• We protect Manhattan and Airports for us. We cannot afford to waste time cruising for fares in outer borough neighborhoods.
• We are still the only ones with street hail rights everywhere. Liveries will only have them in limited areas in the outer boroughs where we don't serve. GPS, geo-fencing plus TLC officers will be used to stop "poaching" by liveries.
• A historic, constant crackdown on illegal pick-ups with beefed up TLC units whose sole duty is to stop this theft of our income. Stricter penalties will include car impoundment and license suspensions and heavy fines - to drivers and the bases.
• The public which is served by liveries in outer boroughs could not understand our opposition. The tide was against us. We needed to be part of the solution, not be blamed for the problem. By getting protections for yellow cab drivers, we seized victory from the jaws of defeat.
• For the 85% of drivers who lease from a garage or broker, there is at least now an alternative.
• It's not new, additional liveries. It's a permit for existing license holders.
• The alternatives were devastating: garages/brokers were proposing to force all yellow taxicab drivers to work one full outer-borough-only shift once a week. No airports or Manhattan. The TLC could use GPS to monitor us they said. The garages/brokers also wanted to sell 1,500 new yellow medallions and 6,000 new outer borough medallions. For every 2 yellows they bought, they wanted 12 FREE outer borough medallions. This would have meant new cars on the roads and an expansion of the garages/brokers monopoly of the industry. Their plans would have been devastating for us. Only NYTWA Stopped This Madness and Giveaway!
• NYTWA's historic agreement won first-time rights and protections for drivers:  Enforcement Units to stop illegal pick ups and garage/broker violations; turn rights; lower credit card processing; study on impact of additional medallions on driver incomes; and Task Force to develop the first Taxi Driver Health and Wellness Fund!

If garages/brokers want to keep fighting to protect their monopoly - let them.  We should turn our focus on the lease caps and a F-A-I-R Raise!

See terms of the new plan:  "City's Billion Dollar Taxi Plan Gets Green Light from Governor." (WNYC, 12/20/11)

For Immediate Release: June 20, 2011

Taxi Workers Alliance Endorses

Mayor Bloomberg's Five Borough Plan

City and Union Develop Program to

Economically Secure Taxi Drivers

Press Conference

June 20, 2011

4pm

City Hall Steps

Today, June 20^th, 2011, we have addressed a problem that has been viewed for decades as intractable.  Through the hard work of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission Chairman David Yassky and the Mayor's Office, we believe we have developed a program that ensures the economic security of yellow taxi cab drivers, our members, and provides service to the communities of the city that have been traditionally underserved.  Therefore, we add our support to S-5825-2011 / A-8496.

Drivers will also rally to call upon Albany to pass the Taxi Driver Protection Act, a state-wide law that would require a sign in every taxi and for-hire-vehicle across the state:  ATTENTION:  Assaulting a Taxi Driver is Punishable Up to Twenty-Five Years in Prison.

Download PDF of Flyer

Statement by Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director, New York Taxi Workers Alliance (For Release: May 11th, 2011)

We are deeply disappointed by the City Council's failure to address an economic issue with an economic solution.  There were real alternatives here, such as rush hour group rides from Manhattan to the outer boroughs to address the economics.  They also could have instituted warnings before suspending.  Stripping someone of their livelihood for 30 days after two strikes in two years is severe and will take drivers closer to poverty, given already low wages and lack of unemployment insurance or other safety nets because of their independent contractor status.  It could be two times in average 60-hour work weeks that a passenger hailed from a corner the driver didn't see or couldn't get to or the driver couldn't return in time for shift change.  We just wish they had the same zero tolerance attitude toward drivers losing any more earrnings to high fuel prices and leases.

First of all, let's understand the numbers:  2,341 out of 750,000 fares a year is 0.003%.  Secondly, these are complaints - not convictions.

Refusals are an economic problem that need an economic solution, the TLC's proposal just scapegoats and punishes drivers instead. In the end, it tells us that the city is not actually serious about solving the issue for the sake of the rider and of course, never for the sake of the driver.  And really, if the city can make more money off of more refusals and there are record-high number of license holders to fill the ranks of suspended drivers - why would they really try to address it?  The easy road is to scapegoat, punish and give the public a false satisfaction.  Telling taxi drivers who labor 12-hour shifts, 6 to 7 days a week, without guaranteed income, benefits or protection, that they'll be out of work for 30 days if they refuse a fare a year for two years is adding insult to injury. Of course, this is on top of the Mayor's plan to give away our fares in the outer boroughs to a new second tier taxi and bringing us more competition in Manhattan and the airports.  The real solution is to address the real economics of the industry - lower the lease, change the fares.”