Updates
- Originally published, March 14, 9:48 am.
- March 14, 10:35 am:
- The Los Angeles Times has a list of events that have been canceled or postponed due to coronavirus. Of course, this emphasizes Southern California and, though the Times has made a stab at more global coverage,[1] cannot reasonably be expected to be comprehensive elsewhere. But as the social world shuts down, Uber and Lyft drivers will, of course, be affected, even if they aren’t quarantined or diagnosed with COVID-19.
Housekeeping
After a transit lasting 27 hours and 45 minutes, for a trip that should have taken less than four hours, my Pixel 4 XL has apparently finally made it to Pittsburgh, is now scheduled for delivery on Monday, and the planned communication disruption will, assuming no further stupidity, occur on that date.
FedEx Ground is just inexcusably stupid.
Coronavirus
It doesn’t sound like there’s anything in this “sweeping” legislation that will help gig workers.[2]
Gig workers are generally forgotten whenever it comes to labor protections of any sort. That’s the point.
Even those oh so pious words uttered by Uber and Lyft in response to Mark Warner’s request have yet to be followed up with any substance whatsoever. Not even the promised hand sanitizer. Not even the promised cleaning supplies.[3] (Even that ever-so-controversial California bill banning misclassification of workers is still, in the words of the headline attached to Diane Mulcahy’s article last year, all bark and no bite.[4]) There has been no direction on what to do if we are quarantined or diagnosed with COVID-19. Just oh so pious words. That is, when we’re remembered at all.
Los Angeles Times, “Here are events canceled or postponed due to coronavirus,” March 13, 2020,https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-12/events-canceled-postponed-coronavirus
Sarah Ferris et al., “House passes sweeping coronavirus response package,” Politico, March 14, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/13/congress-coronavirus-stimulus-package-deal-friday-128140
- [1]Los Angeles Times, “Here are events canceled or postponed due to coronavirus,” March 13, 2020,https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-12/events-canceled-postponed-coronavirus↩
- [2]Sarah Ferris et al., “House passes sweeping coronavirus response package,” Politico, March 14, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/13/congress-coronavirus-stimulus-package-deal-friday-128140↩
- [3]David Benfell, “Pieties for gig workers,” Irregular Bullshit, March 7, 2020, https://disunitedstates.com/2020/03/07/pieties-for-gig-workers/; David Benfell, David Benfell, “Lots of people will die who didn’t need to,” Irregular Bullshit, March 10, 2020, https://disunitedstates.com/2020/03/10/lots-of-people-will-die-who-didnt-need-to/; Megan Rose Dickey, “Senator urges Uber, Lyft, Instacart and others to offer gig workers financial security in light of COVID-19 concerns,” TechCrunch, March 6, 2020, https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/06/senator-urges-uber-lyft-instacart-and-others-to-offer-gig-workers-financial-security-in-light-of-covid-19-concerns/; Mekhla Raina, “Uber says it will compensate drivers diagnosed with coronavirus,” Reuters, March 7, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-uber-idUSKBN20U105↩
- [4]Diane Mulcahy, “California’s New Gig Economy Law Is All Bark, No Bite,” Forbes, September 20, 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemulcahy/2019/09/20/californias-new-gig-economy-law-is-all-bark-no-bite/↩