October 21, 2021

NY Taxi Workers Launch Hunger Strike

For years now, Veatch grantee NY Taxi Workers Alliance has been demanding relief for their debt-riddled drivers. In the face of continued inaction from the city, taxi workers are now on a hunger strike. Here's how you can help. 

For the past month, members of NY Taxi Workers Alliance — a Veatch grantee and 21,000-member strong union of taxi and livery drivers — have been protesting at City Hall, demanding relief for their debt-riddled drivers. This week, in the face of continued inaction, taxi workers have taken steps further by launching a hunger strike.  

It is not hard to understand why members of the Alliance have decided to take such drastic action. Many of the city’s drivers were conned into predatory loans, which helped artificially drive up the cost of taxi medallions (the permits which allow drivers to own their vehicles) to $1 million in 2014 from $200,000, just twelve years earlier. The city, too, profited during this explosive growth in the medallion market, making more than $855 million in taxes during the last two mayoral administrations.

Eventually the bubble burst as the taxi industry began facing intense competition from app-based companies like Uber and Lyft. The city made problems worse by exempting these startups from regulations. As a result, the value of medallions plummeted, leaving many drivers with debts totaling in the hundreds of thousands. Facing financial ruin, some have taken their own lives. 

Drivers have also been subjected to an unthinkable choice each and every day throughout the coronavirus pandemic — stay home and forgo income, or venture out into the city to compete for dwindling numbers of passengers. The human toll of this choice has been devastating —  the NY Taxi Workers Alliance has lost dozens of members to the virus, and hundreds more have fallen ill.

In response to years of organizing, led by the NY Taxi Workers Alliance, the city has offered a $65 million relief package and a debt restructuring plan. Taxi Worker members, many of whom have been driving for years and are still saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, say it’s not enough. “I’ll never live to see it paid off,” Jawaid Toppa, a NY Taxi Workers Member, told the New York Times, who has been driving for 27 years and still owes $375,000.

The Taxi Worker’s counterproposal asks the City to simply guarantee medallions that are restructured to a principal amount of no more than $145,000 — with $800 monthly mortgage payments. The Alliance’s proposal has earned the support of the entire New York City congressional delegation, along with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. 
 

Here’s how NY Taxi Workers tells us you can help: 

• If you’re in the city, join the 24/7 protest, day or night, at New York’s City Hall. 

• Take a picture, and post to social media. (Be sure to tag the mayor at @NYCMayor, and the NY Taxi Workers Alliance at @nytwa). 

• Call Mayor De Blasio at 212-788-2162 tell him that we need real relief for drivers — here is a script 

• Sign the group’s online petition

• Donate to support the NY Taxi Workers

I also invite you to watch this video below that Veatch created recently, which features the group’s Director, Bhairavi Desai, speaking to the incredible resilience of taxi workers amid all these competing pressures. She also speaks to how the long-term, general operating support offered by the congregation through Veatch has helped the organization in its campaign to support taxi workers.