The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-02
Taxi Strike Ends;
Drivers Vote To
Return To Work

present Or futura union activit

jobs.
80 In each garage there shall
be elected a committee of three
to act on all grievances.
80 The Mayor shall appoint
an arbitrator in compliance with
the agreement of February 9.
THE fact that we are returning
to work does not in any way signify
defeat. We are returning to work
with our union, with our garage
committee stronger and better or
ganized then before the strike be-
gan.
1.-THE Taxi Drivers Union OF
Greater New York will continue the
work started in February to organ
ize every garage, to improve wages
and working conditions of the hack
men.
Our fight against company
unionism-and we have already Won
great victories in this fight by ex-
posing and discrediting the agen-
cies of the fleet owners before the
hackmen and the public, and we
will go on until we have defeated
every company union in the in
dustry.
Our union, through the heroic
fight of its members, has won the
respect of the majority Of the peo-
pie in New York City. We have
earned our place in the sun. The
strikers are returning to work in
an organized, orderly and dis
ciplined manner, under the leader
ship of their union.
Through building our rank and
file union in every garage in the
city on the basis of democratically
elected garage committees, we will
consolidate our forces for greater
struggle-for greater victory Of the
New York cab drivers
After the vote was taken by the
hackmen they organized in groups
and marched to the garages. The
23rd st. Parrnelee men we're the
first to return. They went to the
garage in a body with their garage
chairman at their head and were
taken back to a man. It is the
union garage committee, and not
the company union, which is rep
resenting the drivers in the Par
melee system garages today.
Although the strikers did not win
full union recognition, the fact that
they went back to the Parmelee
garages with their garage organizs-
ton is an outstanding victory in
the strike.
In the Bronx, where the local
union is dominated by Samuel
Smith AND Anxious Most, local So
cialist leader, the men are being
sent back to work individually, thus
carrying their sabotage of the strike
to point of disorganizing the ranks
of the workers and playing into the
hands of the bosses.
Shortly before the men voted to
return on the basis of a partial vic
tory, it was revealed that Charles
A. Schneider, a Tanmany attorney,
who was working for the union, had
cooked up a scheme with Mr..
Maurice Hotchner, chairman of the
TaXicab Board of Trade, whereby
the men would return to work and
call no more strikes, make no wage
demands and seek no plebiscite
until some remote time when "legis-
lation is enacted to set up a prom
inent regulatory body with iurisdic-
ton over the entire taxicab indus
try"
While Schneider was working
thus at cross purposes with he
union, the union men were already
discussing the plan which they had
worked out themselves and later
adopted.
The drivers went BACK to work in
the same high spirit which they ex-
pressed all during the three week
period of the general strike.
This strike has definitely
established the fact that the Taxi
Drivers Union of Greater New
York is here to stay" said Joseph
Gilbert, organizer of the union.
I'VE haven't got complete union
ization today, but Rome wasn't
built in day. We have ma
j0rity of the hackmen organized
and our past two strikes are just
the first steps towards winning
union recognition and union con-
ditions for every garage in the
city"
All hackmen were told to bring
in complaints which they may have
to the garage steward, who will in
turn take them up at the head
quarters of the union. When
drivers are not reinstated, the union
will take action to restrike the
garage.
All collection boxes, funds and
collection lists for the taxi drivers
should be brought to the union
headquarters, 1888 w. And St. Room
211, as soon as possible. Relief for
that section of the hackmen who
are still striking is extremely urrent.
The strike of the taxi drivers be-
gan over three weeks ago, following
the firing of a garage steward for
his union activities in a Parmelee
garage, 1t was directed against an
attempt of the Parmelee fleet own
ers to foist company union on the
drivers. The men came out on
strike in the Parmelee garages de-
manding recognition of the Taxi
Drivers Union of Greater New York.
The strike was then spread to all
the big fleet garages in the city.
Although the hackmen did not win
their major demand, recognition of
the union, they have won the admir-
alton, support and respect of every
worker and every decent citizen;
they have forced Parmelee to take
them back with union garage COM
mittees; they have dealt blow at
the cOnnaI1v lni0n Rack in the