NYTWA Racial Justice and Civil Rights Initiative
We released our Racial Justice and Civil Rights Initiative on July 29, 2018
NYTWA is committed to addressing race-based refusals head on while we continue our fight for economic justice. We introduced our racial justice and civil rights initiative to stop race-based refusals in the taxi and for-hire industry, a long-standing issue in our industry which we have worked to address throughout the years. We know our organizing has been a factor in complaints coming down through the years, and more so, we know much more still needs to be done. We look forward to continuing our work with the TLC through the newly established Office of Inclusion. Our proposals include racial justice mandatory training for all TLC professionally licensed drivers as part of license renewal, peer-to-peer driver outreach to address bias, improvements in taxi e-hail such as pre-payments and navigation, recruitment for new drivers in under represented communities and taxi stands in the central business district and at subway stops.
Drivers collectively serve over a million people every single day. We are the ambassadors of this city, and operate its iconic symbol. We don’t want to be alienated from discussions of justice and fairness in our city. More importantly, we want to be contributors to move us forward as a community, never backwards.
You can also read an Op Ed in the New York Times from August written by Council Member Adrienne Adams, which highlights our initiatives here.
In response to our organizing, the City Council put forth Intro 1079 at its August 8th hearing! Carried by Council Member Donovan Richards the bill would, “Establish an Office of Inclusion at the TLC with focus on promoting diversity, inclusion, and cultural sensitivity in the industry, especially as they relate to service refusals.”