Daily News on Pedicab Win: "Samuelsen Stood Tall and Said No Way"
Today's Daily News's editorial, "Mayor, money and mania," wraps the story of the failed de Blasio horse carriage bill -- that would have banned hundreds of pedicab drivers from the park below 85th Street, destroying their livelihoods. Drivers like Ali Salih (pictured), an Iraqi refugee whose impoverished family back in Baghdad depends on him to buy food for survival.
The paper gives credit to TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen, who saw the danger to the pedicab drivers and acted forcefully, deploying the union's legal, organizing, and media resources to raise the drivers' profile and torpedo Intro. 573. When we began our tough fight just two weeks ago, it looked like the Mayor's bill, that would reward carriage horse owners who stood to make big money by selling their stables, was headed for a slam-dunk. The City Council's Transportation Committee was in favor by a 10-2 margin.
Then the plan began to unravel, when carriage horse drivers took a second look at how it would winnow their numbers and the Central Park Conservancy started to have second thoughts about a proposed $25 million stable in the Park. And the pedicab drivers started to organize -- with our help. The numbers started to shift on the Transportation Committee as our campaign grew stronger. The plight of the drivers became major news in the daily papers and on local TV. Then, on Thursday morning, the Teamsters withdrew their support.
It added up to a win for working people and a reaffirmation of the TWU's social consciousness, to stand up for working families against a "so-called progressive Mayor." A protest march set for Thursday afternoon turned into a victory rally at Central Park.
Read the Daily News Editorial here.
Even the animal rights activists saw through the clutter, with noted activist Elizabeth Forel writing in a personal letter to the TWU: "Thank you for coming to the rescue of the pedicab drivers. You guys were the true heroes here."