The number of available taxis was visibly smaller in New York City today as a group of cabdrivers began a two-day strike, although it was hard to say how many of the city’s 13,000 yellow cabs remained off the road.þþThe strike organizers, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, proclaimed the action a success at a 10:15 a.m. news conference, saying that 80 percent of cabdrivers had stayed away from work. þþBut Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a news conference just before 2 p.m. that counts taken by the city showed the vast majority of cabdrivers continued to work despite the strike.þþ“Over all I think it is fair to say today’s strike is having a limited impact, if at all,” the mayor said.þþBecause small companies or individual owners operate many of the city’s cabs, an exact count of taxis on the street is difficult, the mayor said. But he said large fleet owners, which represent 30 to 40 percent of the taxis, reported that 75 percent of their cars were on the street today, compared with 93 percent last Wednesday. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Kennedy International Airport, reported that the number of taxis was 14 percent below normal at Kennedy, he said. þþ“The city has not come to a stop and people are getting where they need to go,” the mayor said. þþStill, passengers at Pennsylvania Station and at Kennedy and La Guardia Airports reported longer waits than usual for cabs after the 5 a.m. strike began. þþEarly this morning at Kennedy Airport, about 50 passengers outside Terminal 9 were told they might wait as long as a half-hour for a cab. “It’s not usually this long,” said Joshua Olken, 29, a consultant from Boston traveling to an 8 a.m. meeting in Manhattan. “I should have taken the train.”þþAt La Guardia Airport around 11 a.m., passengers reported waiting about 20 minutes for a cab outside Terminal D. Dispatchers and drivers said there were fewer cabs operating, although there seemed to be no major disruptions.þþ“There is nobody on the road,” said Fritz Berger, a cabdriver who said he supported the Taxi Workers Alliance’s position but could not afford to strike. “I had to work, I could not take it financially.”þþAt the news conference, the mayor said the city’s contingency plan for the strike has been working well. The plan includes a zone-based fare structure, with four zones for Manhattan and one for each of the other four boroughs. Drivers, who are allowed to pick up multiple passengers, will be allowed to charge each passenger $10 for a trip in a single zone and $5 more for each zone they travel through. The fare between Kennedy Airport and Manhattan would be $30 per person and the same trip from La Guardia Airport would be $20 per person.þþAlthough city officials said the plan allowed drivers to make more money by picking up multiple passengers, the arrangement was not always popular with drivers who were not getting Manhattan-bound passengers. þþ“I can’t take it, I am losing money,” one driver, Wally Sarwari, said this morning as he shooed two passengers from his cab at La Guardia. The passengers both wanted to go to Queens, meaning Mr. Sarwari would drive across the borough for a $20 fare.þþThe New York Taxi Workers Alliance primarily represents drivers who lease their vehicles from a garage or broker. Many of the drivers are upset over a city requirement that cabs install new technology, including credit-card readers and G.P.S.-equipped passenger information and navigational screens, by next year. While the alliance says the equipment will cost drivers’ money and subject them to invasive scrutiny from the G.P.S. tracking system, the mayor said the new technology would be a service to passengers and allow drivers to earn more money.þþThe alliance’s organizer, Bhairavi Desai, said the action was a “resounding success,” adding that a vast majority of drivers stayed away from work.þþ“Look at the roads,” she told reporters.þþEd Ott, the executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council, an A.F.L.-C.I.O. umbrella group for the city’s unions, joined her at a news conference and said the strike was effective.þþ“If you can’t tell the difference between yesterday at Penn Station,” he said, “and today, you’re blind or you’re a tourist.”þþ
Source: NY Times
