U.S. GIG WORKERS HOLD PROTEST ACTIONS ON MAY DAY

Thousands of American workers celebrated May Day across the United States by demonstrating and demanding change. One particular group of workers — gig workers, who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 — have organized a day of demonstrations and caravans led by rideshare drivers currently or previously working for companies like Uber and Lyft, Robert R. Raymong reported for Truthout.

Oakland is just one of several cities across the country where gig workers held a caravan co-organized by a coalition of over 25 groups, including Rideshare Drivers United, Gig Workers Rising, Workers World and the People’s Strike.

“In the last year with this pandemic and all of the things that have come with it, there are people from many different groups that are very angry about the state of our society,” Erica Mighetto, a former Lyft driver and organizer at Rideshare Drivers United, told Truthout.

“So, I’m really excited for the action in Oakland, it’s really an uprising that’s happening and it’s really going to be a wonderful show of that solidarity.”

Throughout the day there were pit stops at locations such as Whole Foods and City Hall where Amazon workers and gig-workers addressed the crowd, trucks with flatbed trailers carried floats and organizers handed out fliers and petitions.

“People are losing their housing, people like ourselves are losing their vehicles, some of us are even living in our vehicles,” Mighetto said.

“We have a lot of legislation that’s working against people like me and people struggling for survival — so that’s why this event is so important to us because there are hundreds, if not thousands of people just in the Bay Area that are in similar situations.”

In November of last year, Californians passed Proposition 22, a ballot initiative designed to strip so-called gig workers of many rights traditionally afforded to workers, such as a guaranteed minimum wage, access to unemployment insurance or overtime pay, and paid sick leave or family leave.

The impacts of Prop 22 were only exacerbated as the pandemic hit and countless drivers lost their income because of social distancing mandates.

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