NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
February 6, 2015 | PAGE 5
Taxi drivers appeal to City: No special rules for Uber
By Don McIntosh
Associate Editor
Kedir Wako never imagined
he’d one day share a stage with
Broadway Cab general manager
Raye Miles at a Pioneer Court-
house Square political rally.
Wako was a leading member of
a group of Broadway Cab driv-
ers who protested exploitive
conditions, formed a driver self-
help association, and ultimately
broke away to form a new
union-affiliated cab co-op. Now
Wako is president of that co-op,
Union Cab. But on Jan. 13,
Wako put aside bygones for a
common cause: Getting the City
of Portland to insist that compa-
nies like Uber play by the same
rules as the taxi companies they
compete with.
Portland, like many other
cities, regulates taxi rates, caps
the number of vehicles, and re-
quires driver background
checks, vehicle inspections and
proof of insurance, among other
rules. But on Dec. 5, Uber
launched its app-based ride
service in Portland in violation
of those regulations. Two weeks
later, Portland Mayor Charlie
Hales announced the City would
propose a new set of taxi rules
by April 9 that would allow
companies like Uber to operate
legally. And Uber announced it
Portland taxi drivers rallied Jan. 13 at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Cab com-
panies want the City of Portland to make ride-sharing companies like Uber
play by the same rules as they do.
would suspend its service until
then.
The City has a long-estab-
lished volunteer citizen review
board known as the Private For-
Hire Transportation Board of
Review. The board includes an
elected taxi driver representative,
a taxi industry representative, a
disability advocate, an airport
representative, a tourism official,
and others. But instead of turn-
ing to that board, which has
decades of collective experience
with taxi rules, Hales and City
Commissioner Steve Novick ap-
pointed a brand-new Private For-
Hire Transportation Innovation
Task Force, with no representa-
tive from taxi drivers or compa-
nies, and no real familiarity with
the industry.
That didn’t sit well with taxi
companies or drivers. To make
sure their voice is heard in the
new rule-making process, six
Portland taxi companies formed
a new group, the Transportation
Fairness Alliance. Its launch
party was the attention-grabbing
rally, with parked cabs covering
Pioneer Courthouse Square.
“We welcome competition, as
long as everyone plays by the
same rules,” Radio Cab superin-
tendent Noah Ernst told rally
participants. Despite the current
cap on the number of City per-
mits (460), Ernst said the indus-
try is quite competitive. Existing
companies and would-be com-
petitors have applied for over
100 additional permits, only to
encounter a protracted and per-
plexing decision process by city
bureaucrats.
“We are as frustrated as any-
body when you can’t get a cab at
peak hours,” Ernst said.
The day after the rally, mem-
bers of the new task force met
for the first time for an orienta-
tion led by City officials and taxi
regulators. The 12-member task
force includes representatives
from the Portland Business Al-
liance, the Oregon Restaurant
and Lodging Association, and a
software and technology trade
association, as well as a night
club owner, an insurance con-
sultant, and disability, environ-
mental and immigrants rights
advocates.
“We don’t usually in the con-
text of American capitalism reg-
ulate rates and limit entry into
markets,” Novick, who is in
charge of the Bureau of Trans-
portation, told the group. So,
Novick said, the task force
should consider whether or not
the City should continue to do
those things.
The task force heard a presen-
tation from taxi companies Feb.
4, and will hear from taxi drivers
Feb. 10, from “transportation
network companies” like Uber
on Feb. 19, and from the public
on Feb. 25. In March, they’ll
work to come up with regula-
tions, which would be presented
to City Council April 9.
City of Portland to consider $15
an hour for contract workers
The idea of a $15-an-hour
wage floor is continuing to gain
momentum. On Feb. 18, Port-
land City Council will hold a
hearing about updating the
City’s 20-year-old living wage
ordinance, which sets minimum
wage and benefit levels for sev-
eral groups of contract employ-
ees: janitors and security guards
at city buildings, attendants at
city-owned parking lots, and
some workers at city-owned
Providence Park.
Under the City’s current Fair
Wage Policy, the workers must
be paid at least $10.38 an hour
plus $1.92 an hour for benefits.
The group 15 Now PDX is call-
ing for that minimum to rise to
$15 an hour, and benefits to $2
an hour — effective Jan. 1, 2016.
Commissioner Dan Saltzman is
in favor of that proposal, which
is also backed by Laborers Local
483 and by Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) Lo-
cal 49, which represents janitors
and security guards. “We want to
see it as a springboard, challeng-
ing private sector owners to step
up,” said Local 49 organizing di-
rector Maggie Long.
City Council will take public
feedback on the issue Feb. 18 at
2 p.m. at City Hall, and could
vote on an increase then or at a
later date.
If a $15 minimum passes, the
City would become the third
Portland-area government body
to set that standard for at least
some workers, following Home
Forward (the local public hous-
ing agency) and Multnomah
County. It would also mean siz-
able raises for over 100 workers,
including 62 janitors employed
by Portland Habilitation Center
and 30 security guards employed
by G4S. The janitors make $12
to $13.80 under their union con-
tract, and the security guards
make $12 to $14.50 under theirs.