let us Postmates Rep. No what your what your thoughts are on this This is very important We need to get everyone support out here If you can use Twitter use Facebook use Instagram whatever make sure to use that Alright so you can also follow the link in the description to get those He kept those details on how you can get started thank you for standing with us we have thousands of hundreds of thousands of workers across the country. They are they're pretty mad rising up. We're fighting back with pay up campaign the issues we are dealing with our unique postmates. This is very important because we're not just talking about Postmates when we were protesting the whole point of this is to send a message so that no other company can do the same thing cuz right now If you haven't noticed cutting pay is very very popular so please help us out stand together We can do this If we do this will be changing how the entire gig economy works Alright but anyway that's all I gotta say you know hope you guys can feel empowered enough to actually make a change cuz that's what we're doing right here So let's make a change Awesome thank you so much Danielle so like genuine saying if you want to get involved if you're a Postmates worker participate in our blitz up today refuse jobs that do not have a blitz bonus at at least one point five attached If you wanna support Postmates workers call the customer service line Let them know that you stand with workers in their demand for a minimum guarantee of $6 per delivery plus mileage be polite to them their workers to let them know they can pass that message along to their managers and comment down below and let us know if you are a Postmates worker if you're another kind of gig worker if you're a customer or if you just wanna support and stand with Postmates workers today in their blitz Thank you all so much For being here goodbye share, share, share as much as you can