The New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), a strong 28,000-member union of taxicabs and for-hire drivers, has so far realized $475 million in loan forgiveness for the city’s yellow medallion owners, according to the alliance.
“To date, the NYTWA has achieved $475 million in loan forgiveness,” Desai Bhairavi, Executive Director of the NYTWA, told ‘TLC Drivers Voice’ correspondent Kamal Ahmed.
Recalling the alliance’s 15-day hunger strike in 2021, Desai said the union will continue to fight until a single taxi driver’s loan is forgiven.
The medallion crisis began more than two decades ago, when a group of industry leaders began artificially inflating the price of medallions, which are regulated by the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC).
As the price soared to $1 million, drivers who wanted to own their own cab, rather than work for a taxi fleet, took on hefty loans they could not afford, paving the way for lenders to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars.
The market collapsed in 2014, leading drivers into debt they could not repay, and hundreds went bankrupt.
In February 2018, long-time NYC driver Douglas Schifter committed suicide in front of the city Hall to protect against financial despair.
Industry leaders denied wrongdoing and blamed the crisis on the entrance of Technology Networking Companies (TNCs) – Uber and Lyft that came years after over speculation by the city and the private market.
But the critics now say the ride-hailing companies apparently brought tens of thousands of job opportunities and widened the market.