DC Taxi Drivers Organize

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

DC taxi drivers chanted "We will win! We will win!" at yesterday's first meeting of the Washington DC Taxi Operators Association, which formalized its affiliation with Teamsters Local Union 922. “We need our rights and our association with Local 922 will give us our rights,” said driver Mohamud Samantar.  “Do you believe in justice?” Local 922 President Ferline Buie asked the drivers crowded into Local 639’s huge union hall. “It's time you received the respect and dignity you deserve!” More than a thousand taxi drivers have already signed up to join the association, reports the Teamsters, "which is being created to give the more than 6,000 cab drivers in Washington, who are independent owner- or lease-operators, a united, collective voice for positive change in their industry." - photo courtesy Teamsters