PROTEST PLIGHT
PROTESTING SANDWELL PH DRIVERS BRING ROADS TO A STANDSTILL OVER LONGSTANDING GRIEVANCES
Traffic was brought to a standstill in Sandwell on 29 June, as protesting PHV drivers marched from West Bromwich to Oldbury Council House. The Express and Star reports that more than 100 drivers, many carrying plac- ards and banners, chanted “justice” as their long running dispute with Sandwell Council entered its 11th month. The Sandwell Private Hire Drivers Asso- ciation (SPHDA) warned Sandwell Council and local residents that the tail- backs caused by the march was just a taste of what they can inflict on the bor- ough if the dispute enters a second year. SPHDA spokesman Mohammed Niwaz said: “We have been ignored by the council since last August and drivers are leaving Sandwell because nothing is being done. “In the last year, the number of licensed taxi drivers in Sandwell has dropped from over 2,000 to 1,000 because drivers are sick of being ripped off and are getting licensed elsewhere, which is affecting local residents because they are having to get taxis from outside the borough which obviously take longer. “We have been protesting every week and at every council meeting but this is nothing, we only wanted 100 drivers on the protest because we know people still rely on their local taxi drivers. “The pandemic showed how important local taxis are, but if we keep on get- ting ignored then we will show how important we are. Taxi drivers are self employed, we do not have to have a ballot to strike, we can just all decide individually not to work.” Mr Niwaz added: “It would be absolute chaos if we pulled all our drivers off the roads. We obviously do not want to do that because we are responsible and at the moment are just showing through our protests we need to be listened to.” Further explaining their grievances, Mr Niwaz said: “We have to pay the high- est licence fee around, nearly £400. We can’t just go to a doctors for a health
JULY 2022
check but instead have to go through the council’s occupational health ser- vice which can take months, where in Birmingham and Wolverhampton they get seen by doctors straight away., “If we have a problem with our cars we have to go to Sandwell Council’s own garage, and drivers have to wait weeks, which means they are losing money whilst off the road; whereas Wolver- hampton Council has three approved mechanics in Sandwell which their
drivers can go to and get their cars fixed and MoT’d but we cannot. “Sandwell Council is killing the taxi trade. Our costs have rocketed recently. I have been a taxi driver for 40 years and have never known it so bad. It used to cost me £45 to fill my tank but now it is £70, so knowing we are paying out hundreds of pounds out more because we are in Sandwell than drivers in Dud- ley, Wolverhampton and Birmingham is disgusting.” Mr Niwaz, who drives for Bolt, com- plained they have had to deal with changing council leaders and civil ser- vants throughout the dispute. The association had been invited to meet Sandwell Council leader Council- lor Kerrie Carmichael two weeks ago but failed to turn up due to the invita- tion ending up in an email junk folder. Mr Niwaz said they have since been offered another chance to meet with Cllr Carmichael in the last week of July.
UBER DRIVERS STRIKE AROUND THE COUNTRY TO KEEP UP THE FIGHT FOR PAY AND JUSTICE
Around 100 Uber drivers striked and marched in London on Wednesday, 22 June. ADCU union members rallied out- side the firm’s Aldgate Tower offices. They are demanding £2.50 a mile or 20p a minute, plus an end to unfair dis- missals and for Uber to comply with recent court rulings. Driver Jcem told the Socialist Worker he had worked for Uber since 2014 but felt the company ‘could no longer be trust- ed’. “In the past, the company was transparent about how much commis- sion they would take from us. They took 25 per cent per trip. But now they won’t tell us how much they will take, and it changes from trip to trip,” he said. Jcem added that Uber drivers’ wages aren’t keeping up with soaring fuel costs.
There were other issues fuelling drivers’ anger - workers said they’re constantly afraid TfL will revoke their licences and it’s hard to appeal such decisions. Driver Steve said that Uber is still man- aging to dodge granting workers basic rights. “After the Supreme Court ruling that said Uber drivers are workers, the company has cherry-picked what it wants to do. And Bolt has ignored it altogether.
“But this is the price of the gig econo- my. These companies do what they like. They’ve exploited the lack of regulation to make as much money as possible. Drivers for both Uber and Bolt have stiked and protested in the space of a week, around the rest of the country including in Leeds and Portsmouth.
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