Stop congratulating companies for making abortion a corporate 'perk'
And please, please check their political contributions
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Open Secrets.
Please I am begging you, before you celebrate companies for saying they’ll make abortion travel a new corporate perk, think about what that means and check out their political contributions. Judd Legum at Popular Information has a roundup of companies that while publicly declaring opposition to the fall of Roe and support for employees seeking abortions have also donated to the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), a key player in the legal strategy to quash Roe. In a fundraising email after the decision last week, RAGA wrote that “Every donation will help Republican Attorneys General combat the Democrats’ pro-abortion agenda.”
These companies include:
Match Group, owner of Match, Tinder, Hinge, and OK Cupid: Donated $137,000 to RAGA in 2021
Yelp: Donated $15,000 to RAGA in 2021 but told Popular Info it doesn’t plan to donate to RAGA in the future
GoPuff: Donated $50,000 to RAGA on February 1, 2022
JPMorgan: Donated $25,000 to RAGA on March 21, 2022
T-Mobile: Donated $100,000 to RAGA in 2021
AT&T: $125,000 to RAGA since 2021
Bank of America: $25,000 to RAGA since 2021
Cigna: $67,000 to RAGA since 2021
Comcast: $216,000 to RAGA since 2021
Mastercard: $25,000 to RAGA since 2021
Uber: $50,000 to RAGA since 2021
It should go without saying that turning access to basic life-saving women’s health care into a corporate perk to attract and retain talent is the sort of perverse and dystopian outcome you’d only encounter in a country like the U.S. In addition to making people more dependent on their employers, it’s also a band-aid available to a tiny percentage of the working population and a potential privacy nightmare. How exactly will these corporate ‘perks’ work, anyway? Pregnant employees terrified of being prosecuted in this new post-Roe America are supposed to confide in their HR departments and register with their company their intent to cross state lines to obtain an abortion? Surely nothing could go wrong.
Employees deserve better; women deserve better; we all deserve better. If your company has sent a memo or announced a policy in response to the Supreme Court decision, I’d invite you to do some research to see if their political contributions bear that stance out: OpenSecrets is a good place to start. If you’re upset by what you find, say something about it. If your company is on the Popular Information list, ask whether whatever corporate, tax, or policy benefits your employer stands to gain from its contributions to RAGA and other anti-abortion groups and politicians were worth the price of female bodily autonomy and the countless deaths, traumas, and healthcare tragedies that are sure to follow.
Milkrun.
Milkrun is an Australian ‘instant’ delivery startup that operates in Sydney and Melbourne. It was founded in 2021 and has raised A$86 million (about $60 million), most recently closing an A$75 million round in January led by ailing Tiger Global Management. Like other instant delivery startups, Milkrun operates a network of local dark stores and employed couriers to get customers their groceries in 10 minutes or less. The Australian Financial Review reported in January that Milkrun had 500 staff, was hiring up to 40 people each week, and expected to reach a headcount of 1,000 within a few months. It’s also losing at least $10 an order:
Leaked investor pitch documents obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age show that Milkrun, one of Australia’s most feted startup businesses, was as recently as March losing about $13 per order at one of its best locations. In the documents and commentary Milkrun says it is generating more than $4 million in revenue each month and is aiming to hit the annualised equivalent of $100 million in revenue by the end of the year.
Milkrun CEO Dany Milham, who previously co-founded the Koala furniture brand, said the April document was not the most current version of the company’s pitch to investors and said losses had improved to about $10 per order since then, having fallen from an initial $40, and would soon turn positive.
Milham declined to tell the Herald how much cash Milkrun has left or what it will do if it can’t raise additional funding, but did note that Milkrun is the “fastest ever growing company in Australia’s history from a revenue point of view,” one of those fun confident things that founders like to say that are almost impossible to fact check. Per the Herald, the pitch to investors is reportedly for Milkrun to “overhaul almost every part of its business from product costs, to how many deliveries its riders complete each hour, to how much customers spend per order,” which sounds a lot to me like “our business is totally not working on any level but give us more money and we promise we’ll figure something out.” The investor pitch also predicts Milkrun will one day generate more revenue per customer than Amazon’s retail business in the U.S. You have to love the audacity.
Cycle lanes.
Transport for London (TfL) and London boroughs can issue fines to motorists who cross into mandatory cycle lanes as of Monday, the latest move in TfL’s Vision Zero campaign to reduce deaths and injuries on London roads and to improve safety for cyclists. Despite the surge in cycling since the pandemic, more than half of Londoners choose not to cycle because of road traffic safety concerns.
Francesca Savage @francesca_kms
Large parts of the #CS1 #cyclinglane was unusable this morning as cars were parked in it… however it was great to see how many people were #commuting by #bike! ☀️ 🙌🏼 🚲 #LTNs #cyclinginfrastructue #activetravel #climatesafestreets #citycycling https://t.co/AuCMyLrJbBMandatory cycle lanes are designated with a solid white line and in some cases other markers, like vertical wands. Only pedal cycles and rental e-scooters operating as part of the London e-scooter pilot are legally allowed in cycle lanes. TfL also said Monday that the number of people killed on London roads fell 22% in 2021 to the lowest on record, but that casualties are back up since covid lockdowns ended and traffic levels increased. Also in London cycling, the Santander ‘Boris’ bikes saw their second-highest number of daily hires—67,000, more than double the daily average—during last week’s Tube strike. TfL said it was also the busiest day of its e-scooter trial.
Paid posts.
Other stuff.
Uber, Lyft drivers claim price-fixing in lawsuit against companies. UPS tests pedal-assist delivery vans in New York City. Superpedestrian, Voi among latest micromobility layoffs. Lime suspends service in South Korea. E-scooter pilot expands in the Bronx. Blink Charging acquires SemaConnect for $200 million to build out EV charging network. Sequoia is down bad. College campuses are great for testing delivery bots. More than 15,000 Uber drivers are renting Teslas. Uber agrees to more pay oversight for gig workers in Australia. Uber explored sale of India ride-hail business. Toyota Halved Stake in Uber Following Self-Driving Unit Sale. Cruise starts operating fared rides in driverless car service in SF. DoorDash teams up with grocer Loblaw as ultrafast delivery rivalry heats up. Portland City Council Unanimously Votes to Extend 10% Delivery App Fee Cap. Judge rules Amsterdam Gorillas dark store is not a ‘retail outlet’ and must close or face €20,000 fine. Gorillas exits Belgium, eyes collaborations in search of profitability. Instant grocery delivery startup Zapp in talks to leave Amsterdam. Getir employees say couriers routinely wind up in hospital from delivery accidents.
Thank you for encouraging us to take responsibility for our own knowledge of who we do business with. The world is becoming more complicated and now our own bodies are being affected.