Bhairavi Desai
Driven to Help Taxi Drivers

"Bhairavi Desai, founder and organizer of the Taxi Workers Alliance in New York (NYTWA)"

Most of take the yellow cabs that fill the strrets in the Big Apple, but many of us do not think of their struggles, challenges and the plight of their lives. But, to Bhairavi Desai, the taxi-drivers constitute the lifeline of the City of New York, and yet, they are one of the most neglected goup.

She has commited her entire life to fight for their rights. A woman of substance, Bhairavi Desai is powerful and determined. Bhairavi Desai, founder and organizer of the Taxi Workers Alliance in New York (NYTWA), utlizes her powerful voice and has organized a movement that earned hundreds of taxidrivers a decent wage that they had fought for so long. Bhairavi's strong commitment to immigrant rights, led her to follow this unusual and often very tough career path. Her organization, established less than a decade ago, fights to improve conditions for taxi drivers and promotes awareness of their rights.

Bhairavi Desai, 34, withstood strong pressures and led the New York City's cabbies to strike for two days, September 4-5, 2007. A soft-spoken woman with a strong heart and a deep commitment to her cause, was described by The New York Times as "the unlikely embodiment of New York City's cabbies:" This widely-publicized taxi strike with the drivers of yellow cabs - about 60 percent of them are of South Asian origin – started the strike over a dispute on the installation of G.P.S software and credit card readers.

The strike was led by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which says it represents 10,000 drivers. The group's energetic executive director, Bhairavi Desai, has become an easily recognizable voice for New York taxi drivers since she began an organizing campaign in the 1990s.

As the city's two-day taxi job action ended, Bhairavi Desai reaffirmed her prominent role in the city's labor movement and her willingness to make bold moves on behalf of her membership in the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. The city has 13,000 yellow cabs and 44,000 licensed drivers. The alliance -- an advocacy group, not a union -- claims to represent about one-fifth of those cabbies. The cabbies were complaining that the G.P.S. technology will allow Big Brother into their cabs, and that the credit card option will cut into profits by costing them a 5 percent fee on every transaction. The striking cabbies complained that the G.P.S. would let the taxi commission monitor where taxis went during the day.

"Ford Foundation made her one of 17 people recognized in its 2005 Leadership for a Changing World awards"

They are also worried that the city would instead use that information to send speeding tickets to drivers who drove to the airport in less time than the trip should take. However, the commission says it could use to direct taxis to places where they are needed. Desai said that about 10,000 of the city's 13,000 taxicabs stayed off the road.

On the first day of the strike, she said that 90 percent of cabs were off the streets. She predicted that the city would ultimately be forced to back down and either change aspects of the technology package for cabs or abandon it altogether. Desai said that her group would try to add members and build on what she called "an unprecedented mobilization in this industry," hinting at possible future actions. "We basically had two solid days that have given us the experience to perfect our skills," she said.

In May 1998, the Indian-born labor activist went head-to-head with the New York City's combative mayor, Rudolph Guiliani, organizing one of the biggest 24- hour taxi strikes in New York history to protest city policing of the industry. A history and women's studies graduate from Rutgers, Desai burned with a passion to take up the fight of the cab drivers, some 60 percent of whom, like her, are immigrants from South Asia, many of them working up to 80 hours a week for as little as $18,000 a year without health benefits, or even any certainty that they will be paid.

Desai bridged the ethnic, religious and regional differences among South Asian cab drivers by emphasizing that everyone is subject to the same difficulties. "We speak more than 100 languages," she says, "and yet there is a common language of exploitation that we all know. Because of our common goals, we were able to organize a common front." Now she plans to organize a South Asian Labor Alliance linking workers in the U.S. with those on the subcontinent.

"Because our countries are underdeveloped, people are forced to migrate to countries that are often very hostile to them," says Desai. "It is important for us to have solidarity with workers in the Third World. They are not the ones who are stealing the jobs." In describing her movement on behalf of taxidrivers, New York Magazine wrote, "Desai was the force behind the most impressive show of cabbie solidarity in the city's history. 18,000 cabdrivers, once divided by nationalities, ethnicities, religions, and languages came together for once in a show of unprecedented solidarity," recalls Bhairavi.

