{"id":371940,"date":"2026-10-13T13:33:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T13:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/371940\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T13:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T13:33:21","slug":"nycs-taxi-union-teams-with-uber-hedge-fund-to-demand-healthcare-after-4-driver-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/371940\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC&#8217;s taxi union teams with Uber, hedge fund to demand healthcare after 4 driver deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-block-key=\"1i21c\">The union representing New York City\u2019s cab drivers has teamed up with Uber and a hedge fund that owns thousands of taxi medallions to call on lawmakers to create a public health fund for drivers.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"d10v9\">The request was made through a letter sent to Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul Friday, and comes after four yellow taxi drivers <a href=\"https:\/\/gothamist.com\/news\/driving-to-death-nyc-yellow-taxi-drivers-keep-dying-on-the-job-unable-to-make-ends-meet\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">died on the job<\/a> over the summer. Gothamist reported several were facing health issues, and forced to choose between working long hours to pay their bills and seeking treatment.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"2r3oe\">The letter called for the state to redirect a 50-cent surcharge on all yellow cab rides into a health fund for drivers. The surcharge has been directed to the MTA since 2009, and brings in around $24 million a year. The change would require approval from state lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"1ddbh\">The letter also asked lawmakers to expand existing funds for app-based car and livery drivers.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"2jt44\">The groups wrote the deaths required \u201ccrisis that is threatening the health and safety of New York City\u2019s professional drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"2b4p0\">The coalition is an unlikely one. The Taxi Workers Alliance has long criticized Uber for damaging the city\u2019s once-iconic yellow cab industry. MarbleGate, which also signed onto the letter, owns more than 2,000 taxi medallions, which were once valued at more than $1 million but now sell for around $100,000 a piece, according to city records.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"2j09v\">\u201c\u200aTo have the two largest corporations come out and support, endorse our proposal that&#8217;s incredible progress for us,\u201d said Taxi Workers Alliance executive director Bhairavi Desai. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible progress for us and a real breakthrough to show the governor and the mayor that there&#8217;s less opposition here, that there&#8217;s a unified call for urgency to really get this done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"2ugvo\">Representatives for the governor and the mayor\u2019s office did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The union representing New York City\u2019s cab drivers has teamed up with Uber and a hedge fund that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-371940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}