Executive Director of the NY Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) Bhairavi Desai strongly criticized large corporations and government agencies, what she described for continued targeting and mistreatment of the city’s taxi and for-hire vehicle (FHV) drivers.
In a testimony in support of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s nomination of new TLC chair Midori Valdivia, Desai argued that the interests of powerful corporations and regulatory bodies are being prioritized over the livelihoods and rights of drivers across the city.
“Whether it’s from the millionaire corporations to the billionaire corporations, to now the trillionaires of Waymo that are hunting us down, or it’s from the different interests from the city agencies to the state and the MTA,” said the labor leader.
TLC licenses between 180,000 and 200,000 drivers, who provide one million rides per day or 600 to 612 trips per minute.
Desai, who led successful campaigns for Taxi, Uber, and Lyft drivers, securing $475 million in debt forgiveness and protecting drivers’ rights, said at each step, drivers are treated as if their rights are disposable.
She said, “We are proud to support the nomination of Midori Valdivia as the next chair of the Taxi Limousine Commission.”
Referring to the testimony of Wayne, she said it’s honestly really heartbreaking to hear Wayne’s testimony. “And I’m really struck by what Carmen said earlier. These are longtime veteran drivers who feel they’ve just never seen change.”
And that’s because for decades now, every time we take a step forward, there is an attack against us…We have to make a generational change. We cannot nickel and dime this workforce into poverty, and we cannot nickel and dime them out of poverty.
Today, for example, on insurance, drivers are going from paying $400 a month to some of them as much as $1,000 a month. “All because American Transit is potentially facing bankruptcy, because the regulators shut their eyes to these corporations. Why are drivers the ones to pay these costs?” she pointed out.
“We must end the cycle of generational poverty. We must end the cycle of not treating the right of drivers to feed their children and to have a decent life. To not have to work six to seven days a week, twelve to fourteen hours a day,” said the NYTWA chief.
Founded in 1998, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) is the 21,000-member strong union of NYC yellow cab, green car, black car, livery, and app-dispatched drivers. With the slogan ‘Driver Power Union Power’, the alliance fights for justice, rights, respect, and dignity for the over 180,000 licensed men and women who labor 12-hour shifts with little pay and little protection in the city’s mobile sweatshop.