"I wanted people to understand that there was something terribly wrong with the working conditions in this industry. It is the most dangerous profession in the United States and one that offers no benefits, no health insurance, no sick leave, no guaranteed income". Named by the Ms. Foundation as one of 10 female role models, Desai's work with the alliance has gone on for more than a decade, bringing real changes to the lives of the cabbies and pitting her against parts of the New York establishment, including two successive mayors. In May 1998, she organized the largest one-day taxi strike in city history, over low pay and long hours.

That strike was noteworthy as she was able to unite Indian and Pakistani drivers despite the increased tension on the subcontinent because of nuclear tests by India and Pakistan. Ford Foundation made her one of 17 people recognized in its 2005 Leadership for a Changing World awards, where she was among those cited for bringing ''not only concrete gains to their communities but a determination to stand for justice.'' One year earlier, she was honored by another group as one of the ''Top 5 Under 35'' South Asians in the metropolitan area. And in 2003, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund presented her with a ''Justice in Action'' award.
She works long hours, sometimes without pay, to improve the conditions of taxi drivers. She was born in India, and came to the US with her parents at the age of 6. Daughter of working class immigrant parents, she has a degree in Women's Studies from Rutgers University, and worked for Manavi, the South Asian women's organization in New Jersey. "It was a full-time job with part-time salary," she says, laughing when she is told that what she does now is not different. "It is a choice I made long ago," says Desai.

She describes the taxi system in New York as 'a sweatshop on wheels'. A small, mild-mannered person who describes herself as shy, she is unafraid and determined when drawing attention to the inequities faced by the New York taxi drivers, 60% of whom are Sikhs or Bangladeshi immigrants. A one-day strike in April '99 increased awareness of the problems, and membership in the TWA has grown. The group takes on many issues -- unfair regulations, medical checkups and health insurance for the drivers, and fight using classic mass-activism tactics as well as in court.

Desai bridged the ethnic, religious and regional differences among South Asian cab drivers by emphasizing that everyone is subject to the same difficulties. "We speak more than 100 languages," she says, "and yet there is a common language of exploitation that we all know. Because of our common goals, we were able to organize a common front." Now she plans to organize a South Asian Labor Alliance linking workers in the U.S. with those on the subcontinent. "Because our countries are underdeveloped, people are forced to migrate to countries that are often very hostile to them," says Desai. "It is important for us to have solidarity with workers in the Third World. They are not the ones who are stealing the jobs."

"And there is a tremendous amount of awareness among the drivers," Desai says. "They don't want to be taken for granted, they don't have to feel powerless." Though about 60 per cent of NYTWA members are from the subcontinent, Arabs, Latinos and Haitian drivers have also been joining the association, she says. Since the strike Desai has been the subject of nearly a dozen profiles in such magazines as MS, New York and George. 'The alliance has become the working-class mouse that roared,' MS notes. And New York magazine calls her the leader of the most serious show of cabbie solidarity in the city's history "Taxi drivers perform one of the most dangerous jobs -- and in some ways, the most thankless -- in New York," she says. "More drivers are killed than the police." About a dozen drivers were killed or seriously mugged in the past year. "We believe in not only giving them a voice but also some benefits." NYTWA has just begun offering them a free annual medical check-up. "And now that we have started collecting dues -- $ 15 per month -- we are thinking of health insurance, too," she adds.

Desai graduated from Rutgers University in 1994 with a degree in women's studies, but instead found her niche in a business where 99 percent of the drivers are male. After winning the Ford award two years ago, Desai said she was inspired by her membership. ''Through taxi drivers, I have learned the true meanings of honesty and humor, forgiveness and fairness, the maturity to handle difficulties with grace, and, at all times, the importance of dignity,'' Desai said.

- By Anu Sharma