Steve Gruber Report: Instacart Delivery Employees Wants Protective Gear And Raise Or Will Plan To Strike

I use the Instacart delivery service or did before the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak. The ability to order from your mobile device or home computer and have it delivered to your home within an hour or so was very convenient.

Now, it’s a couple of days way due to massive crowds cleaning out stores before 3-4 PM. With that said, these workers have a legitimate beef with not being protected from possible coronavirus conditions.

Many supermarkets have given their employees a raise during the last week or so, which justifies my support for these workers to receive some sort of additional pay also.

The workers are asking Instacart for an additional $5 per order and a default tip of at least 10% per order, they said in a statement, along with the Gig Workers Collective.

“For the past several weeks, Instacart Shoppers and Gig Workers Collective have been urging Instacart to take proper safety precautions,” the statement said. “We have been ignored.”

The group is also asking Instacart for safety provisions like hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and soap, as well as expanded paid leave for people with preexisting conditions or those who are required to self-quarantine. They’re seeking an extension of the paid leave past April 8, when they said it is set to expire.

“Instacart has turned this pandemic into a PR campaign, portraying itself the hero of families that are sheltered-in-place, isolated, or quarantined,” the group said.

“Instacart has still not provided essential protections to Shoppers on the front lines that could prevent them from becoming carriers, falling ill themselves, or worse.” [Business Insider ^[1]]

This piece was written by Wayne Dupree on March 28, 2020. It originally appeared in WayneDupree.com ^[2] and is used by permission.