Uber Confirms Nearly 24,000 Gig Workers Were Threatened and Assaulted In the Last 5 Years

08/19/22 • 21 min

Despite years of press coverage on the pros and cons of the gig economy, less focus has been given to the question of whether app-based corporations do enough to protect workers’ lives. Data gathered from the last 5 years by The Markup and the advocacy group Gig Workers Rising indicates that they have not.

According to a recent report "Death And Corporate Irresponsibility In The Gig Economy: An Urgent Safety Crisis," Gig Workers Rising's research found news reports, legal filings, police records and family accounts indicating that over 50 gig workers have been killed on the job since 2017 in just the United States. The true number is likely to be much greater as gig corporations don’t regularly disclose the number of homicides that occur for people working using their app.

Recent reporting from The Markup also revealed that Uber reported more than 350 gig workers were carjacked, 28 killed, and 24,000 physically assaulted and threatened by passengers between 2017 and 2020. There have also been numerous reports of sexual assaults by drivers against passengers.

There is relatively little government oversight of these companies, so we looked at whether change is possible to better protect rideshare drivers and passengers. We spoke with Alexandrea J. Ravenelle, an Assistant Professor in Sociology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and author of the book "Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy" and Bobby Allyn, business and tech reporter for NPR.

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An Interpreter's Escape from Afghanistan

Marine Major Tom Schueman met interpreter Zainullah “Zak” Zaki while serving in Afghanistan. After Major Schueman’s tour ended in 2011, Zak continued to support the United States in spite of death threats from the Taliban. Zak applied for a U.S. visa in 2016. From 2016, Major Schueman launched a campaign to help Zak escape Kabul.

Brilliantly told in Tom’s and Zak’s alternating first person voices, ALWAYS FAITHFUL tracks the parallel lives of two men who each spent their childhoods in fear, peril, and poverty, and turned to war in attempt to build a meaningful future. Their experiences dovetail in Afghanistan’s deadly Helmand Valley, where they form a brotherhood, eventually culminating in Zak’s harrowing, eleventh-hour rescue.

Since first coming to America in fall 2021, Zak and his family have settled near cousins in San Antonio, Texas. But despite the dramatic and public circumstances of Zak’s escape, he still is battling red tape with the US State Department. As of April, his most recent visa application was rejected, meaning that his stay in the US still is not guaranteed.

Tom and Zak detail their experience in Afghanistan and Zak’s eventual escape in their book, "Always Faithful: A Story of the War in Afghanistan, the Fall of Kabul, and the Unshakable Bond Between a Marine and an Interpreter," and they joined us to share their story about friendship and loyalty.

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Despite Transparency, Kenya Faced A Troubled Presidential Election

On Monday, August 15th, the chair of the election commission, Wafula Chebukati, announced that Deputy President William Ruto had defeated billionaire Raila Odinga with 50.49% of the vote.

But the five-time candidate and his supporters have called the results into question and initiated a legal challenge to the results, promising weeks of turmoil for the country.

Declan Walsh, chief Africa correspondent at the New York Times joined us to discuss the election, the results, and what we can expect from the president-elect.