Sep 7, 2007 10:33 am US/Eastern
NYC Taxi Strike Ends, Causes Only Minor Disruption
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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Some New York City taxi drivers don't like the idea of GPS and electronic fare systems in their cabs. (File photo)
Gregg Geller/CBS
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Stay with CBS 2 News and WCBSTV.com for the latest on the strike.
CBS
A two-day taxi strike that thinned the city's vast yellow fleet, but caused limited disruptions, ended before dawn Friday with no tangible gains won for the hacks who idled their cabs.
At least hundreds and probably thousands of drivers stopped working Wednesday morning to protest new city rules requiring all taxis to be fitted with new technology, including credit card machines and global positioning systems that will track where the cabbies drive.
Those rules—decried by some drivers as both costly and an invasion of privacy—remained in place as the strike ended, and city officials dismissed any notion that they might be reversed.
City Office of Emergency Management spokesman Andrew Troisi said late Thursday that the walkout had caused "no major impacts."
The mayor even downplayed the impact of the strike, saying it had only a limited effect on the city, even calling it a "non-strike" or a partial strike.
"Our best estimate is the majority of yellow cabs are operating normally," he said Wednesday, adding that 75 percent of fleet cabs were on the streets versus 93 percent the Wednesday before.
"Overall, I can say it's had limited effect and was mitigated by the contingency plan we put into effect," Bloomberg said.
A majority of the city's cabbies appear to have ignored the strike and kept driving, although there were headaches over fewer cabs in midtown Manhattan and at the city's two major airports.
Still, the advocacy group that organized the walkout, the Taxi Workers Alliance, declared victory. Its executive director, Bhairavi Desai, said the work stoppage had made its point: Many drivers are angry, and they are organized.
"The numbers can be spun as much as the opposition wants, but the reality is, the waiting lines speak for themselves," she said.
She said the alliance would consider calling for another strike if the city doesn't alter its new technology rules, which require the new equipment to be in place in any cab inspected after Oct. 1.
The city has 13,000 yellow cabs and 44,000 licensed drivers. The alliance claims to represent about one-fifth of those cabbies, most of whom lease their taxis daily from fleet companies.
The combination of the group-fare rules and a thinner taxi fleet added up to banner days for drivers who kept working, with some saying they did double or more of their usual business.
Taxi & Limousine Commissioner Matthew W. Daus told the New York Post there were "a relatively small number" of price-gouging complaints.
Temporary rules that had allowed passengers to share cabs and drivers to charge flat fares instead of the usual metered rates expired at 5 a.m. Friday.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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