A New York City cab
© AFP/Getty Images/FileNEW YORK (AFP) - "On October 22 we are going out again on strike for 24 hours," said Bhairavi Desai, leader of the Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents about 8,000 of the city's 44,000 professional drivers.
Drivers would also be holding a demonstration in Manhattan against the new measures, he said.
"We are immediately demanding that this technology be put on hold and we demand that a health and pension fund be set up for taxidrivers who work 60 to 70 hours a week without any kind of health care or even retirement pension," he told a press conference.
"You can drive in this industry for 25, 30 or 40 years and at the end of that career there is no retirement at all, and this is unacceptable."
It will be the second stoppage in just two months as drivers protest the plans put in motion by Mayor Michael Bloomberg under which all drivers must equip their cars with global satellite positioning systems and machines to take credit cards, partially at their own cost.
The satellite system also includes a monitor for passengers to follow their route, check news and weather, view advertisements, and pay their fare by bank card.
According to taxi drivers' groups, the devices cost more than 5,000 dollars to install and will inform the commission where they are, how many trips they have taken and how much they took in fares.
Thousands of New York's taxi drivers put on the brakes with a 48-hour strike in early September just as the US Open tennis tournament moved toward a climax and the city's Fashion Week started up.
The lack of cabs, in the first stoppage since 1998, was plain to the eye in Manhattan, where an estimated 800,000 passengers travel by taxi every day.
But Desai said he believed "New Yorkers understand our concerns" and did not want to be bombarded with advertising in the back of the cabs.
©AFP