top of page

Since 2017, 80+ app workers have reportedly been murdered at work.

Workers of color and their families bear the brunt: over 66% of the killed workers were people of color.

Too many app corporations don't do enough to protect the workers who make their apps run.

Instead, the bedrock of their model is to offload risk onto workers.

Beginnings of a Safety Crisis

Corporations like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart have transformed transportation and meal delivery, but too many of them have done so by exploiting their workers on the job. Their growth-at-all-costs model has repeatedly failed to adequately address the most tragic human cost of their business: loss of life. 

 

After a worker’s tragic death, the corporations for whom they worked often send ‘thoughts and prayers’ through news reporters, but do not consistently support families with basic protections like workers' compensation.


This behavior is consistent with too many app corporations' core business model: cutting costs by avoiding compensation and protection of their workers. App workers are shut out of safety net programs like workers compensation and, despite how dangerous the work is, too often workers are left on their own to figure out strategies to protect themselves.

Beginnings of a Safety Crisis

When Gig Work Kills

The Murder of Lyft Driver Isabella Lewis

"My sister lost her life over a Lyft trip that totaled to be 15 dollars"

Isabella “Bella” Lewis, age 26, set out to pick up her first passenger of the day around noon on an August Sunday in Plano, Texas. During the trip, Isabella was shot in the side of the head and dragged out of her car. Her assailant then drove away in her vehicle, running over Isabella’s foot. According to Isabella’s sister, Allyssa, just ten minutes earlier, Lyft had matched Isabella with the passenger that would kill her.

Months have passed since Isabella’s murder, yet her family reports they have not heard from Lyft, who she drove with for three years.

When Gig Work Kills
hmm.png
GWR_2.png
GWR_4.png

Murder Is the Extreme, The Norm Is Exploitation

The numerous worker deaths detailed in the report represent the worst possible outcome from dangerous gig work, in other words, the extreme. Gig workers, however, also experience:

  • CARJACKINGS & BIKE THEFT
  • VERBAL ABUSE
  • PHYSICAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT
  • SEXUAL ASSAULT

That this safety crisis is allowed to continue unabated is a function of too many corporations' business model--cutting costs by displacing cost and risk on to workers, and leaving families and workers on their own, even in the extreme case of workers being murdered on the job.

According to a recent Pew Research Center report, app workers of color are more likely than those who are white to say they have at least sometimes felt unsafe or been sexually harassed on the job.

The Norm Is Exploitation
yes5 - Rondu copy.png
yes2.jpg
95730463_551293238919550_2103872734760009728_n.jpg

Gig Corporations Demand Secrecy

The Carjacking of David Morrow

David Morrow, a 71-year-old part-time Uber driver based in Atlanta, Georgia, had to wait five months after being carjacked to receive a support offer from Uber. David was carjacked by two passengers who also took other valuables, resulting in thousands of dollars in damages. According to David, Uber approached him and offered $1,000 in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement committing him to staying silent and not filing a lawsuit against Uber. He refused.

App Executives Get Rich

Gig corporations have adopted policies and made decisions that limit or deny compensation when a worker is killed on the job.

Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, took home $24.3 million in 2022. That’s $11,682 an hour.

Outgoing Lyft CEO, Logan Green, and outgoing Lyft President, John Zimmer, took home $13.4 million EACH in 2021. That’s $6,442 an hour.

DoorDash CEO, Tony Xu, took home a whopping $413.7 million in 2020. That’s $198,894 per hour.

Meanwhile, most app workers make under $15 an hour and many make under minimum wage.

App Executives Get Rich

Worker Demands

1. Compensation

Workers demand policymakers require corporations to ensure that injured or murdered workers and families receive workers’ compensation to make them whole. Policymakers should also push app corporations to compensate all impacted workers and families retroactively.

2. No forced arbitration

App corporations require workers to sign arbitration agreements, leaving individual workers and their families to fight on their own against billion dollar corporations when something happens - all in secret. Workers demand policy makers prevent corporations from forcing workers to sign these arbitration clauses and ensure that platform workers have the right to access the full protection of our court system. 

3. Transparency

Workers demand that policy makers ensure that every app corporation with operations in the US publicly report data about injuries and deaths on the job each year. Workers are also demanding policy makers force corporations to share data that includes information about the worker’s race, ethnicity, and gender, for each of the following incidents:

  • Motor vehicle fatalities

  • Motor vehicle injuries

  • Fatal physical assault

  • Non-fatal physical assault

  • Sexual assault

  • Verbal assault

  • Information on the injury or death compensation paid out to workers, or their families 

 

4. A union

App workers know that corporations can do more to keep workers safe. App workers also know best what they need in order to be and to feel safe at work. Workers should have the freedom to organize, and to form independent worker organizations like a union, which would give workers the power to collectively bargain with corporations and establish policies that make this work safer.

Worker Demands
Dedication & In Memoriam

Dedication & In Memoriam

We honor and stand in solidarity with all app-based workers who work tirelessly with little to no protections or benefits to transport and feed us. We pay tribute to gig workers who have lost their lives while working, including many who have been murdered on the job while working for a gig corporation. We offer our condolences to their families and loved ones. 

