Location changed for MSE talk to: Sherrerd 306

Ryan Oet will present his MSE thesis "Organizing the Organizer: Developing Digital Tools to Support Gig Worker Labor Advocacy" on Friday, April 24th, 2026 in Sherrerd 306 at 11:30am and Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://princeton.zoom.us/j/94830827553

Advisor: Andrés Monroy-Hernández

Reader:  Parastoo Abtahi

All are welcome to attend.

Abstract:

Algorithmic management practices in the ridehail industry cause financial, physical, and emotional harm to drivers. New regional policies in the United States mandate partial protections for platform workers, including minimum pay guarantees, paid sick leave, and appeals processes for wrongful deactivations. Organizers require easily accessible data and efficient workflows to effectively advocate for workers, enforce legal compliance from platforms, and support drivers navigating bureaucratic systems. Existing workflows are tedious and error-prone. To address this challenge, we collaborated with the labor association Drivers Union to design and implement automated data access tools for policy advocacy and sick leave auditing. We conducted semi-structured evaluative interviews with organizers and, through thematic analysis, found that these tools accurately target their current operational needs. Organizers also anticipate that the tools will substantially expand the efficiency and scale of worker-support processes. Looking ahead, they expressed a clear need for descriptive analytical solutions to answer increasingly complex questions and new methods of data collection to capture key metrics missing from existing aggregation approaches. We contribute reflections on researcher-organizer collaborations in the ridehail industry, two computational artifacts for supporting labor advocacy, and directions for further work in this space.