NY Cab Strike Leaves Customers on the Curb
"As if we needed another example of union abuse and how organized labor leaves the consumer, (pun intended), stranded. This taxi strike in NY is directly stifling technology and innovation, the insertion of GPS and credit card capacity, that would make life easier for the consumer. Another example of Big Labor running out-of-control."
Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Yellow-cab drivers represented by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance began the second day of a 48-hour strike to protest a city order to install credit-card readers and global-positioning systems in their vehicles.
The strike, the first by drivers since 1998, began at 5 a.m. yesterday and is to end tomorrow.
Rallies are planned today, and the group's executive director, Bhairavi Desai, is scheduled to speak at a 7 a.m. news conference, NY1 reported. The group says it represents about 7,000 drivers.
Ordered in 2004, the devices can track vehicles at all times and will help in locating lost property and getting emergency text messages to drivers, the Taxi and Limousine Commission said. Drivers object in part because of the costs, including transaction fees on charged fares.
