41 years ago this week I began driving a cab. It was 1971, just a few days after the new year and a couple of weeks after a two week strike that, though nominally called by the union, was clearly a joint effort with the fleetowners to force the city to raise the fares. The contract that came out of that strike, never ratified by the membership, lowered the commission rate for new drivers from 49% to 42% and allowed the bosses to take a dime off the top of every fare to pay for benefits which had previously been paid for out of their share.
The new contract and the fare increase were disastrous for taxi workers. The changes provoked widespread outrage and led directly to the tumultuous chair-throwing union meeting in April and the formation of the Taxi Rank & File Coalition, which announced itself in May with the first issue of The Hot Seat, in words that bear repeating today:
We are a growing group of taxi workers like yourselves. We are fighting together with all our brothers and sisters – young, old, black, white, and Spanish-speaking – for a militant and democratic union.
We came together after the strike when we found a common cause in our outrage at the way our union had ignored our demands.
We are from all garages and all boroughs. Some of us have belonged to other rank and file groups; others among us have just begun to fight.
Many of us are the original organizers of Local 3036. We are angry now. We are fighting to regain the old dream.
We have no officers and no “leaders.” Our strength is in our membership. We have joined together, as our name suggests, to achieve a measure of justice and dignity for all taxi workers.
No officers and no “leaders.” When pressed (as the quotation marks around the word leaders suggest) I think we would have said that it’s not that we had no leaders; we just didn’t have anyone, or any group, in charge. Really, we considered everyone a leader, a potential leader, or a person who would step up and take leadership at one time or other. Still, one can’t help but notice the echo of Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Wall Street is a people’s movement. It is party-less, leaderless, by the people and for the people (OWS Statement of Autonomy).
I’ve been thinking a lot about Occupy Wall Street lately – invigorated both by the sense of hope and possibility (which also recalled the early rank and file period) and by the movement’s refusal so far to limit itself by calling for this or that reform. I’m also trying to figure out how to connect and contribute. That’s my task for the next few months. I’m wondering what other folks are thinking.
Taxi Rank & File Coalition 