“Don't tell your parents you're a cab driver. You'll just embarrass them.”

— Off. Paul Makaveckas, SFPD Taxi Detail, Taxi Class Instructor

A resolution approved by the Board of Supervisors last May promised that "MTA is to present to the Government Audit and Oversight Committee within 180 days its plan to transfer the Taxi Commission to the MTA."

Exactly 164 days later, on Nov. 4, the plan arrived, except it was never approved by the MTA's Board of Directors, or even presented in writing for stakeholders and citizens to review. Rather, MTA officials offered a brief oral report to the committee, chaired by outgoing board President Aaron Peskin. Most noteworthy about the plan was that it contained none of the urgent driver issues proposed over the last several months by United Taxicab Workers and others. What it did contain, however, was everything proposed by the Taxi Advisory Group, a seven-member committee which had but one member representing the more than 5,600 rank-and-file drivers.

As it stands, the merger plan guarantees that nonmedallion drivers will continue as second-class citizens in the San Francisco taxi industry. UTW is determined to stop it before those rules are set in stone. Here are the most glaring TAG recommendations:

1) The current, temporary Taxi Advisory Group is to be replaced by a permanent Taxi Advisory Council with management/medallion holders holding seven of 15 seats, a near majority. Non-medallion holding drivers would have only three seats. In order for rank-and-file drivers to pass any recommendation to the MTA that runs contrary to cab company and medallion holder interests, we would need the votes of all five of the public citizen seats. If Taxi Commission appointments are any indication, that's not likely to happen.

The MTA plan even disregarded a compromise from one of its own directors, Malcolm Heinicke, who suggested strengthening driver representation, since management and medallion holders almost invariably vote as a bloc.

2) The MTA will freeze permit fees for four years, meaning there will be no money for new office workers or Taxi Detail officers. As it stands, there are just two officers to handle all the illegal limo/cab reports, down from six officers a few years ago. The severe shortage of officers has been the primary reason that illegal limos have stolen so much of our business.

3) The plan creates a disciplinary hearing officer position to hear complaints against drivers, with no provision for driver complaints against companies. Drivers are regularly subjected to extortion, abusive treatment, and illegal demands, such as Yellow Cab's repeated attempts to force them to pay illegal deposits. UTW calls for an ombudsman or taxi court, where drivers can defend themselves and bring grievances without fear of retribution.

4) Despite oral assurances by Board President Peskin and MTA Executive Director Nathaniel Ford, there is no guarantee Proposition K will stand and not be dismantled. Prop K created the system of city-owned medallions held by drivers for as long as they actively drive. There is a strong movement, among the Medallion Holders Association and others, to compromise the driving requirement, allow holders to keep the medallions for life, and sell them as personal property. This would be wonderful for the generation of drivers who acquired them virtually for free, but it would rip off everyone below them on the list.

5) Finally, the proposed merger plan included not one word about improving service. That's not surprising. Cab companies make no money from serving the public…only cab drivers do that. Cab companies make their money rain or shine, as do permit holders, who rent their public medallions to companies for upwards of $20,000 a year. That's why it's crucial for rank-and-file drivers to be properly represented on the Taxi Advisory Group, and driver protections to be written into the merger plan. Without that, the ideas that drivers bring to the table will never be heard!

Consider these driver initiatives:

1) Everyone, it seems, favors a meter increase to enhance driver revenue. The City Controller recently recommended an 11-percent increase. The companies support it, as do the medallion holders. Yet, meter raises are inherently inflationary and shift the burden of company mismanagement onto the riders, many of whom are poor and racing between jobs. Here's a better idea: drop the meter by dropping the gate, and drop the gate by capping medallion leases. You won't hear that from anyone but non-medallion drivers, and yet it's the most practical and obvious suggestion out there. It would bring us more riders, and keep drivers alive when the tourists and the businessmen quit coming during the global recession;

2) Create a centralized dispatch system that connects riders with all the cabs in the city, so you don't have drivers riding around for hours looking for fares, while angry citizens fume about never getting cabs. You could even add more cabs, instead of making up the difference with illegal, gas-guzzling Lincoln town cars. That's another idea you won't hear from companies or medallion holders, because it won't make them any richer; unless, of course, you tie their income to actually picking people up.

3) Add officers to the Taxi Detail. The Taxi Commission has repeatedly rejected this suggestion. Yet, greater enforcement is essential if we are to rid the city of illegal limos and cabs that steal our business.

4) Create a taxi court where drivers are protected by due process, i.e. are entitled to defend themselves without fear of retribution. The Taxi Advisory Group proposes a hearing officer to adjudicate complaints against drivers only. This perpetuates the disgraceful second-class citizenship that drivers are forced to live under.

5) How about, instead of companies running to the city to raise the gate every time they run short of funds, they advertise? Revolutionary idea, eh? Citizens would be far more inclined to ride cabs if they were clean, reasonably priced and showed up when ordered. How about taxis taking their place alongside buses and trains as the third integral piece of the mass-transit puzzle?

Verbal assurances of fairness from MTA officials are insufficient when their written plans spell out “ More of the Same!” UTW insists that drivers be treated fairly at last. Officer Makaveckas' joke is no longer funny. That is why, this spring, United Taxicab Workers will be participating in a “Dignity Campaign,” along with many labor and community groups.

We have all heard the refrain that the industry has been this way for years and will never change. That's not true. More and more, drivers are demanding the rights and benefits for which workers fought and died over the last 150 years. Until we stand up for ourselves, we will continue as second-class citizens and easy victims of corrupt management. Until we do, we will continue racing like rats in a psychology experiment, for 10 or 12 hours a day, just to make a bare living. The time has come to change all that.