New York Taxi Union Plans Protest At Uber Offices In Long Island City

QUEENS, NY — New York's largest taxi drivers union is organizing an anti-Trump protest on Thursday outside Uber's offices in Long Island City. For more updates on this protest and other news from New York City sent straight to your inbox, sign up for Patch's neighborhood news alerts here.

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance said it's hosting the protest to "[hold] Uber accountable, not only for its complicity with Trump's hateful policies but also for impoverishing workers." More than a dozen other groups are joining the NYTWA in sponsoring the protest, which begins at 5 p.m. on Thursday at 31-00 47th Ave.

The ride-sharing app has come under fire in the last week for its CEO's relationship with President Trump and the company's response to his executive order banning travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The order also suspended the U.S. refugee program for 120 days, among other actions.

After Trump signed the executive order on Friday evening, protests sprung up at airports throughout the country on Saturday as immigration officials began detaining travelers, including at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. NYTWA, which says it has more than 19,000 members, announced a temporary strike and said its members wouldn't pick up passengers at JFK to protest the executive order.

Shortly after, Uber announced that it was suspending surge pricing for pickups at JFK, spurring a maelstrom of criticism on social media under the hashtag #DeleteUber. The company attempted damage control the next day and said it wasn't attempting to break the taxi drivers' strike. CEO Travis Kalanick released a statement promising compensation for drivers impacted by the travel ban.

Protest organizers said they had scheduled the demonstration on Thursday evening in advance of the first meeting of Trump's economic advisory group, which Kalanick joined in December. Before the protest began on Thursday the New York Times reported that Kalanick had stepped down from the group amid mounting public criticism of the the company.

"Earlier today I spoke briefly with the president about the immigration executive order and its issues for our community," Kalanick wrote in an email to company employees, a copy of which was obtained by the Times. "I also let him know that I would not be able to participate on his economic council. Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that."

The president's economic advisory group, which also includes the CEOs of Tesla and General Electric, is scheduled to meet for the first time on Friday.

This story has been updated with additional information.

Image via Jason Lawrence on Flickr.