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From The Socialist newspaper, 17 November 2021
Leeds cab drivers protest against taxi rank move
photo: Leeds Socialist Party (Click to enlarge)
Kevin Pattison, Chair, Leeds and Wakefield Unite Community branch and Leeds Socialist Party
Over 50 taxi drivers protested in Leeds on 10 November, against proposals by Network Rail and West Yorkshire combined authority to relocate the hackney carriage taxi rank to a space beneath the station.
This is the third protest which was again supported by Leeds and Wakefield Unite Community, the Unite region and the Socialist Party.
The campaign is also supported by Leeds Access Use-Ability Group, a disabled-led campaign group who believe it will discriminate against disabled people and others.
A recent survey by Unite showed that 70% of station users want the rank to remain at ground level.
One of the taxi drivers' leaders who spoke, said they were very disappointed that Leeds City Council had not sided with the drivers and represented their views to Network Rail. The proposal would rely on an external lift or steps to reach the new taxi rank under the railway line and no longer adjacent to the well-lit entrance.
The external lift at the other end of the station has been out of action in the past. The space under the station, being enclosed, will trap exhaust fumes, polluting the air for taxi drivers and passengers.
Too often decisions are made with only token, box-ticking consultation. Labour councillors should engage constructively with trade unions and not blindly follow the out-of-touch decisions of Network Rail.
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In The Socialist 17 November 2021:
NHS
NHS workers must take action now to save our NHS
Outsourced Barts health workers in strike ballot for a pay rise
Health and care staff shortages worsened by Tory vaccine sacking threat
News
London MPs' second home swindle while workers and students struggle
Tory sleaze scandal continues, an ex-workers' MP responds
University bosses' pay piles up while workers are forced to strike
COP26
Youth fight for well-paid green jobs and socialist change
Sunak's climate finance agenda typifies capitalism's COP26 failure
China
China: Bureaucracy grapples with new crises
International
Ten years on - where has Podemos's radicalism gone?
Belarus refugees - caught between a rock and a hard place
Workplace news
S Wales Stagecoach bus drivers win £10.50 an hour
DVLA ballot turnout falls short of threshold
Striking Scunthorpe steel scaffs up the ante
Leeds cab drivers protest against taxi rank move
Fresh strikes on East Midlands Railway
An appeal to trade union members to stand as anti-cuts candidates
Clarks workers fight 'fire-and-rehire' pay cut
St Mungo's report fails to address bullying and victimisation of workers
Campaigns
Resisting evictions in east London
Leeds solidarity protest says stop Sudan coup
Why I joined the Socialist Party
Why am I coming to Socialism 2021?
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