The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-07-09
YELLOW TAXICAB
DRIVER PICTURES
SCAB CONDITIONS
Says Workers Ready
For Action
az Taxi Correspondent.l


I am a driver in the Yellow Cab
Corporation and I want to say that
there has been a good deal Of re
sentiment in the ranks of the driv-
ers of this company because of the
impossibility of making a living
driving for this scab firm.
Yellow taxi drivers get 40 per
cent commission on the dollar, pro
viding they work six days. If .
driver works days he gets 35 pc
cent and if he works 4 days 80 1-3
per cent. Drivers working for the
Independent fleet owners get a flat
rate of 40 per cent.
Under Thumb of Police.
There are in this city $4,000 taxi
drivers and the job of each one is
under the thumb of the police de-
partment. Licenses are revoked and
suspended at the will of Police Com
missioner Warren or his subordin-
ates.
Taxi drivers are bulldozed and
overworked as few other workers
are. The taxi driver is a piece
worker. At the end of the week
(which often means seven days. of
long hours, nagging by passengers
police and company inspectors, the
driver is lucky to have made S35
All the money that a driver takes
in is not clear. If he is arrested
and fined for speeding the ma
ture of his work compels him to
speed-he has to pay his own fines
The general public is not aware
f the struggle of the taxi driver in
arder to make living. In the Win
1er time, after hours of driving in
near zero weather, the strain cou-
nled with the cold, becomes unbear-
"ble. 81 Taxi drivers suffer from
aolds, constipation, frozen feet and
ether difficulties. Newspaper stor-
IS favorable to the taxi drivers are
OF mentioned by the daily press
they fail to mention that as many
IS eleven taxi drivers were muir
'lered in the past five years, by pas
~engers who hire the drivers cab
order him into a side street, steal
is days bookings" and cab and
then give him the works"
Some Life.
Taxi drivers are forced by police
regulations to accept any call. A
'rives is never sure that he is not
-atting drunken and abusive Gus
Hpmer or perhaps a criminal. The
@river must post police, criminal
Identification card in his cab, giving
is name and number and photo
-raph so that he can easily be re
orted by any passenger-or framed
1p.
If the driver should lose this card
nd many times they are stolen
rom their frames in the cab, he
'orfeits his right to earn a living
or a period ranging anywhere from
i've days to 2 months and some
lines he has his license revoked.
Taxi drivers want the licensing
department made independent of
,-5ollce control. At the present time
any patrolman can act as inspector
md demand his bit of graft on pain
If reporting a driver for a petty or
imagined offence.
To be reported means license sus-
pension or revelation and inability
to earn a living for the time, so
FRAT drivers give the cop a ride and
Slip something soothing into his
hands.
Individual cab owners have three
organizations, the Amalgamated
Broad Street, and the Independent
Taxi Owners Association. These
organizations take into their ranks
driver owners and furnish legal aid
insurance; but there is no union of
taxi drivers.
The lot of the taxi driver is a
hard one and the only remedy 10
organization along trade union
lines.
COIN TIMER -