{"id":372324,"date":"2026-10-13T21:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T21:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/372324\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T21:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T21:20:13","slug":"amid-on-the-job-deaths-taxi-workers-alliance-calls-on-state-to-fund-driver-health-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/372324\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid on-the-job deaths, Taxi Workers Alliance calls on state to fund driver health benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a rare alliance, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, rideshare giant Uber, and medallion-owning hedge fund Marblegate are all calling on the governor and the mayor<\/a> to back a plan that would create of a health and wellness fund for taxicab drivers by shifting a fare surcharge away from the MTA.<\/p>\n

The plan also calls for a law to expand the health benefits covered by the Black Car Fund, for which Uber, Lyft, livery and black car drivers are eligible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll yellow cab, Uber, Lyft, and livery drivers should be ensured basic benefits such as temporary disability and other paid time-off, health benefits, including vision, dental and hearing plans, and the ability to retire with dignity,\u201d reads a joint letter sent last Friday to Gov. Hochul and Mayor Mamdani.<\/p>\n

The letter is signed by NYTWA head Bhairavi Desai, Uber senior director Josh Gold and Marblegate CEO Andrew Milgram.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe jointly call on you, Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani, to use your respective authority to establish a health and wellness fund for yellow taxi drivers, sustainably finance the fund by reallocating the $0.50 MTA surcharge that drivers already collect and turn over on each fare, and enact legislation to expand the Black Car Fund and Livery Fund to create comparable benefits for livery and app drivers,\u201d the letter continues.<\/p>\n

\"AA taxi medallion is displayed on the hood of a cab, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo\/Mark Lennihan)<\/p>\n

The show of support for a taxi-driver health fund comes after a brutal summer in which four taxi drivers died on the job.<\/p>\n

All four were dealing with ongoing medical struggles, Desai told the Daily news Tuesday, and were unable to take time off.<\/p>\n

Babacar Dem had been undergoing dialysis three times a week while also driving a cab. He was found dead in August after taking a bathroom break, Gothamist reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NYTWA said cabbie Richard Coulibaly had been in and out of the hospital with cardiac issues when he died in his parked cab<\/a> in July in the midst of a heat wave.<\/p>\n

Jagjit Singh, was found dead in his cab in early September after dropping off a fare, apparently after suffering a heart attack.<\/p>\n

Driver Khalifa Siwa was found dead in his cab with an insulin pen in his hand, the taxi worker\u2019s union said.<\/p>\n

NYTWA\u2019s proposal would pay for a separate taxicab health fund by re-allocating the 50-cent surcharge on cab fares that has gone to the MTA since 2009.<\/p>\n

That surcharge, part of a recession-era effort to reduce a then-looming MTA fare hike, goes to the transit agency by law. The law allows the money to be used for whatever bugetary purposes the agency sees fit. Any effort to re-direct the funds would require an act of state government.<\/p>\n

\"AA taxi driver helps a traveler with his suitcase, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo\/Mark Lennihan)<\/p>\n

The MTA could not say exactly how much money the surcharge was generating for the transit agency Tuesday, as the 2009 aid package \u2014 which includes revenue from an automobile rental tax and fees for license and registration renewal \u2014 is lumped together under one line item, \u201cMTA Aid,\u201d which generated $280 million for the transit agency in 2025.<\/p>\n

Data from the city\u2019s Taxi and Limousine commission, however, show roughly 47.9 million taxi trips were made last year. Assuming the 50-cent surcharge was applied to each one, the 2009-era fee raised just under $24 million for the MTA.<\/p>\n

Desai said Tuesday that such a figure \u201ccan provide substantial revenue for a [health] fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clearly deficient for the MTA,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Gov. confirmed that Hochul had received the letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Hochul values the work that taxi and for hire vehicle drivers perform every day,\u201d Sean Butler told the Daily News. \u201cWe have received the letter and will review the proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a rare alliance, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, rideshare giant Uber, and medallion-owning hedge fund Marblegate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85,267,9,24,264,11,10,49,51,50,12,608],"class_list":["post-372324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372324","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=372324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}