Las Vegas Sun NewsPotential taxicab strike could put Clark County in ‘emergency situation’
Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Cab drivers hold an informational picket at the intersection of Convention Center Drive and Paradise Road in front of the Las Vegas Convention Center Wednesday, October 31, 2012. The drivers’ unions are in a contract dispute with Frias Transportation and disagree with proposed changes in the companys seniority policies. They also say the company does not pay drivers fair wages.
Thursday
1 November 2012
4:23 p.m.
Negotiators with the United Steelworkers union and the Frias Transportation Management group met today, a day after taxi drivers took to the streets in front of the Las Vegas Convention Center to call attention to stalled contract talks.
If a deal is not met, a strike could occur next week, taking more than half the city's taxis off the road.
An estimated 200 drivers demonstrated as the convention center emptied on the second day of the Specialty Equipment Market Association trade show that is being attended by more than 100,000 people. Metro Police and witnesses said the demonstration was orderly.
The union and Frias reportedly have been far apart on proposed changes to the company’s seniority policies. Drivers have been working without a contract since Sept. 11.
Frias is the largest cab operator in Southern Nevada, and the Steelworkers represent about 1,800 drivers for the ANLV, Virgin Valley, ABC Union, Vegas Western and ACE Cab companies.
Negotiating teams returned to the table weeks after union members overwhelmingly rejected Frias’ latest contract offer and authorized a strike.
At issue in the negotiations are how drivers are allowed to bid for their shifts. The company wants to change the bidding process to allow better-performing employees to get preferred shifts. Employees would be ranked by attendance, job performance and productivity. Currently, the ranking is by seniority.
Union leaders object to the performance-based standards because they believe the emphasis on productivity would lead to more drivers using illegal means, such as long-hauling customers, to produce more revenue.
The Steelworkers contract talks are running simultaneously with negotiations between the Industrial Technical Professional Employees union and Yellow-Checker-Star, the second-largest cab operation in Southern Nevada.
The union’s contract with YCS expired Wednesday, and both sides agreed to an eight-day extension.
Sources with knowledge of the unions’ strategy believe the Steelworkers and ITPE have aligned and could walk off the job next week when the YCS extension expires at midnight Nov. 8.
The next major convention in Las Vegas begins Nov. 12 when Fabtech, a metalworkers show with a predicted attendance of 30,000 people, begins a three-day run at the Convention Center.
The eight cab companies operated by Frias and YCS represent more than half the taxicab fleet in Clark County. The Nevada Taxicab Authority on Wednesday moved to minimize the impact of a potential strike by issuing an order allowing cab companies to temporarily add up to 30 vehicles to their fleets if a strike is called.
Under the unanimously approved order, the board would attempt to convene within 24 hours of a called strike, and if a meeting could not be set, the allocation of a maximum 30 cabs per company would be allowed, subject to Taxicab Authority Administrator Charles Harvey’s assessment of whether public needs were being met.
Whittlesea Blue Cab and Henderson Taxi, companies that are part of the Bell Transportation Group, made the request for additional cabs. Every cab company except Frias supported the request.
YCS’ intervention, prepared by the company’s lawyer Marc Gordon, said “the taxicab industry in Clark County is facing a possible emergency situation.”
Officials with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority attended the Taxicab Authority meeting but made no presentation. The city’s tourism marketers are hoping they won’t have to react to negative publicity that could be generated by a strike.
Violent taxi industry strikes in Las Vegas in the 1950s and 1960s led the state to form the Taxicab Authority.
Share
Join the Discussion:
Previous Discussion:
Discussion 1 comments
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
Most Popular
- New Las Vegas Strip arena to cost $350 million
- Here’s why hundreds of wannabe murderers are roaming our streets
- Sin City? Blog says the title rightfully belongs to St. Louis, not Las Vegas
- In love at EDC? Now you can get married at the festival
- Nevada justices may be growing weary of inmate’s frequent appeals
Comment removed by moderator. Inappropriate
Frias plays these union fools like a Stradivarius. The issue is still the same since 2005; too many cabs on the street. Frias will gladly cave into the seniority bid. This keeps the status quo. (Steel Worker cabbies do not know the term status quo. It means keeping things the same). The union is limp and will never ask for a reduction of cabs. Otherwise, they will be ordered to leave the property. The Union has no answer for those losses of dues.
The goal of the new management who is now running the company since the owner died is to put the union and all the other companies out of business and have a monopoly on Las Vegas transportaion. This is just one of the moves in his elaborate game. One of the earliest moves was to man the Taxi authority with thier own people to facilitate the approval for and issuance of more than cabs than the city needs. This has the effect of making the drivers poorer and unable to survive a strike as will happen, and allow for a lock out of the union. It also had the effect of reducing profitablity of of the other cab companies who are in compitition with Frias. This next step is win, win for Frias management as he leverages himself to hire away all the best producers from the other companies. Also a strike now will make many drivers ineleigible for year end bonuses which is how drivers in Las Vegas survive the lack of business in late November and through December.Sadly the other companies in their ingnorance went along with Frias managements insistance on more cabs. Las Vegas too is in danger from all the manipulations by Frias management as drivers begin to understand minimum wage jobs pay far better than taxi driver jobs unless they want to long haul the visitors to Las Vegas on every trip they book. Another consequence of Frias mangement propsal would force drivers to ignore everything around the strip by going strictly for airport rides to attempt to keep productivity high for choice shifts and vehicles to drive. This has obvious consequences for other taxi companies and Las Vegas businesses in general.
So, now cab drivers are "important?" If they go on strike it will create an "emergency situation?" For whom? The cab companies who over-work and under-pay their serfs? How many of you work a mandatory 10-to-12 hour shift 5-days a week with no overtime pay and, many shifts, at near minimum wage levels? How many of you are considered "independent contractors" so you are not availed of the guarantees just about every other employee gets as a matter of course? How many of you work at a job whereby you are required, when a new employee, to show up for work, wait up to 5 hours and, if there is no work, get sent home without pay? How many of you are put under the stress of "booking averages" that, if not met, mean you do not get to work the next day? Don't shed any tears for cab companies who are "guaranteed" to make a profit by state charter when the drivers are treated as "Third World" peons. Having experienced the care, compassion and courtesy afforded cab drivers by their companies, I can tell you cab company owners and managers are basically heartless when it comes to their dealings with their "human resources." They literally care more about their equipment than they do their drivers.