FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com FEBRUARY 4, 2016 • The Queens Courier 3 Uber drivers protest price cuts in LIC By Angela Mat ua amatua@qns.com/@AngelaMatua More than 100 Uber drivers gathered at the company’s headquarters in Long Island City on Feb. 1 to protest price cuts they say are unfair and exploitative. The car-hailing app announced on Jan. 29 that it cut its UberX prices by 15 percent. But drivers are still expected to pay a 20 to 25 percent commission to the company, which some say is unfair. “If they want to give favor to the customer, OK, they can give it,” said Harbhajan Singh, an Uber driver who attended the protest. “They have to give favor to the driver, also. We have to pay our own car, our own insurance. We have to pay maintenance. They have to balance both things.” The base fare for UberX was reduced to $2.55 from $3. The per-mile rate for each ride decreased from $2.15 to $1.75. The company said it reduced prices to avoid “the winter slump,” which translates to a decrease in trips after the holiday season. According to Alix Anfang, a spokesperson for the company, since the price cut, drivers have spent 39 percent less time between trips, which translates to a 20 percent increase in average hourly earnings compared to two weekends before. Anfang also said trips in Queens increased by 22 percent, an all-time record for the borough. But some drivers say the price cut does not translate to more wages. An Uber driver who declined to give QNS.com his name said after the price cuts he drove a customer from Astoria to the Upper West Side in Manhattan and received $15, less than what he would have made previously, and still had to pay the same commission. “Instead of going forward, we’re going backward,” he said. “The 20 percent they charge is too much. If they want to lower down the price, why don’t they lower the commission fee as well?” The driver added that he would leave Uber unless the company removed the price cuts or agreed to take a lower commission. The protest was organized in collaboration with the Taxi Workers Alliance of New York, a taxi driver union based in Long Island City. Executive Director Bhairavi Desai said Uber recently tried to pit yellow taxi drivers against Uber drivers but that all taxi drivers should be fighting for economic prosperity and full-time jobs. “They want to take you out of the driver’s seat,” Desai said. “Today we say to the billionaires of Wall Street, we are saying to the management of Uber, we are saying to the political structures of New York City, New York State and across this globe that the drivers will no longer be exploited.” Victor, who was at the protest and declined to give his last name, said that the price cut was “an insult to all drivers.” He argued that drivers would have to put in more hours to make ends meet and that the $15 minimum wage Governor Andrew Cuomo is fighting for should apply to taxi drivers as well. The driver, who has worked for Uber for twoyears, called the app “an instrument of oppression and exploitation” and said he had a message for Uber founder Travis Kalanick. “I send a message to Travis Kalanick to wake up and not be so greedy,” Victor said. “He should be ashamed of himself. That Uber should go down the drain if the greed continues. Drivers will not back down. We will organize and organize and organize.” Drivers will gather for another protest in front of City Hall on Feb. 17 at 1 p.m. Some drivers have started a Facebook page to communicate and organize more events. THE COURIER/Photo by Angela Matua Uber drivers protest price cuts at the company’s headquarters in Long Island City. New contract bid for Elmhurst shelter that got 17 code violations in one day By Angela Mat ua amatua@qns.com/@AngelaMatua There’s yet another contract proposal for the homeless shelter operated at the former Pan American Hotel in Elmhurst. After Comptroller Scott M. Stringer thrice rejected a proposal to convert the currently temporary shelter at 79-00 Queens Blvd. into a permanent homeless shelter, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) submitted its fourth proposal in January. The new proposal, a two-year, $23,870,000 contract, was submitted on Jan. 6, according to checkbooknyc.com, with vendor Samaritan Daytop Village Inc. listed as the services provider for the shelter. Scott Stringer has repeatedly said the emergency homeless shelter must address outstanding violations before he can accept any proposal. He denied the contract last May, July and September. Elmhurst residents and elected officials have held several rallies calling on Stringer to deny the proposals. The shelter has suffered from a vermin infestation, and the comptroller has cited health and safety concerns such as fire code violations and a lack of kitchen facilities in the units for rejecting the proposals. Meanwhile, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) slapped the shelter on Tuesday, Jan. 26, with 17 open violations for defective and leaky bathtub faucets in several bathrooms, broken windows, broken bathtubs, broken or defective wall tiles in one bathroom and a defective toilet that does not flush. State Senators Tony Avella, Jeff Klein, Toby Ann Stavisky and Joseph Addabbo, along with Congresswoman Grace Meng, have all applauded Stringer’s decision to deny the contract. Grassroots organization Elmhurst United, which has called for the rejection of each proposal, has argued that making the shelter permanent would burden School District 24, the most overcrowded in the city and that issues such as lack of a child care facility at the site, numerous FDNY violations and a façade violation make it unsuitable for people to live there. THE COURIER/File photo DHS has submitted another proposal to turn the Pan Am homeless shelter into a permanent shelter.
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