500 signatures reached
To: Seattle City Council
Protect #PayUp - Support Gig-Workers
Gig workers need rights in the real world, not just on paper.
An estimated 40,000+ Seattle workers are gig workers, providing vital services across the city each day. The gig economy – a historically under-regulated, under-scrutinized industry – has ballooned nationwide, particularly during the pandemic, while worker pay and protections have dramatically deteriorated.
But Seattle gig workers have organized to transform the industry, setting an example for the country by passing groundbreaking new rights like fair pay, guaranteed flexibility and transparency, paid sick time, and protections against deactivation (automated termination or suspension).
It’s time to make these rights real. A crucial element is the infrastructure the city of Seattle has created to hold companies accountable to workers and their rights. The city is unique for setting up the Seattle Office of Labor Standards (OLS) to enforce our laws and the Community Outreach and Education Fund (COEF) to resource community organizations with direct access to workers to inform them about our hard-won rights and what to do when they’re violated.
This fee will help make that goal a reality. It is also a step forward towards creating new models of progressive revenue and undoing the harmful impacts of our current system, which too often lets multinational corporations off the hook from paying their fair share.
Network companies are trying to kill this proposed fee by lying to the public about it. And soon, they’re getting ready to drop several bad-faith amendments to weaken or kill the fee so that they don’t have to pay it and can keep their wealthy shareholders happy. The apps are claiming they can’t afford the fee and are trying to paint working people advocating for the fee as dark-money, special-interest, and political operatives.
But the apps seem to be able to afford expensive lobbyists who are paid to advance corporate interests, while workers volunteer our limited free time to tell the Seattle City Council to care about us. They also seem to be able to afford misleading ads that are trying to stoke fear among consumers that this fee will make food unaffordable. And with DoorDash making a record $6.6 billion in revenue last year, Instacart’s stock prices surging, and GrubHub reporting year-over-year growth, it looks to us like they’re doing just fine.
We organize with working communities of color to secure livable wages, safe working conditions, and long-term solutions to build an economy that serves working people. Seattle workers – who are also customers that rely on delivery services, and also owners and employees of small businesses – are championing sustained revenue for enforcement because we know that enforcement is the only way to make labor rights real. The key takeaway about this fee? It is one of very few progressive revenue sources in front of the Seattle City Council right now that makes the app companies pay to enforce the laws they love to break.
Now we’re asking supporters to step up and support Gig-Workers & Working Washington to make sure we can Protect #PayUP! Sign our petition to tell the council to fund workers rights enforcement, and let us know if you want to receive updates regarding other ways you can support this vital work at workingwa.org!
Why is this important?
If OLS doesn’t get the dedicated funding needed to go to bat on behalf of workers, giant business interests win. But working people have bigger, brighter visions for our city – one that doesn’t prioritize corporate greed over workers’ ability to build a good life for ourselves and our families. We know the city of Seattle can continue to be a leader for workers and policymakers nationwide showing how organizing and enforcement work together to create a healthy, pro-worker economy. We just need to make sure we keep following workers’ lead in the process.
This fee will help make that goal a reality. It is a step forward towards creating new models of progressive revenue and undoing the harmful impacts of our current system, which too often lets multinational corporations off the hook from paying their fare share. We need a fee leveraged on network companies to pay for enforcement of new gig worker rights that apps will otherwise violate if they can get away with it. Network companies that break the rules need to pay for their own bad behavior. As Seattle workers continue to show workers nationwide what’s possible when we organize, the Seattle City Council has an exciting opportunity to write a budget that will make our hard-fought wins real and model a true commitment to sustained organizing. By passing robust labor standards, as well as ensuring the funding to enforce them, Seattle will continue to be a national leader for cities around the country.