Taxi Driver Online

Taxi drivers hit the streets, not the picket line

Some say they were set to strike, but 'leaders' never came to Square

Thursday, December 02, 2004

By Michaelangelo Conte
Journal staff writer

Despite threats to strike by Journal Square taxi drivers seeking safer work conditions, the cabbies instead cranked down their meter flags yesterday morning and ferried passengers in the busy, rainy weather.

Representatives of Journal Square cab drivers said Tuesday that the more than 70 drivers of the 35 taxis operating on the Square would strike beginning yesterday morning at 7:30 a.m. But with television news crews standing by, and Jersey City and Port Authority police officers posted on the Square, the cabbies went about business as usual.

Cabbies said they would strike to voice their demands after the murder of cab driver Rady N. Khella, 25, of Jersey City, who was shot in the head in his cab at Mallory and Culver avenues early on Thanksgiving Day.

The drivers want dashboard-mounted security cameras in the cabs, security cameras mounted in Journal Square to monitor passengers getting in and out of their cabs, and security dividers in the cars as strong as those in police cars.

City officials met with three cab drivers Tuesday night, reviewed their list of demands and discussed possible remedies, said Maria Pignataro, a spokeswoman for Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

Pignataro said officials left the meeting expecting the cabbies to go through with the strike yesterday morning.

Tuesday afternoon, several drivers interviewed on the Square had said they intended to strike yesterday morning.

Other representatives of the cabbies met with city officials earlier in the week and came to an agreement to cancel a previous call to strike in favor of working with city officials. They planned to meet with city officials again in January before considering a strike. Pignataro said yesterday it appears the January meeting is back on.

One driver on the Square yesterday said the cabbies had been ready to strike but that no cabbie "leaders" were there to provide leadership.

The second call for a strike arose when a number of drivers said there was no reason for the Healy administration to wait until January to push for an ordinance that would provide for some of the safety improvements,

They said the group that came to the agreement with the mayor earlier in the week did not represent all the drivers. Yesterday's failure to go through with the second planned strike suggests those who renewed the call to strike were not representing all the drivers' wishes, either.

Khella was in his second year of medical school at Rutgers University in Newark and had moonlighted as a cabbie to support his mother and sister since his father died four months ago. Khella graduated from St. Peter's College with a 4.0 grade point average. Since Monday, many cabbies have posted Khella's picture in the rear windows of their cabs.

In April 2003, cab driver Luis O. Tenezaca, 23, of Newark, was shot in the back of the head at about 2 a.m. and 19-year-old Michael A. O'Neill, of Harrison, was convicted of murdering him in May.

Another cab driver, Jan Awadallah, 40, of Hackensack, died on Nov. 17, 2003, hours after being shot twice in the Lafayette section of Jersey City. No arrest has been made in that case.

And on Feb. 8, 2002, a cab driver picked up a passenger on Journal Square and was found at Fulton and Garfield avenues at 2 a.m. bleeding from a slash across his forehead. No arrest was made in that case, either.

When Jersey City's new police chief, Robert Troy, was sworn in at City Hall yesterday he made mention of Khella's death, calling him an innocent victim and a promising young man.