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NEW
YORK—Members of the overwhelmingly immigrant Taxi Workers Alliance
(TWA) here and in Philadelphia struck in early September to stop a
big-brother scheme of taxi bosses to track taxi workers’ every move
with a Global Positioning System (GPS) in each cab.
“Drivers
have stood up in unity, have stood up for themselves, have demanded
dignity on the job and have said, ‘We will fight back!’” said Bhairavi
Desai, a co-founder and executive director of New York’s TWA. But despite the heavy participation
of TWA members in both cities, it has thus far been unable to stop the
GPS plans—or to get New York City to back down from its threat to make
GPS a requirement for passing auto inspections after Oct. 1.
Said
Desai, it’s “beyond insult” that the city has not sat down to
negotiate. “We’re just getting started. If the Oct. 1 deadline doesn’t
get pushed back, we’ll do this again.”
The
New York TWA struck Sept. 5 and 6, and in Philly only on the 5th, after
projecting a two-day work stoppage. On Sept. 19, the New York TWA also
filed a federal class-action lawsuit, seeking an injunction on
constitutional privacy grounds against GPS.
This
was the New York TWA’s second strike; its first was a successful 1998
strike, which infuriated former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The TWA formed
shortly afterward. The New York
TWA, which represents 10,000 yellow cab drivers out of 44,000 cabs, is
about 60 percent South Asian with many Asian, African, Caribbean, and
Middle Eastern immigrant workers. The Philadelphia TWA, with about 1250
workers, has a similar composition. These workers face racism and
anti-immigrant hostility.
The
TWA complains that the GPS system will include processing payment with
credit cards for which the driver will be charged $5 per transaction.
“That’s a pay cut,” about a $1000 a year’s worth, says the TWA. In addition, drivers will have to
pay up to $20 per week for GPS to vendors.
The
TWA claims that the some 1200 GPS systems already in use frequently
malfunction, causing meter shutdowns and lost fares. Another complaint
is that satellite signals are often interrupted in an urban
environment. What’s more, drivers must endure ads that will blare from
back-seat TV screens.
The
Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), which regulates New York’s
industry, has denied that GPS will be used to spy on drivers, but GPS
has been referred to by TLC members as an “electronic trip sheet.” GPS
doesn’t account for traffic problems or even bathroom breaks.
The
New York strike faced a propaganda war led first and foremost by the
Taxi and Limousine Commission. The TLC claimed that the last two fare
increases included an agreement that drivers will accept GPS. Mayor
Michael Bloomberg echoed the TLC line. But, in fact, there was no such
concession from drivers.
The
TLC is composed of “business leaders” and pro-boss political appointees
from the Democratic and Republican parties. One TLC member, former
Democratic Party Councilman Noach Dear, had received “massive” campaign
funds from the taxi industry, reports The Village Voice.
Billionaire
Mayor Bloomberg said early on the first day, “there will be very few,
if any, taxi drivers striking,” but switched to asserting that “90
percent” of the drivers were out on the road. Yet Bloomberg was dead
wrong. The New York TWA maintained it had 75% strike participation,
while even the city’s Port Authority figures showed taxi customers were
down at least 50%.
The
indignant N.Y. ruling class offered drivers an incentive to scab with a
zone-to-zone fare structure significantly above normal rates. The city also
offered a special bus for New York’s beleaguered elite to get to an
airport. In Philly, the city allowed scabbing limousine and sedan
drivers to pick up passengers on the street and at taxi stands.
The
New York TWA also faced opposition from a yellow-union outfit called
the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers. FTD leader Fernando
Mateo organized drivers to go to key locations urging cabbies to scab.
Most
TWA members must rent cabs each day from big cab company owners. Before
1979, at least 1/6 of all taxi drivers were union employees and most
had health and pension benefits. Today, most cabbies are “independent
contractors,” virtual slaves to big taxi companies.
Bloomberg
claimed drivers make $28 an hour, $17 an hour after expenses. “No way,”
claimed the TWA. Drivers, they
said, are making $10 to $12 an hour after expenses. Only after average
daily cab rentals of $130 up
front for a typical 12-hour shift plus gas
expenses,
is there “income”—if at all. An average driver’s yearly income is $25,000
to $30,000 a year. Some have
called it “a sweatshop on wheels.” The Transport Workers Union Local
100, which represents some 36,000 New York City subway and bus workers,
showed solidarity by providing the TWA with a strike headquarters.
During
TWU Local 100 contracts in 1999, 2002, and 2005, the taxi workers had
uniquely pledged to strike in solidarity with transit workers. In
December 2005, following the TWA leadership, a large minority of TWA
members struck in solidarity as transit workers shutdown the financial
capital of the world for over two days. In contrast, some Democratic
Party labor-fakers were privately condemning the Local 100 strike and
urging a quick end to the walkout.
Unfortunately,
in 2007, Local 100’s ranks weren’t mobilized to provide taxi strike
solidarity. During the taxi strike Local 100 President Roger Toussaint,
an immigrant worker himself, gave a tepid statement to the media
urging, “Management must negotiate
seriously.”
It was a far cry from a call for a taxi-worker victory that could have
inspired striking cabbies and transit workers alike.
Flexing
real labor muscle in support of taxi workers, and other immigrant
workers, would require membership education on defending the rights of
immigrant workers, including supporting the May 1 immigrant rights
marches. Mass demonstrations in support of the taxi strike should have
been organized alongside sympathy slowdowns and/or strikes.
The
pro-Democratic Party Central Labor Council—counterposed to a
class-struggle approach—did little more than sit on its hands. Seen in
the context of the CLC’s recent cancellation of New York’s historic 5th
Avenue Labor Day Parade, that should come as no surprise.
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