Month: July 2012

Voice of San Diego: Taxi Drivers Unite with Labor Council

Voice of San Diego: Taxi Drivers Unite with Labor Council

Taxi Drivers Unite with Labor Council By Lorena Gonzalez and Mikaiil Hussein | At the Labor Council, our mission is to create more jobs, better jobs and better lives for all of San Diego’s workers — union and non-union. For years, we have proudly worked on policies 

Airport Trip Fee Increase Suspended!

Airport Trip Fee Increase Suspended!

Congratulations Airport Drivers! The Airport Authority Board met on July 12th to discuss the continuing transition of Ground Transportation to 100% clean air vehicle or alternative fuel vehicle by 2017. The board considered the incentive/disincentive policy set up to reward hybrid vehicles and punish conventional fuel vehicles (CFV). 

California Workforce Resource Blog: Taxi Drivers Found to be Employees, Not Independent Contractors

California Workforce Resource Blog: Taxi Drivers Found to be Employees, Not Independent Contractors

East Bay Taxi Drivers Association v. Friendly Cab Co., — Taxi Drivers Found to be Employees, Not Independent Contractors

Posted on August 5, 2008 by Brian Van Vleck

The Ninth Circuit’s decision earlier this year in East Bay Taxi Driver’s Association v. Friendly Cab, Inc., 512 F3d 1090 (2008), illustrates how easily courts will pierce through the outward appearances of a “business” contract to find that, at bottom, it is just a glorified employer-employee relationship.

The case involved taxi drivers who were seeking to form a union to bargain with the company that leased their cabs. As employees they would be covered by the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) and could force the company to recognize their union and bargain collectively. This required the Court to detrmine their true status.  As the Court explained:

‘Employees’ work for wages or salaries under direct supervision. ‘Independent contractors’ undertake to do a job for a price, decide how the work will be done, usually hire others to do the work, and depend for their income not upon wages, but upon the difference between what they pay for goods, materials, and labor and what they receive for the end result, that is, upon profits.

The drivers leased their vehicles and kept the fares that they generated. Nevertheless, the Ninth Circuit upheld the NLRB’s determination that they were mere “employees.” The main reason for this outcome was the company’s tight control over the drivers’ operations. For example, the drivers were required to only respond to the company’s radio dispatches and could not pick up fares on their own or advertise their own services apart from the company. The company’s high degree of control thus negated the drivers’ opportunity to generate any real “entrepreneurial profit” through their own initiative.

We have blogged repeatedly about the difficulty of maintaining a proper independent contractor status.  Unfortunately, the various multifactor tests promulgated by courts and administrative agencies are remarkably unhelpful for predicting which side of the line a worker falls. As the outcome of the East Bay Taxi case illustrates, however, it is probably more useful to view the standard as a simple determination of whether the company’s control prevents the individual from making significant profit from his own business decisions.

Original Source

CBS NY: TAXI DRIVERS WIN HEALTH CARE AND DISABILITY!!

CBS NY: TAXI DRIVERS WIN HEALTH CARE AND DISABILITY!!

Taxi And Limousine Commission Approves Fare Increases, Health Care For Drivers Cabbies Win Major Victory, While NYC’s Rates Remain Below Other Big Cities NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – It will soon cost you more to take a cab in New York City. The Taxi and Limousine Commission voted 

Chicago Sun Times: Taxi cab group says thousands of drivers joined Monday morning strike

Chicago Sun Times: Taxi cab group says thousands of drivers joined Monday morning strike

Taxi cab group says thousands of drivers joined Monday morning strike

BY mitch dudek Staff Reporter mdudek@suntimes.com

Couldn’t hail a cab Monday morning?

That’s probably because thousands of taxi drivers went on strike from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. to highlight their frustration with new city regulations that raised the rates taxi drivers pay to lease their vehicles without allowing a corresponding fare increase to offset the expenses.

The strike, which organizers say will be replicated every Monday morning until demands are met, was planned by the United Taxidrivers Community Council, which claims to represent about 2,000 drivers and counts on the solidarity of many more.

The taxi staging area at O’Hare, usually flush with several hundred cabs, was empty at 7:30 a.m., said taxi driver spokesman Michael McConnell. The 15 taxis usually lined up outside the Sheraton were no where in site at 10:30 a.m., he added.

Read More Taxi cab group says thousands of drivers joined Monday morning strike | Chicago Sun Times

CHICAGO TAXI DRIVERS PICKET CITY HALL

CHICAGO TAXI DRIVERS PICKET CITY HALL

TAXI DRIVERS DEMAND A FAIR HEARING FOR A FARE INCREASE Chicago cabdrivers, angry that they have been denied a public hearing for a fare increase, picketed City Hall to deliver a list of demands to Mayor Rahm Emmanuel Wednesday March 7, 2012. They were supported