IMMIGRANTS’ MATTERS
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Food Delivery Workers Toiling Through Historic Flooding Call Skimpy Wages and Tips ‘A Cruel Joke’ BY CLAUDIA IRIZARRY APONTE THE CITY
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s the remnants of Hurricane Ida barreled down on New York City Wednesday night, stranding vehicles on highways and bringing mass transit to a halt, Mayor Bill de Blasio urged people to stay off the roads so first responders could help storm victims. But many of the city’s delivery workers had no choice but to go outside to make a living, carting food in sometimes hipdeep water for what some called “pathetic” pay. Some suffered damage to their e-bikes, which cost around $3,500 each. “It’s a cruel joke,” said Toño Solís, a member of the delivery worker labor collective Los Deliveristas Unidos, of the lousy wages and tips he received. “This is exactly why we protest and we organize — we need fair wages. These companies are getting richer and richer and we’re only earning $5 in these conditions.”
Delivery workers toiled amid the flood for less than $12 an hour in some cases as the remnants of Hurricane Ida poured over the region Wednesday night. Obtained by THE CITY
Solis made his final delivery of the night at 9:30 p.m. He said he earned just $5 for the hour-long trip to deliver the meal in Brooklyn from Astoria, including tip. His total earnings for his 9.5-hour workday were just $115 — or roughly $12 an hour with tips. The Few, The Brave By 10 p.m. Wednesday, all of the city’s subway lines were out of service and sections of many major roadways were
underwater, including the FDR Drive in Manhattan and the Major Deegan Expressway in The Bronx. Around that same time, a Twitter user shared a video of a delivery worker in Brooklyn toting a bag of takeout in kneedeep water. The video quickly went viral, amassing more than 6 million views and garnering the attention of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-The Bronx/Queens). “Please do not be the person who orders
delivery during a flash flood that the NWS has deemed a dangerous and lifethreatening situation. It puts vulnerable people at risk,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “If it’s too dangerous for you, it’s too dangerous for them.” As more hungry customers stayed home and fewer delivery workers were willing to brave flood conditions, demand for deliveries soared. Delivery workers told THE CITY that the app’s algorithm assigns workers more than one delivery per restaurant pick-up when demand increases — something obscured to the workers until they reach the restaurant. Workers face getting locked out by the apps if they object to the delivery distance or number of trips. That meant those who were out Wednesday night were forced to make more than one delivery per restaurant per trip, traveling further distances to meet demand. contnued on page 6
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