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How UTW Led the Way to Gate Control
As the 20th anniversary of this publication approaches, it seems an appropriate time to look back at some of United Taxicab Workers’ accomplishments over the years. Perhaps none is more important than the city’s gate cap ordinance. Here’s some history on how the cap came to be:

For decades, cab drivers in San Francisco were represented by the Teamsters Union. The economic relationship between company and driver was decided through contract negotiations. But after cab companies were able to force the union out in the late 1970’s, they were free to raise gates at will. And they did for a number of years, at twice the rate of inflation.

In 1989, Mayor Art Agnos appointed a committee to make recommendations for industry reforms. UTW was represented on that committee. Among its proposals was gate control. But after its report was issued, Agnos lost his bid for re-election. When Frank Jordan became mayor, the recommendations were shelved .

Nonetheless, UTW continued to pursue the idea of gate control. It became the centerpiece of a measure we got on the ballot in 1995, Proposition I. Cab companies spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in a successful campaign to defeat Prop I. They were able to exploit that fact that the measure tried to cover too much ground in its attempt at major industry reforms.

With the defeat of Proposition I, companies could continue to raise gates as they pleased. In 1997, Luxor boosted them by $15 a shift. Other major companies weren’t quite so gluttonous, but none were far behind. The next opportunity to put gate control forward came with the appointment of a Taxi Task Force by Mayor Willie Brown. Then-Supervisor Gavin Newsom chaired the group, which met during 1997-98.

UTW had two members on the task force, and put gate control at the top of its agenda. But our attempts to get the group’s support for a significant rollback in gates were unsuccessful. In the end, the task force proposed a watered-down version of gate control. Gates would be capped at an average of $90, just slightly below the industry average at the time. But the cap would expire in two years. Since large companies had recently raised gates by $10 or more, the two-year hiatus wouldn’t have caused them much grief. They would have waited it out,
and started the circus again.

UTW opposed the recommendation as far too weak. Capping gates without a significant rollback was simply unacceptable to us, after the gouging that had been going on for years. We asked for a rollback to $75 a shift, with no expiration date. With the help of Supervisor Tom Ammiano, a compromise was reached at $83.50 a shift. The expiration date was removed. The cap went into effect in January 1999. It remained at $83.50 until January 1993, when the Board of Supervisors raised it to $91.50.

Although the cap fell back to $85 in September 2004 on account of the city’s failure to enact a driver health care plan, the board raised it back to $91.50 last year. Today, more than eight years after the gate cap first passed, gates are at about the same level they were in 1999. Without gate control, they’d certainly average well over $100 a shift by now. The cap puts thousands of dollars in the driver’s pocket each year.

UTW wasn’t alone in this fight. We ha d the help of lots of other drivers. But it’s safe to say that without our persistence, there might be no gate cap at all.