BOSTON, Nov. 28, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- LABOR
PROTEST RALLY -- At 12:00 Noon, the Boston Taxi Drivers
Association (BTDA) will hold a rally on City Hall Plaza to demand
un-licensed Uber, Lyft and other illegal vehicles for hire be taken
off the streets. Boston taxi drivers will be joined in
protest against Uber and Lyft as unregulated personal vehicles for
public transit by labor and community leaders. Participants will
include taxi driver organizations from New York City and Philadelphia. Demonstrators will have
placards, display banners, and their city-marked cabs.
The BTDA represents 1,400 local city cab drivers and is a local
affiliate of the United Steelworkers (USW), AFL-CIO. "Creating a
'limousine service for the masses' might be popular, but in the
City of Boston it is illegal,
endangers consumers and needs to be stopped," says Donna Blythe-Shaw, USW/BTDA Staff
Representative.
"City cab drivers must meet public safety and transit insurance
standards. It is time to take action against
unlicensed and unregulated personal vehicles for hire operated by
Uber and Lyft that are on the streets of Boston."
Leaders of the BTDA will be asking the Boston City Council
members at the hearing: "Shouldn't Uber and Lyft drivers be subject
to the same rules and regulations in Boston as other city-regulated vehicles for
hire to protect consumers and workers?"
Blythe-Shaw declares: "Boston Cab drivers say – enough is
enough! Defiance of current laws and regulations by Uber and Lyft
sabotages taxi drivers' who play be the rules of city-regulated
fares to make a living. That's where the City of Boston has failed its licensed cab
drivers."
The USW is the largest private-sector union in North America, representing 850,000 workers
employed in metals, mining, rubber, paper, oil refining and
renewable energy products, chemicals, transportation, health care,
security, hotels, and municipal governments.
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Contact: Donna Blythe-Shaw
(USW), 617-640-4299; Dshaw@usw.org
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SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)