Protest sign on Taxi cab

Protest sign on Taxi cab

The photograph captures a sea of taxicab vehicles surrounding a New York Police Department van. While the photograph does not have a recorded date, the scene depicted was a very common one throughout the 1990s. Throughout the decade, the city saw a growing number of killings and violent crimes against New York City taxi drivers. [1] Such was accompanied by the rising subway fares and the danger of anti-Muslim feelings generated by the media’s racist coverage of the World Trade Center bombing [2] which targeted the many taxicab drivers who identify as South Asian. In response, thousands of cab drivers staged a mobile demonstration that brought traffic to a standstill. In these protests, drivers would abandon their vehicles, sit in the street, and chant slogans—much like the one written on the sign that hangs across the taxicab’s backseat window in the photo:“WE ARE ALL DRIVERS. WE STAND UNITED.” Taxicab drivers’ messages were aimed at the Taxi and Limousine Commission, which many drivers claimed had been “ignor[ing] their pleas for safety” enhancements as crimes against drivers continued to pile up. Even the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health’s report on Preventing Homicide in the Workplace concluded that the taxicab driver occupation was most at risk for on-the-job murder. [3] Ultimately, drivers felt as though the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s rules and practices invariably favored the owners at the expense of the drivers. [4]

Consequently, CAAAV initiated its first worker organizing project in the taxi industry through the Lease Drivers Coalition, [5] thus beginning the Lease Drivers Coalition’s long, fraught history with the Taxi and Limousine Commission. In 1994, the Lease Drivers Coalition held a protest in response to Susan’s Maintenance’s owner’s harassment and assault on Saleem Osman, an LDC Driver. Osman was beaten and arrested by the police after offering to help translate for a taxicab driver in Herald Square. [6] As such, the inclusion of the police car in the photograph is poignant, given the tense relationship between cab drivers and New York City police officers. Throughout the 90s, not only did the police fail to protect the cab drivers but also the police themselves posed a threat to the drivers. Cases of police brutality against taxi drivers—and thereby against “immigrants, poor people, and people of color in general” [7]—increased under the Giuliani administration. [8]

Including such a photograph in the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV) archive comes not without a loaded history: though LDC originated through CAAAV, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, from under the banner of the Lease Driver Coalition, was borne out of a resistance against CAAAV. A 1998 letter, digitized by the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) announced the formation of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance from the Lease Driver Coalition. [9] According to the letter, CAAAV placed “many restrictions on LDC which disallowed LDC from carrying on independent work.” [10] Thus, LDC adopted a new name: New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA).

[1] Craig Wolff, “Massive Cab Driver Protest of 35 Killings Snarls Traffic,” New York Times, October 27, 1993,
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/27/nyregion/massive-cabdriver-protest-of-35-killings-snarls-traffic.html.

[2] The CAAAV Voice Newsletter of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, Vol. 5, No. 1., Spring 1993, p. 5.

[3] Bill Glauber, “Meter always ticking for lives of N.Y. cab drivers,” The Baltimore Sun, December 20, 1993, https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-12-20-1993354055-story.html.

[4] The CAAAV Voice Newsletter of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, Vol. 6, No. 2., Winter 1994, p. 5.

[5] The CAAAV Voice Newsletter of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, Vol. 7, No. 1., Spring 1995, p. 1.

[6] The CAAAV Voice Newsletter of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, Vol. 8, No. 1., Winter 1996.

[7] The CAAAV Voice Newsletter of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, Vol. 7, No. 1., Spring 1995, p. 4.

[8] Couching his regulations in the language of pedestrian safety, former Mayor Rudolph Guiliani’s administration carried out specific “get-tough” and “law and order” policies that saw aggressive policing and that has since been dubbed the “broken windows” approach to law enforcement. NYPD Commissioner Howard Safir continued to compare the taxi drivers to a “terrorist threat” as Giuliani nodded in agreement at his side.

[9] SAADA, Lease Driver Coalition Letter, March 8, 1998, https://www.saada.org/item/20130703-2967.

[10] SAADA, Lease Driver Coalition Letter, March 8, 1998, https://www.saada.org/item/20130703-2967.

undated

Grace Han

This post was completed as coursework for Archiving Asian America, taught by Vivian Truong, in the Asian and American Studies programs at Vassar College.

Copyright is held by CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities

Photograph

Photo759