Striketober: Taxi Drivers’ Hunger Strike Spotlights NYC Collusion With Predatory Finance

The militant rank-and-file construction industry activists of Building Trades for Workers Democracy stand in full solidarity with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. Workers who bought yellow cab medallions as a means of economic security and livelihood find themselves in debt traps manufactured between City Hall and predatory financial capitalists.

Financialized capitalism- where industry bends to shareholders, banks, and private equity, is a perfect system of exploitation that crushes all workers. Whether it is banks downgrading the credit of businesses that raise wages for workers, bondholders profiting from debt that keeps the MTA in perpetual budget crises as workers pay and benefits come under attack, or financing of speculative real estate developments like the Hudson Yards that are used to bust construction worker unions.

With an eye toward class unity for struggle against the entire system of capitalist exploitation, it is imperative that the labor movement join the NYTWA in demanding that Mayor DeBlasio stop blaming his predecessor and take responsibility for this crisis that pushes taxi drivers to suicide and all sorts of distress. Talk to the union, enact debt forgiveness now!