Aaron Orozco

Abdul Rauf Khan

Ahmad Fawad Yusufi

Ahmed Badal

Ainzargul Totakhil

Althia Smith Jenkins-Perry

Andrew Satavu

Andrew Stiller

Anthony Garland

Beaudovin Tchakounte

Brandon Cooper

Caron Arteberry

Ceyonne Riley

Cherno “Che” Ceesay

Cheryl McCormack

Christina Raymond

Christina Spicuzza

Corey Price

Crayton Saffolds

Dajour Russ

DaJuan Jenkins

David Rosenthal

Dhulfiqar Kareem Mseer

Dina May Terrel

Dushaundra Lee Ward

Elijah Newman

Enrique Bardales Valle

Filip Kirilov

Francisco Villalva Vitinio

Franklin Farrens

Ganiou Gandonou

Glynon Nelson

Grant Nelson

Hamzah Farah

Harold Treadwell

Harriet Childers 

Humberto Manuel Francis-Hernandez

Hurts Presendieu

Isabella Lewis

James Barron

Javier Ramos

Joseph Schelstraete

Joshua Miller

Justin Krumbah

Kelley Marie Smith

Kon "Patrick" Fung

Kristian Philpotts

Kristina Howato

Kristofer Metzger

Kristopher Roukey

Kuldip Singh

Lamar Jerome French

Lauren Allen

Lynn Murray

Marlo Medina Chevez

Michael Wallace

Mike Mecklenburg

Milton Pillacela Ayora

Mingzhi Zhu

Mohammad Anwar

Mohammad Kediye

Mourice Foster

Nesredin Esleiman

Noel Njoku

Pamela Rae Martinez

Paris-James Smith

Petra Rhoden

Randolph Tolk

Raquel Spohn Wehber

Raymond Hill III

Richard Skelskey 

Robert Berry

Roberto Peigne

Roderick Thomas

Rossana Delgado

Ryan Munsie Graham

Salauddin Bablu

Shaani Mohamed

Stacy Corley

Terrell Harris

Timothy Perkins

Yolanda Dillion

Yousef Al-Gabr

Yusuf Ozgur

Uber

Lyft

Uber

Lyft

Uber

Uber

Doordash

Uber

Lyft

Uber

Lyft

Doordash

Uber Eats

Uber

Doordash

Doordash

Uber

Doordash

Uber
Doordash

Uber

Uber

Uber

Lyft

Lyft

Lyft

Lyft

Uber

Doordash

Lyft

Uber

Lyft

Uber

Doordash

Lyft

Uber

Uber

Lyft

Lyft

DoorDash

Uber

Uber

Uber

Instacart

UberEats

Uber

Lyft

Lyft

Uber

Lyft

Uber

Lyft

Lyft

Instacart

Uber

Uber

Uber

Uber

Uber

Uber Eats

Lyft

Lyft

Uber

DoorDash

UberEats

GoPuff

Doordash

Uber

Uber Eats

Doordash

Lyft

Lyft

Doordash

Postmates

Lyft

Uber Eats

Grubhub

Uber

Doordash

Lyft

Uber

Uber

Uber

Doordash

Lynwood, CA

Springfield, VA

San Francisco, CA

Minneapolis, MN

Durham, NC

Bryan, TX

Modesto, CA

New Orleans, LA

Indianapolis, IN

Oxon Hill, MD

Dayton, OH

Chicago, IL

New Orleans, LA

King County, WA

Baltimore, MD

Milpitas, CA

Monroeville, PA

Jackson, MS

Chicago, IL

Detroit, MI

Detroit, MI

Denver, CO

Portland, OR

Pontiac, MI

Memphis, Tennessee

St. Louis, MO

New Orleans, LA

Okaloosa Island, FL

Harlem, NY

Chester County, VA

Bronx, NY

Crown Point, IN

Skokie, IL

Fort Worth, TX

Phoenix, AZ

East St Louise, IL

Long Beach, NY

Indianapolis, IN

Fort Worth, TX

Jacksonville, FL

Chicago, IL

Cicero, IL

Dallas, TX

Richland, WA

Portland, OR

Oakland, CA

Chicago, IL

Tempe, AZ

Pittsburgh, PA

Akron, OH

Manhattan, NY

Hampton, VA

DeKalb County, GA

Boulder, CO

Charlotte, NC

Louisville, KY

Greenville, SC

Chicago, IL

Los Angeles, CA

Washington, D.C.

Seattle, WA

Cleveland, OH

Temple Hills, MA

Mitchellville, MD

Glendale, AZ

DeKalb County, GA

Paterson, NJ

Manhattan, NY

San Diego, CA

New Orleans, LA

Memphis, TN

Mesquite, TX

Port St. Lucie, FL

Los Angeles, CA

Cherry Log, GA

Haltom City, TX

Manhattan, NY

Portland, OR

Walnut Creek, CA

Philadelphia, PA

Detroit, MI

Portland, OR

Detroit, MI

Manassas, VA

For each case in the list above of gig workers who have lost their lives since 2017, a connection between the worker and the listed gig corporation has been reported by news sources and, in some cases, police records, legal filings and family members’ accounts.

bottom of page