TODAY, lawyers suing the Employment Security Department to compel the agency to promptly pay unemployment benefits filed a “Motion for accelerated review and immediate relief” calling for immediate intervention by the courts. With tens of thousands of unemployed workers still awaiting resolution of their claims, the new filing argues that "the procedural nightmare at ESD is an affront to dignity". Further, the motion argues, "delays in providing… workers the unemployment benefits they are owed and on which they depend for daily existence have reached crisis levels."

TODAY, Seattle City Council voted by unanimously by a 9 - 0 vote to pass the nation’s first hazard pay law for gig workers. When signed by the mayor, CB 119979 will require large food and grocery delivery companies to pay workers an additional $2.50/delivery to reflect the added risk and expense they are taking on as essential workers during a global pandemic.

Gig delivery workers have been officially “essential” since the COVID crisis began, but the multi-billion-dollar companies they work for aren’t providing them the essential protections they need to stay safe, stay healthy, and have basic economic security. That could begin to change with a Seattle City Council vote set for 2:00pm today on an emergency ordinance (CB 119799) that would require food delivery companies to provide gig workers hazard pay for each essential delivery they complete during this crisis.

A landmark new ordinance introduced by Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda would for the first time ensure gig delivery workers and TNC drivers receive paid sick days, regardless of whether they are classified as employees or contractors.

Postmates workers get paid as little as $2 to spend half an hour delivering a burrito bowl. Two dollars is about what Chipotle charges for a scoop of guacamole. That’s why Postmates workers are calling for a #GuacOff — they’re rejecting Chipotle jobs from 4/29 to 5/1 to demand 14 days paid sick leave, $5/delivery hazard pay, and safety protections like PPE, no-contact delivery, and the right to cancel unsafe jobs.

TODAY we are releasing a new website — ThisIsACrisis.com — where Washington workers are sharing powerful stores about how the coronavirus crisis is affecting their incomes, their health, their lives, and their sense of basic economic security.

If gig work is now officially essential, workers need essential protections: we’re calling on gig companies to take four immediate steps to protect public health & provide workers some basic economic security during this crisis. And we’re calling on the government leaders who deem this work essential to require that workers get these essential protections from companies that continue operating during shelter-in-place orders. 

Billions of dollars are pouring into gig economy platforms like DoorDash, Instacart, and Postmates — but this vast wealth isn't trickling down to the people who do the work. In fact, gig workers aren’t covered by minimum wage laws. They’re not protected from tip theft. And they’re frequently not provided the information they need to know what a given job will actually pay, or why. That could all change as we launch a breakthrough campaign to win a first-in-the-nation city labor policy covering independent contractors working in the gig economy

Voters support secure scheduling by large margins all across Washington, with support especially strong in more working class areas of the state and areas which typically see more contested legislative races. Most notably, the poll finds 63% - 15% support for secure scheduling statewide, 75% - 8% support on the Olympic Peninsula, and 63% - 25% support in Pierce County.

“Under the state’s new overtime rule, hundreds of thousands of salaried workers will once again have a right to overtime pay when they work overtime hours. It’s about time.”