In May, he committed suicide – one of six suicides of urban taxi drivers in the first half of this year. “The law already covers them. It`s the agency that doesn`t handle claims equally,” Desai explains. You already know that these companies continue to misclassify drivers. On social media, radio ads, and rallies organized by companies, Uber spokespeople, including Bernie Sanders` former press secretary Symone Sanders and Reverend Al Sharpton, hailed the app as a solution to taxi drivers` rejection of black passengers. All types of drivers suffer from the oversaturation of the market, not to mention the ever-worsening traffic congestion. Classifying drivers as entrepreneurs can provide a business advantage over driving companies that have employed drivers and pay mileage costs, workers` compensation and unemployment insurance, health insurance, minimum wage, overtime, and half of Social Security and Medicare taxes. Employees can benefit from laws that protect them from discrimination or harassment. The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents about 21,000 taxi and ride app drivers, said a detailed survey of seven taxi driver members found they earned an average of $368 — excluding expenses, gas or taxes — from March 15 to 21, down 71 percent from $1,260 two weeks earlier. NYTWA`s other proposals include small business loans for owner-operators; Cancel any mortgage debt over $150,000 and limit payments to $900 per month; Suspension of the state`s $2.50 surtax for trips in central and lower Manhattan; and drivers keep the $2.80 per trip in other surcharges, 30 cents from the city and $2.50 to the state.
While the fund doesn`t cost taxi owners a dime, they still filed a lawsuit to stop it, arguing that the commission had exceeded its powers, and earlier this month, a New York state appeals court agreed. As Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the Taxi Worker Alliance, told me, the owners saw the Health and Disability Fund “as the basis of the union. They were fiercely determined to stop the union and give benefits to the drivers. Other taxi owners and drivers try their luck, armed with hand sanitizers and disinfectant wipes. “Several federal courts have classified black motorists — which include Uber`s driver partners — as independent contractors,” Uber spokesman Harry Heartfield responded. The Labor Department must determine on a case-by-case basis whether drivers are workers for unemployment insurance purposes, the company says. “In Santa Rosa, I`m the only company left,” Neese said. “They are not independent. They are self-employed,” he said of the drivers. “They have their own franchise license with the Santa Rosa police.” “I don`t feel like I`m competing with Uber,” Neese said. “They have a ban on the younger population.
It`s a bit like a video game that orders a taxi – much more like hitchhiking than driving a taxi. I don`t think they took taxis at first. It`s a distinct group of people who use this technology. They collected 4,000 postcards and called on the mayor to deal with the motorist crisis. They held vigils in honor of drivers who had committed suicide. They gathered in front of the town hall. “Fridays and Saturdays when you`re restless and it`s good — $400 or $500” in rates, Girard said. He pays $120 per 12-hour shift at the Santa Rosa-based Yellow Cab Company, $480 per week, including using a company taxi. The company has 25 drivers.
Most drivers stay at home, she says. Among those who work, NYTWA says they wait up to four hours to get a round-trip ticket from the city`s airports, and some yellow taxi drivers book less than $100 for a 12-hour shift — less than $8 an hour before expenses like gas and rental or car maintenance and payments. In a nine-point plan to end racial rejection, taxi workers suggested that TLC`s license renewal system should require racial justice training that highlights the role of transportation unions in the civil rights struggle. They also suggested strengthening apps that allow drivers to find passengers in underserved parts of the city outside of Manhattan. .