"Instacart Shoppers Will Stage Nationwide Strike", 30 September 2021

A group of Instacart shoppers is calling for a nationwide work stoppage on the grocery delivery app...until the company agrees to a series of demands that would result in higher pay for shoppers.

The strike is an escalation of a call made by the same group for customers to boycott Instacart, which workers say has repeatedly ignored their demands...

The customer boycott and the worker-led strike center around the same set of five demands: 

• base pay for each order instead of the current system, which pays workers as low as $7 for batches of up to three orders
• a return to a commission-based pay model. Instacart previously paid shoppers 40 cents per item shopped
• reinstatement of the 10 percent default tip (it's currently 5 percent)
• occupational death benefits for workers who die on the job
• a rating system that doesn't punish workers for low customer ratings that are beyond their control, such as inventory issues at the grocery store 

The group is asking gig workers who cannot afford to log off the app to decline $7 batches in protest of the low pay...

A spokesperson for Instacart told Motherboard, “...While historically the actions by this group have not resulted in any disruption or impact to our service, our relationship with all shoppers is incredibly important and we’re deeply committed to doing right by them. Based on the ongoing investments we've made to support shoppers, these claims do not reflect the current shopper experience, and in some cases, the demands are for offerings that already exist on the platform. Instacart’s dedicated teams consistently engage with active shoppers through a variety of channels and forums to gather feedback and incorporate it into the Instacart shopper experience.”

The spokesperson noted that Instacart has offered shopper injury protection which applies to all of its gig workers in the United States, including for accidental death benefits...

Instacart has stated that its new CEO Fidji Simo has kept an open line for Instacart gig workers to email her about their concerns.

But striking workers say they’ve been ignored or received generic emails from Simo, and that she has not responded to a letter the group wrote to her in August voicing their concerns...