Navigate / search

Welcome to NYTWA's New Website!

We're still filling up much of the content, but do check our Events, Actions, and Press Releases sections for more frequent updates. Not a member yet? Sign up!

Electric Taxi Project – Be Heard!

The city and industry are exploring use of electric cars as taxis. Tell them and us what YOU think!

Take this short survey online (20 questions) which asks taxi drivers about double-shifting, how you take breaks, how you fuel your taxi, and where you park your taxi.

You do not have to give them your name or any personal information and it will only take a few minutes. This is important. We call on all drivers to make our voices heard! Share the link: http://svy.mk/11jmFKy

NYTWA is a member of the Mayoral Commission on Electric Taxis. Taxi drivers pay for the cost of fuel 100% – there is no “cost-sharing” and never has been one even when fuel prices escalated through the years. Any solution that can reduce the economic and environmental burdens of fuel should be explored and any exploration involving taxis must have drivers at the table.

City Hall Steps Protest! June 11th 1:30pm

Make Victory Ours — We have the momentum! 

Thanks to the OVER 200 drivers who demonstrated outside the TLC on May 14th, the TLC lease caps vote was postponed again!  Our demonstration brought out the media and exposed the truth about garage/broker overcharges! 

Imagine what a Demonstration of 1,000 Drivers can win!

Brothers and Sisters … Come and Stand Together on the Steps of City Hall!

City Hall Steps Protest!
Tuesday, June 11th
1:30pm
Steps of City Hall

Take: R to City Hall or 4/5 to Brooklyn Bridge or 1/2/3/A/C/E to Chambers St.

Please Do Not Be Late.  You have to go through the security gate and the press conference ends by 2:30pm.

The TLC is now scheduled to vote at their June Public Hearing.
Mobilize for a NO Vote to Stop the Rules Once & For All!
<span style="color: #ff0000;">ACTION</span> – Click for full set of May 14th demo pics, taken by fellow taxi driver/photographer (Facebook)
ACTION – Click for full set of May 14th demo pics, taken by fellow taxi driver/photographer (Facebook)
<span style="color: #ff0000;">REACTION</span> – Click image to read
REACTION – Click image to read
Recorded by drivers, Thupten Norsang and KingofNewYorkHacks (Youtube)
Recorded by drivers, Thupten Norsang and KingofNewYorkHacks (Youtube)

Download Flyer

Video Playlist: Taxi Drivers speak out on injustice of TLC’s new rules.

Some of the 12 Proposed Rules:
  • Garage drivers pay for repairs • Every weekly driver pays for 7 shifts • Lease increase every six months if more passengers are paying by credit card – even though more volume and more new vendors means less costs for them • Lower TLC fine on garages and brokers from $10,000 to $1,000 for retaliation if a driver files an overcharge complaint.
This is absolutely UNJUST, and we will stand united and defeat this attack.

NYTWA Submitted Comments on Proposed Lease Cap Rules (PDF)
Download Press Release from the May 14th Demonstration

NY1 (5/14/13): Taxi Drivers Speak Out Against Proposed Rule Change
NY Daily News (5/15/13): TLC wants drivers to pay for car repairs
NY Daily News (5/20/13): Agony of the Fleet: TLC offers little help to cabbies ripped off

Taxi Driver Protection Act – News

We will soon be back in Albany pushing for the Taxi Driver Protection Act, calling for a sticker warning against assaults on drivers and stiffer penalties.  Taxi drivers are 30 times more likely to be murdered on the job than other workers.  (Go to TDPA page)

Latest NYC incidents …

Yellow Taxi Carjacked in Manhattan (April 22nd, 2013)

A passenger assaulted the driver then stole the taxi and crashed it in NJ.  (NY Times Report / NorthJersey.com)

Taxi Driver Assaulted at Broker’s Office (April 15th, 2013)

A member, Imanul Khan, was assaulted at his broker’s office.  (Wkly Bangla Patrika / 24:00 mark in this video)

Taxi Driver’s Foot Fractured After Pushed Onto Oncoming Traffic [March 15th, 2013)

Taxi driver Mohammed Alam, 43, had his ankle fractured and the skin pulled off after a car scraped it while he was punched and thrown into oncoming traffic during an assault by a passenger.  Read more

TLC Court Rights Campaign Kicks Off

NYTWA, along with a team of students from Cornell Law School and Cardozo Law School, has been interviewing drivers about the TLC courts (now run by OATH) to inquire about the due process experiences of a mostly immigrant workforce.  We feel this is a good opportunity for drivers to voice the ways in which the ticketing process and court system may be unfair or unclear.

For example, we might ask questions such as:  Did you feel pressured by the judge to plead guilty?  Do you think the fine amount was reasonable?  Were the hearing procedures explained to you?

Our Survey Days so far:
3/1/13 (Friday) at 32-02 Queens Blvd
4/8/13 (Monday) at 33 Beaver St.

More to come!  We will keep you posted.  If interested in volunteering with us for future dates, please contact media@nytwa.org or 212-627-5248.

Download Survey PDF

Get Your NYTWA Picture I.D. Card

As of March, NYTWA’s office has begun printing Photo I.D. Cards for all members!

New Drivers Joining Our Union:  Come to 250 Fifth Ave (Suite 310).  We’ll take your picture and print a card on the spot.  The process only takes 5-10 min.

Renewing Members:  If you’ve recently renewed your membership dues online or by phone, first of all, thank you!  Please come in for a picture and card.  If your dues will not expire for a while, you have the option of coming in to renew early and receive a Photo I.D.  We will keep your original membership dates in place (for example, if your due date is currently February 2014, it will be extended to Feb 2015).

Is Your Garage or Broker Forcing You to Pay for Accident Repairs?

 

Report All Overcharges!

The latest garage/broker scam is to force drivers to pay for accident repairs.  If you have been overcharged, call NYTWA immediately.  There are many ways to defend your rights.  If we stay silent, the violations will spread.

  • Is the garage/broker still charging you 5%?
  • Are they charging you a “late” or “shift excess fee”?
  • Did the garage/broker make you pay for car repairs?
  • Are you owed money on an insurance claim after an accident?
  • Are they charging you more than the lease cap?

Stand Up and Stop the Robbery!
Call NYTWA @ 212-627-5248

All lease cap numbers INCLUDE the credit card processing!
The NYS sales tax ($4.77) is extra.

See TLC Industry Notice.  Download Flyer

Read more

Big Wins for Taxi Workers

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) had several big wins on the week of July 12th, 2012. The Alliance successfully mobilized city officials and the Taxi and Limousine Commission for a 17% increase in taxi fares, the first change since 2006. The Alliance was also successful in getting the TLC to create a new six-cent surcharge on every taxi ride, which will fund a new account to provide health care to the largely uninsured community of cabbies. Sealing those two victories with a hat trick, the Alliance got the TLC to eliminate a 5% charge that fleets had been permitted to deduct from each driver’s credit-card sales at the end of each shift. The charge, intended to defray back-office costs of credit-card processing after card machines were made mandatory in 2008, had become a large source of tension with drivers after credit-card payments soared. As if that weren’t enough, the Alliance capped off an already stellar week by securing new rules that stop lease overcharges by taxi fleets, and successfully imposing new regulations onto a segment of the taxi industry that’s been unregulated for the past 30 years.  (NYC Central Labor Council)

  Fare Raise 2012 Campaign Article Collection (PDF, Set 1)