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by R. L. Hamilton
Chicago-The Chicago bike messenger is a long time tradition, delivering
many of Chicago's corporate packages in a flash. At the same time it has
become an exploitative environment for the bike messengers who place their
lives on the line every single day on the job.
Bike messengers have been treated as private contractors at most messenger
services, though some now consider them employees, and are exploited more
today than ten years ago.
New messengers are obligated to pay for their uniform and bag, which can
cost up to a couple hundred dollars. They must pay a deposit on a pager,
two-way radio or cell phone or a combination of the above. Messengers also
have to pay rental fees for these communication devices, up to $50 a week.
Now most messenger services split half of the commission on packages
delivered by bike messengers. But after taxes and uniform and communication
rental fees, plus maintenance of their bikes which they also must purchase,
new messengers can end up paying back $600 a month, and maybe taking home only
about $900 a month.
They suffer these huge deductions, yet benefits such as health, dental and
paid vacations are nonexistent. Messenger companies have also started a
practice of over-hiring in the last year, so as to speed up delivery to
their clients. This means the messengers themselves each get less work and
thus less pay.
It would not be honest to say we do not break traffic laws, as in this
business to even make an income you have to break lots of traffic laws. You
are paid by commission, and to make any money at all, it's a very dangerous
rat race to say the least. The response from the messenger services to that
danger has been to get liability insurance for themselves, which does not
cover life or hospital costs for the messengers.
One bike messenger said, "This is a transient business, with messengers
hopping from one service to the next in hopes of increasing their average
monthly pay. Some guys will change services three or four times a year."
This has made it extremely difficult to unionize these workers. A few years
back unionization was attempted, though it was hard to get enough support
from these exploited workers since they did not stay in one place.
Unionization is desperately needed.
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