CHALLENGE
At the beginning of the pandemic, essential workers were being hailed as heroes. Yet in spite of the growing risks they faced, Postmates drivers weren’t getting the safety protections they were promised, and actually saw their pay rates slashed by 50%. Working Washington wanted help devising a worker action that would increase the issue’s visibility.
The group’s previous attempts to organize worker strikes had largely failed. It’s hard convincing people to take a day off work when they’re financially struggling. Also working against us: extremely high worker turnover, and the decentralized nature of the work itself — if there’s no workplace, you can’t just put up a flyer in the bathroom and huddle around the water cooler.
APPROACH
I spoke with more than 50 Postmates drivers, and did a deep dive into what we could ascertain about Postmates’ black box algorithm (which assigns deliveries and sets driver rates). Working with group leaders, we devised a tactic to game the algorithm, getting drivers across the country to deny orders from a single Postmates partner restaurant for three days.
Drivers’ wages had been cut from $4 to $2 per delivery, and you know what else is $2? A side of guacamole at Chipotle. And so the #GuacOff was born.
I wrote the campaign’s slogan, landing page copy, launch video script, and the talking points used across Working Washington’s website, flyers, app, social media, media outreach, and press releases. A network of volunteers shared the message across driver forums on Reddit and Discord, and IRL by camping outside Chipotle locations across the country.
