GIG WORKERS’ DANGEROUS DILEMMA
Groups representing ride-hailing and cab drivers, adjunct teachers and bike delivery people say that working during outbreak puts them at risk — but lack of safety net means they have no option
It was another day of empty streets, locked storefronts and vacant office buildings across the city.
But the minds of thousands of Chicagoans were filled Thursday with concern for how they’ll make ends meet in an economy ground to a halt by COVID-19 — especially for gig workers who can’t “socially distance” themselves in the comforts of a makeshift home office.
Activists say it could be a catastrophic situation for rideshare drivers and other gig workers, who typically are categorized as independent contractors and thus unable to claim unemployment benefits.
Nor do they get health coverage, leaving them no choice but to keep hustling around town while most everyone else is working safely at home as advised by state and federal health officials.
“As our entire society and economy is shutting down ... we have to do what we can to make sure we’re taking care of people,” said Susan Hurley, an organizer with Chicago Jobs With Justice who joined a host of other groups calling on government officials to provide benefits for gig workers in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
They also want employers like Uber and Lyft to recognize drivers as employees instead of contractors.
Nnadmdi Uwazie, with the union Cab Drivers United, said his taxicab essentially serves as an ambulance for some people, and drivers are expected to help passengers out of the car when they get to a hospital. Not only does that put him at risk of getting coronavirus, it also risks that he will also spread it, he said.
Local organized labor leaders joined in the gig workers’ pleas, urging state and federal action as workers feel the impact of the coronavirus shutdown daily.
“Workers are making sacrifices right now,” said Robert Reiter Jr., president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, which has an ownership stake in Sun-Times Media. “We cannot let those sacrifices be in vain.”
They urged private employers to pay workers during furloughs and called for federal legislation to ensure the continued flow of money and benefits to people — and not corporations — as the nation’s economic paralysis spreads because of the pandemic.
That includes increasing unemployment benefits and guaranteeing paid sick leave to more workers, including independent contractors, union leaders said. A federal law about minimum sick leave enacted Wednesday does not extend that protection to workers in companies with 500 or more employees and those in some small businesses with fewer than 50 workers.
Some struggled for words to describe the hardship many workers face. “I cannot overstate how dramatic this crisis has been. None of them know what they or their families will do next,” said Karen Kent, president of the hotel workers union Unite Here Local 1. She said that because of reduced demand for rooms and hotel shutdowns, only 4,000 of its 16,000 members — mostly immigrants, women and people of color — are working.
The union leaders said they had no tally yet on the number of workers idled by the virus-related halt in the economy. But in a sign of things to come, the Illinois Department of Employment Security said that from Monday through Wednesday, it received more than 64,000 claims for jobless benefits, about 10 times what it got for the same three days in the comparable week last year.
Sara Nelson, president of the International Association of Flight Attendants, said a broader bailout
must cover worker paychecks and not replace profits for beleaguered industries.
Officials haven’t provided those assurances, but Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot did announce measures Thursday aimed to help small businesses stay afloat. Those include a deferment of sales tax payments and a $100 million city fund for capital loans to “neighborhood entrepreneurs.”
The threat of working out in the public was felt too in the Chicago Police Department, which reported its first case of COVID-19 Thursday. A detective who works at CPD’s Homan Square facility on the West Side tested positive, after last being at work Monday.
“The health and safety of our employees is the utmost priority,” CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. “Once we were notified of the confirmed case, the department began a thorough cleaning and disinfection of the facility where the employee was stationed. The employee’s work area and any vehicles and equipment used by the individual are also being cleaned.”
Two Chicago Fire Department workers have tested positive so far as well. Millionaire businessman Willie Wilson offered to donate 10,000 medical masks and 1,000 more advanced “N-95” masks to the Police and Fire Departments to protect firstresponders on the front lines of the city’s war against the coronavirus.
Cook County officials set up an information alert system regarding the COVID-19 crisis. Text “alertcook” to 888-777, or call (708) 633-3319 to ask health professionals coronavirus-related questions 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. County employees will also respond to inquiries at