Dozens of angry delivery workers and their supporters rallied in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday to denounce Grubhub’s recent decision to fire 50 of them and deactivate their accounts.
The group, packed with app-delivery workers, elected officials, and immigrant rights groups, protested outside the headquarters of Wonder, Grubhub’s parent company, on Greenwich Street. They demanded answers as to why their delivery accounts were deactivated and called for them to be put “immediately” back in service.
“I’ve worked hard for Grubhub for years,” said Mamun Hossen, one of the fired Grubhub delivery workers. “I’ve done nothing wrong other than work reliably for this company. I do not deserve to be deactivated like this.”
Grubhub is a mobile food ordering and delivery platform whose competitors include the ever-popular Uber Eats and DoorDash.
According to a rally organizer, Los Deliveristas Unidos, an organization that represents NYC’s 65,000 app-based delivery workers, Grubhub “unjustly” deactivated the accounts over the previous two weeks.
“This mass deactivation of workers shows what little regard Wonder and Grubhub have for their workers. It’s ruthless and unjust to just throw workers away like this – and lie about the reasons for it,” said Luis Cortes, director of Los Deliveristas Unidos, which is an organizing campaign of the Workers’ Justice Project, said. “For two weeks now, these workers have waited for a clear and honest response from the company but have heard nothing.”
A spokesperson for Grubhub said the company does not “take deactivations lightly” and added that many of the recently deactivated accounts were either duplicates or shared with multiple parties. He also said the company does not allow duplicates or sharing for safety reasons and that it is against the delivery partner agreement.
“Deactivations can be appealed, and we encourage drivers to do so if they believe theirs was done in error,” the spokesperson said. “Yesterday we met with the Deliveristas leadership to discuss working together to address the accounts that they believe were deactivated in error so that delivery partners in good standing who want to deliver are able to do so.”
The mass firings come on the heels of Mayor Eric Adams’ June 5 proposal to lower the e-bike speed limit in an effort to make city streets safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers.
“I have heard, over and over again, from New Yorkers about how their safety and the safety of their children have been put at risk due to speeding e-bikes and e-scooters, and today, our administration is saying enough is enough,” Adams said when he announced wanting to lower the limit to 15 mph from 20 or 25, depending on the class of the e-bike.
‘Workers deserve better treatment’
Meanwhile, at the June 18 rally, Cortes said many of the workers with deactivated Grubhub accounts relied on their positions as their sole source of income.
“Workers deserve better treatment than this after years of service,” Cortes said. “This is an injustice that also affects hundreds of family members who depend on this income. It leaves those families increasingly vulnerable, with their futures hanging in the balance.”
City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was at the rally and discussed his arrest and subsequent release by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while defending migrants at immigration court in Manhattan on Tuesday.
“I feel very fortunate to have been able last night to go home and sleep in my bed and be with my family and talk to my lawyer,” he said. “What New York City needs right now is a mayor, a leader to stand up and protect workers. That’s what I was doing yesterday. That’s what I’m doing today.”
