The London Daily News

14 July, 2009 19:31 (GMT +01:00)

Black cab revolution, its a battle, "who is up for it"?

The RMT promises to fight for black cabbies in London, the war begins and the fight is long

Editorial

If ever a day a day will be remembered by taxi-cab drivers it must surely be the day when Bob Crow the General Secretary of the Rail Maritime & Transport Union (RMT) turned up at Heathrow airport and spoke with passion, conviction and sense by informing those present they have been badly led over recent years. The present crop of trade representatives just don’t seem to have the ability or know how to solve the many problems the trade faces.

The vast majority of taxi-cab drivers belong to no organisation or union and the licensing authority choose not to keep people informed of any major changes that are being considered or have taken place. Instead taxi-cab drivers hear second or third hand and by then a rumour mill will have altered a message and all lines of communication become a grapevine that can neither be believed nor written off. Well at long last large numbers of drivers finally woke up to the news that one transport a part of Radio Taxis Group intended to place mini-cabs within terminal five of the Heathrow airport. It wasn’t good enough for these ex taxi-cab drivers to book or supply mini-cabs in competition with London’s taxi-cabs they now seek or sought to place mini-cabs within the confines of the airport which may well have constituted a rank. This action taken by the managers of Radio Taxis Group seems to have had the opposite affect because it has finally woken the self employed up and made many of them question the representation they presently receive from whatever group they happen to be a member of.

I have joined the RMT and many may ask why but the answer is simple, they are a bona fide trade union and not an association operating under friendly society rules but try to act like a union. They offer a good range of benefits ranging from a credit union to 24 hour legal cover and they meet or should I say the branch meets monthly where the membership decide to set sensible policy in a democratic manner.

Bob Crow though read this trade correctly, we have been led badly but now we have real choice for you can join a real trade union that is prepared to stand up for the hard earned rights we all earned whilst on the knowledge or you can join any one of the others and carry on as we are. When was the last time a leader of any of our trade bodies stood on stage let alone a table and addressed a large gathering of individual drivers? Yet at the drop of a hat Bob Crow spoke, fielded questions and gave us all a very honest answer to the state of our trade.

I urge you all to join the RMT London Taxi-cab branch and play a full role in your future for if you leave it to the lazy and apathetic it may well too late...

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