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Instacart activist group urges customers to delete the app

At least 13,000 Instacart shoppers launch the #DeleteInstacart campaign as they demand better treatment and benefits.

Video transcript

- Instacart is facing backlash from its workers, the grocery app's shoppers urging customers to delete the app. It's all part of a pressure campaign to force the company to change the treatment of its workers.

Let's bring in Yahoo Finance's Max Zahn, who's following that story for us. And Max, the group behind this campaign, Gig Workers Collective, have used other methods here before to pressure those like an Uber, other-- others who are in this gig economy. What specifically are the workers calling for now?

MAX ZAHN: Yes. The workers are really calling for an escalation of this campaign. And it's an important one because these are workers whose pay is affected by the volume of orders at this company. And now they themselves are calling for people to stop shopping there.

And their demands are several. And they say they'll hold to these until the boycott gets lifted. They'll lift it when they're met.

And the first is that they want payments for individual orders. They say the company shifted to payments for batches of orders, sometimes as many as three orders, that take more effort, more time, and really affect the take-home pay of workers.

Next, they want a commission-based pay for big orders. If those take additional effort, they say that they should be rewarded with additional pay.

And they say that penalties on the app that affect ratings for workers can be affected by things outside of their control, things like inventory delays at stores, and that those ratings can ultimately, if they fall low enough, result in workers getting taken off the app. So they want an end to those penalties.

They also want death occupational benefits because of this persistent COVID-19 pandemic and the risks for in-person work.

And finally, they want to see the tip rate at the company that's defaulted to customers-- it stands now at 5%. They want to see that get raised to 10%. They say that default has a huge effect on how much customers ultimately tip, and that those tips are a big part of their take-home pay.

And the company has responded resolutely to these demands. They say that they value the experience of their shoppers, but that they've seen significant changes and improvements for the shoppers in recent months, and that those have resulted in the highest shopper sentiment at the company in its history.

- Max, how big of a hit is the company likely to take as a result of this campaign? If we're talking about 13,000 Instacart shoppers, how big of a number is that when you consider the overall number of workers?

MAX ZAHN: Yeah. I think the reality is that, you know, frankly, it's likely to be a small effect on the company's bottom line. But these boycotts these days, they're really more about raising awareness. And that doesn't mean that they can't have real effect.

We saw Nabisco workers, for instance. On Saturday, they reached a new contract with the snack giant. They've been on strike since early August. That contract included pay raises. It included other benefits.

And those workers had called for a boycott. They'd gotten prominent figures, like actor Danny DeVito, to echo the call for that boycott.

And, you know, raising awareness here, as you mentioned, from 13,000 workers, even if it just spreads further to that workforce of 500,000, if it affects sentiment, especially at a moment where we're seeing a work shortage hit the retail sector, that could have a big impact.

- OK. We'll be watching that one closely. Max Zahn, thanks so much for bringing us that story.