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Want to Make This
A Better Job? Pitch In.

By Dave Schneider

There are those who say just be happy, go along with the big company bosses and everything will be fine.
Got a reality check, got benefits, making a living wage in San Francisco? Are you working to live or living to work?
Doing your part to organize?
We’ve all got brains and eyesight but some have blinders.
While the past may not be a guide to the future, cabbies were in a union until we got decimated by selfish Reaganism in the late ’70s and early ’80s, when UTW had to pick up the pieces from the old Teamsters.
Roughly, the sweet deal we had under the union contract when we were deemed employees was job protection and benefits; we had nearly full medical and about 80 percent dental if memory serves. You couldn't be fired unless you had three chargeable accidents in a year's time and there was no security deposit. You had at least a week's paid vacation and ten sick days and ten free days. In exchange you turned in minimum wage per hour and got a check the following week. From that was deducted taxes and social security. There was also a small pension.
Of course we lost all that when the companies got away with the so-called independent contractor classification with the promise of lower gates. As soon as the drivers signed up the companies jacked up the gates to the sky's the limit until UTW’s campaign for gate control was successful.
Of course a medallion is a form of a benefit, but only a fraction of the working force is around long enough to get one.
These days, as always, there is a lot of bitching, and many wait for others to protect labor. Many of us veterans of the taxi labor movement are older now and young blood is essential in your own self and collective interest; everybody has to pitch in and organize, otherwise we’re each on our own, and as Lincoln said, a house divided cannot stand. Of course we can all be ostriches with our heads in the sand and trust the boss at the big companies who often has his hands in our pockets while taking care of himself and his family.
How have you helped out lately? Or do you think you will be protected and get job protection and benefits by keeping your mouth shut and greasing the boss’s hand or letting others do union work for you?