Biju Mathew, Taxi! Cabs and Capitalism in New York City.

Walby, Kevin

Biju Mathew, Taxi! Cabs and Capitalism in New York City (New York: New Press 2005)

TAXI DRIVING IS a common form of work that receives little recognition from the public or attention from scholars. As a member of the organizing committee of the New York Taxi Worker Alliance, Mathew brings an insider's knowledge of the labour struggles he describes in Taxi! For research methods, the book combines recounted interviews with taxi drivers as well as fellow labour organizers, notes from observations, and analysis of various policies that impact on taxi work. The book does a first-rate job of communicating the solidarity that binds members of the New York Taxi Worker Alliance and taxi drivers more generally. Scholars and lay persons interested in labour struggles, automobilities, globalization theory, and the sociology of work will enjoy Taxi!

There are few books that focus on issues of labour struggle in the taxi industry. Able to articulate complex ideas through elegant and easy-to-read prose, Mathew conveys a sense of the many exploitative layers New York City taxi drivers must maneuver through if they are to keep themselves on the road, driving to live. For instance, until recently, drivers on average earned less than $500 but worked upwards of 72 hours in a week. This is because of the hidden costs associated with taxi driving. Drivers must lease cars from garages and brokers for $100 a day or more. The general public, as well as City administration and related regulatory bodies, fail to understand taxi drivers only take home a small fraction of what they generate in income during a shift, the majority of the money going back to the garage owners and brokers. A few lost hours stuck in a traffic jam without a fare can have dire consequences for drivers.

The exploitative relations between drivers and brokers/owners have deeper historical roots according to Mathew. Early in the 20th century New York taxis served as a legitimate front for the mob, providing cover for liquor transportation. In 1937, Mayor La Guardia introduced the Haas Act to wrestle control of the taxi industry back from the mob. The Act required owners to have a permit if operating taxis, which came in the form of a medallion, issued by the City. Yet many of the mob bosses were the ones buying medallions. The cost of a medallion remained relatively low and was regulated by the City until the late 1960s. Since then, the worth of a medallion has increased 2,000 per cent in a 25-year period, driving up medallion lease costs for drivers.

The illusion is that taxi drivers are independent contractors, but nothing could be more counter-factual. Taxi drivers in New York City do not own the means of production (the medallion) and so the economic risks of the taxi business are shouldered solely by drivers. The driver must pay the medallion lease plus car payments and cost of maintenance. Medallion owners pocket money without taking any risk while drivers often have not even covered the lease 8 hours into their shift. This blatant exploitation exists aside another form of regulation taxi drivers are subject to: fines. A stringent code of regulations regarding the cleanliness of the taxi keeps drivers under constant duress: they can be fined for something as small as having a bubble gum wrapper in their back seat. The aftermath of September 11, 2001 also greatly affected taxi drivers. Many lost upwards of 80% of their daily income, and 3/5 of drivers amassed over $5,000 of debt as a direct result.

The New York Taxi Worker Alliance has scored some major victories in labour struggles, however. On May 13 and 14 in 1998, for instance, 24,000 New York City Yellow Cab drivers (98% of the active work force for Yellow Cabs) struck for 24 hours. To contextualize the size of this major success (and the size of the taxi industry in New York City), in all of Canada there are a bit over 38,000 people who make a living driving taxi (plus limousine). The strike, initiated in relation to new safety rules passed down from the Taxi and Limousine Commission, was spread through organizers distributing pamphlets at taxi cab stands, the airport, red lights, and traffic jams. Further, in 2004, the New York Taxi Worker Alliance successfully negotiated a reorganization of taxi fares so that more money would reach taxi driver pockets.

Mathew convincingly argues that, despite the liquidity of capital under neo-liberal economic regimes, globalization is full of restrictive borders for those who labour. Money moves, people get stuck. Many drivers in New York immigrated to the United States in the late 1970s looking for greater economic opportunity. Some moved with their families. But others did not, and they now rarely see their families because of the costs associated with travel (though many loyally still send money home). Linked to this immobility, Mathew says many drivers now live a life of serial bachelorism, eking out their existence isolated in their taxi, sometimes socializing briefly in the night with other drivers.

Mathew does well to ground the contemporary labour struggle of New York City taxi drivers in historical antecedents as well as antagonism from municipal government. Taxi! also opens up space to ask other questions of the taxi driving industry. For instance, what is the plight of female taxi drivers? Taxi! does not offer much in terms of the lives of female taxi drivers in New York, but it would be important to know how female taxi drivers' experiences at work differ from male drivers (Mathew does state that women make up less than 1% of the industry, though this number was higher in the past).

Another issue is the idea of risk. In Taxi! Mathew treats risk predominantly as something having to do with economics and business. While the financial hardships (e.g. licensing fees, car maintenance) associated with taxi work are risky, victimization and health problems associated with taxi work are also important forms of risk Mathew could have investigated in more detail. As regards victimization, a Department of Justice Canada study by P. Stenning in 1996 found taxi drivers in Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Halifax are highly victimized -20 times more than the average Canadian. "Fare-jumping," vandalism, and assault are the more common forms of victimization. One third had been robbed. Fifteen percent reported having had a weapon used against them. Taxi drivers face a disturbingly high rate of occupational homicide --four to five times higher than police. Drivers do not often report victimization because they feel the incident is not serious enough (it is normalized in the occupation); the police will not do anything; or the time it takes to file a complaint is time off the road. A Dutch study by Anee Elzinga, also in 1996, found similar patterns in the Netherlands.

With regards to health problems, increased rates of diabetes, circulation problems, higher blood pressure and cholesterol levels are reported. These health problems are usually incurred by people in their late fifties; yet they develop in drivers in their late thirties. Such health problems stem from sitting in the cars for long hours, not leaving their seats for fear they will miss a fare from dispatch. This brings up the question of how new labour movements attempt to deal with work-related health problems in an era of quasi-contracts and benefit slashing. Risky issues related to victimization and health have as much to do with the pressures of being a cab driver in a capitalist system as economic risk. So Mathew could have explicated these problematics further.

Taxi! is nevertheless an important contribution to the field of labour studies, and should be widely read by diverse audiences.

KEVIN WALBY

Carleton University