What to know
- Hundreds of Toronto delivery drivers protested at Nathan Phillips Square on Monday, demanding better pay and safer working conditions before heading down Yonge Street.
- Drivers for UberEats, DoorDash, SkipTheDishes and Fantuan displayed signs showing payouts as low as $1.50 per delivery, citing low wages, long hours, stolen tips and safety concerns.
- Delivery Drivers United, formed after eight months of grassroots organizing, is calling for fair and transparent pay, better health and safety protections, an end to unfair account deactivations, and dignity and respect.
- DDU is urging Mayor Olivia Chow and Premier Doug Ford to pressure delivery companies to improve wages and working conditions and uphold minimum wage and employment standards.
Hundreds of Toronto delivery drivers staged a protest Monday, demanding better pay and safer working conditions.
The protest was organized by Delivery Drivers United (DDU), an organization of delivery drivers across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) who drive for companies including Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes, DoorDash, and Fantuan.
Drivers gathered in Nathan Phillips Square on their bikes, scooters, and mopeds before making their way down Yonge Street. The delivery drivers were heard chanting “What do we want? Fair pay” while wearing cardboard signs that read, “Together for Fair Pay” and “Together for Health.”
Some drivers also wore signs that showcased how little they were paid by Uber for delivery trips, with payouts ranging from a measly $1.50 base pay to $4, to $10 at most.
“We all know what these companies do to us drivers – low pay, long hours, stolen tips, and no safety. They want to break us. To make us feel alone,” says Sayeed Mirza, who is a founding DDU member and currently drives for Uber Eats, DoorDash and Fantuan.
“But the past few months have shown us we are not alone. Our bikes are all over this city. We are coming together as Delivery Drivers United.”
The organization’s website lays out four demands that drivers want companies to comply with: fair and transparent pay, health and safety, an end to unfair account deactivations, and dignity and respect.
In a letter sent to UberEats’ Toronto headquarters that was forwarded to Now Toronto, DDU writes, “We know we have made Uber immense profits. But those profits come at a great cost to us. We receive unlivable wages, are made to put our health and safety on the line, are treated as though we have no dignity by Uber and the restaurants we deliver for, and can lose our jobs without warning.”
“We know you depend on our labour. We demand the following.”
Eight months of conversations
Sam Nithiananthan, a volunteer with the Centre for Worker Organizing, an institution for worker led organizing initiatives, says DDU wasn’t founded yesterday — it’s involved eight months of conversations and mobilizing on the downlow.
“It’s been eight months of drivers talking to each other across the city. Many of them live in the same neighbourhoods. They all meet at the same restaurants and get together during downtimes,” Nithiananthan told Now Toronto.
About two months ago, he said DDU hosted a barbeque in the park where a few hundred delivery drivers got together and strategized. But he says the bulk of talks have been through driver-led small meetings over the course of the last eight months in parking lots, apartment buildings, restaurants, and wherever the drivers can congregate.
“The outreach has all been done largely by drivers.”
When asked what policy changes DDU hopes to accomplish, he says that’s up to Mayor Olivia Chow and Premier Doug Ford to figure out. He says they should be pushing on UberEats, DoorDash, and similar companies to pay their workers more, create safer working conditions and end abrupt account deactivations, which drivers say are undignified and financially devastating.
“The City of Toronto and the provincial government should be forcing any employer in the city to be taking minimum wage standards and the employee standards act seriously.”
