We're forever being told, our five representative trade bodies are never going to fully unite, it’s just not in their nature they say, it’s never going to happen.
This below is what can happen when a trade IS united .
At last weeks meeting between French Unions and their Government, following the nationwide Taxi protests in France :
It was decided the Government will NOT give PHVs access to bus lanes. (This is exactly what we have been protesting about for the last 16 weeks, but we only have a few hundred willing to protest. The French united and achieved this in a couple of weeks)
Also, the French Government will NOT create parking spaces or ranks for PHVs and in Paris, only the Government can distribute taxi / PHVs Licences and NOT the Mayor.
This has been achieved solely because the French Taxi Trade came together and united as one. The five London taxi orgs are now looked at by the Mayor and TfL as a benign joke, who will never be able to deliver a victory of this magnitude.
But...the drivers themselves could. It doesn't have to be this way!
The Proactive ITA are not a joke, they are a militant umbrella group trying to pull the drivers together regardless of org or union loyalty.
The trouble is that too many rank and file drivers can’t see what can be achieved by a united alliance. Wasn't it Trevor Meralls from the UCG who gave that Churchillian speech outside 10 Downing Street, "it's not the colour of your lanyard that matters....it's the badge on the end that counts".
The ‘Where Buses Go Taxis Go’ protests are entering a seventeenth week, purely because the majority of drivers choose to work while the Proactive few fight for them.
If drivers, regardless of representative loyalty had united seventeen weeks ago, we would not be where we are today.... we wouldn't we be looking just at a complete victory at Tooley Street, it would be a complete victory at Tottenham Court Road, plus we would also be back in the Bank Junction scheme.
TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT :
TfL, Local councils and the Mayor, will keep pushing and pushing to see how far they can go.
Old Street Roundabout opened yesterday and it’s a mess, just like the Elephant, yet nothing from any org ????
Then we have decommissioning!
Tried to rent a spare cab lately? .... there ain’t any.
We spoke to a Garage owner over the weekend, he said he gets at least five calls a day saying “do you have any cabs to rent”.
One of the largest garages in Bethnal Green has 50 drivers on the waiting list, its getting crazy out there.
