Tired of Big Tech, Co-ops Appeal to Delivery Workers Burned by Gigs – KQED

The collective has been burned before twice and badly. First, it was with Grubhub, which had been partnering with couriers across the country. McCleary said the food-app company in 2017 canceled all its courier contracts overnight, and took over those services. Postmates, another food-ordering app, similarly made off with local bike couriers clients, McCleary said.

The second they get successful enough to vertically integrate and do it all their own, theyre going to kick you out the door, he said.

McCleary said he's disappointed California voted for Proposition 22. Allowing these companies to keep denying their workers benefits, he said, gives the big app services an unfair advantage against businesses like his that are trying to offer employee status to workers, let alone a shared-ownership co-op model.

Although still small, the collective has grown markedly during the pandemic, as more people rely on delivery service for many of their needs. In addition to food delivery, customers can also hire the service for general courier tasks.

The collective also recently started working with the New Harmony Cafe in San Franciscos Mission District, which is participating in the SF New Deal program to provide food to quarantining seniors.

Ben Angel, the cafe's owner, said it felt right to work with a collective rather than a delivery app that uses gig workers.

Its a groundswell from the community instead, as opposed to, you know, a venture-funded, hyper-growth, Lets extract as much from the people and the companies that are our clients and customers, Angel said. I used to work in tech and there are some great tech companies out there, but there are a lot of places that put profit over everything else.

Gerry Valencia, one of CCC's couriers, started working for the collective right at the beginning of the pandemic, and he said he likes that he is delivering exclusively for local businesses.

Id rather know who Im working for and who Im delivering for, rather than today I am going to this random fast food spot that Im never going to see again and deliver to these people for a faceless app, he said.

Valencias parents are both immigrants. His father works as a gardener, his mom as a maid.

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Tired of Big Tech, Co-ops Appeal to Delivery Workers Burned by Gigs - KQED