On Sept. 5 and 6, taxi drivers in New York City went on strike. They were protesting the city’s requirements that Global Positioning Systems and credit card payment systems be installed in all cabs by Oct. 1. The new rules are an invasion of the drivers’ privacy and could lead to a loss of income for the drivers.
Bourgeois media outlets and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg downplayed the strike. Despite notable delays for cab riders and decreased numbers of cabs on the road, Bloomberg and the media dubbed the strike a non-event.
The Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents 10,000 of the 44,000 drivers in the city, organized the two-day strike. They declared the strike a success both for its high participation and for the attention drawn to the taxi workers’ demands. The TWA began a legal struggle on Sept. 19 when it sued city regulators to block the requirements.
Organizing taxi workers is a difficult task. They are relatively isolated from one another, are often more vulnerable because of immigration status, and they depend on highly unstable incomes with no benefits. The fact the tens of thousands of taxi workers participated in this action is significant.
