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Drivers split over taxi strike

By David Freedlander, amNewYork Staff Writer | dfreedlander@am-ny.com

October 23, 2007

Taxi drivers couldn't hack a strike -- again.

During the second walkout in two months, most of Manhattan's streets were lined with yellow cabs trolling for passengers.

While a report from the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade estimated that more than 95 percent of yellow cabs were on the road, strike organizers touted the work stoppage as a success.

From the looks of it though, it wasn't too hard for anyone to get a cab.

Morning-rush lines at the Penn Station taxi stand stretched no longer than 15 minutes. Many passengers looked confused about the half-dozen strikers harassing drivers as they dropped off passengers.

"Scabs!" shouted one striker at a row of drivers who waited to pick up fares. "You would prostitute your own mothers!"

The Taxi Workers Alliance called the 24-hour strike, which began at 5 a.m. to protest new regulations that require credit card readers and GPS in every cab. After a two-day strike in September failed to cripple the city or bring public officials to the negotiating table, union organizers vowed to press ahead to keep their cabs free of what they consider to be tracking devices.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city approved two increases in taxi fares during the past two years to cover the anticipated costs of installing the GPS equipment.

"We made a deal and we're going to stick to the deal and I think taxi drivers who try it will like it," he said.

The mayor also enacted a contingency plan in anticipation of the strike that permitted zoned rides and multiple riders on a single fare.

"Ordinarily we wouldn't take a car, but we are on holiday," said Katherine Kerrigan, who was visiting the city from Ireland with her husband. She expressed surprise that she had to share a cab with an irritated stranger this morning as part of the contingency plan.

"We are heading to Boston next. As far as we know there is no taxi strike there."

Fernando Mateo, the head of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, called the strike a bust.

"These are not strikes. These are small protests by small groups who want to do radical things," he said.

But Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the Taxi Workers Alliance, told several hundred drivers at a raucous rally outside Taxi & Limousine Commission headquarters that this strike was also a success.

"Despite those poor, pathetic scabs, the streets were empty this morning," she said. "Whatever they do to break our strikes, they can never break our spirits."

But many organizers said success could not be judged by how many cars were on the road or even if the taxi commission buckled under their demands.

"If the mayor has to put in place a contingency plan, then the strike was a success," said cabbie Billy Acquaire.

amNewYork staff writer Justin Rocket Silverman and Newsday staff writer Karla Schuster contributed to this report.