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NARR:
In the bitter Tuesday cold, taxi drivers lined the sidewalks in front of the Taxi and Limousine Commission's downtown offices. Many held homemade signs that read, "Ready to strike."
[SOUND ACT]
NARR: What inspired these drivers to step out of their cabs into the streets was the city's new plan to install what it's calling "technology enhancements." In plain language, that means high-tech software that would allow the city to track where cabs are going. Passengers would now be able to use their credit cards to pay for cab fares. And they would also be introduced to something else that's new: advertisements tied to global positioning software that would pop up video ads for businesses as the cab nears their stores.
The city says the technology will help provide better service to the public. But cab drivers like Mizanu Rockman repeatedly said they think the city has other motives.
ACT: ROCKMNAN: (5 sec): They are monitoring the driver, why are they monitoring the driver, driver is not a criminal!
NARR: The city acknowledges that the software would record the pick-up and drop-off location of every fare, but insists the software isn't intended to surveil cabbies, but rather is to help reduce similar triplogs they have to now to write by hand. And they say that the new system will make it easier for riders to retrieve lost items, with dispatchers now able to locate the cab where you lost your briefcase in just seconds.
But no one at Tuesday's protest seemed to believe any of that.
ACT: it's all about money changing hands and people getting millionaire who never drove a cab, who not have to worry about health cater, who don't worry about their kids going to school or getting an education.
ACT: Just more expenses, the passengers don't nee it, the cabbies don't need it. Just to make money
NARR: Cab drivers, who have long had a contentious relationship with the city's taxi and limousine commission, or TLC, said they believed the new software was being driven by fees the city would get from commercial interests, like Clearchannel, which would be one of the vendors operating the new video ads that would let riders know when they were approaching the nearest big box store or commercial coffee house.
But what seemed to sting worst of all was the prospect of having to pay for the new system.
ACT: 19 sec Why do you want me to install a system that's going to cost me $5,000, and then $150 or $175 monthly fee for maintenance, when I don't have health care, come up with some program for health care for me and my family, then I can understand that.
And drivers like this one are unhappy enough with the proposal that they are threatening a labor strike.
ACT: Guy in coffee shop: 23 sec: I will not hesitate to strike for as long as it will take, it is time to do that again, because they have no respect for the taxi driver can you imagine what will happen if all the taxi drivers stayed out I think maybe that's what they need, I think they need a big strike so at least they can at least give us some respect.
NARR: The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, who organized Tuesday's demonstration, is mobilizing its 7,000+ members for a potential strike.
ACT: If you don't work there won't be any TLC, so please stand with one voice, one voice, one voice, down with GPS!
The last time cab drivers went on strike in New York was in 1988, when over 40,000 drivers protested a city policy that would have imposed higher fines on them for minor violations. The city's Taxi and Limousine Commission had no comment on the strike threat.
SOC: This is Sitara Nieves for Columbia Radio News.