http://www.radio4all.net/program/59050Podcast for Program: New National Taxi Union Fights Highway Robbery; plus, Further NYPD Racial Surveillance Sat, 07 Apr 2012 08:49:46 +0000240http://www.radio4all.net/program/59050Taxi Drivers Say It's Highway Robbery, Demanding Owners Stop The Greed & Lower The Lease! With Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director, New York Taxi Workers Alliance The NY Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) rallied at SLS Jet Garage in Long Island City, Queens, who has a practice of not allowing drivers to pay lease in advance for their shifts, and then charging those same drivers as much as $25 per day for not paying in advance, adding up to more than $9,000 a year. NYTWA has been targeting SLS Jet for its current Stop the Greed, Lower the Lease campaign. We will also discuss the NTWA's, as new chartered union with the AFL-CIO, which will be celebrated at an upcoming reception with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in NYC. The new National Taxi Workers Alliance, the 57th chartered union of the AFL-CIO, is a watershed moment in U.S. Labor History. This is the first new charter for non-traditional workers in over 60 years & the first for independent contractors. ********************************* NYPD Surveillance of Muslims Extended To Activist Organizations With Speakers from: Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM);Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood; Peoples' Justice for Community Control & Police Accountability; CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities; and NYC Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez Representatives from the Muslim community & civil liberties advocates came to Police Plaza to decry the NYPD Intelligence Division's blanket surveillance of a community based on religion and race, and to condemn new revelations about surveillance of community-based advocacy groups. Recent documents unearthed reveal that the NYPD surveilled dozens of community organizations, over the last decade. One document reveals that an undercover NYPD officer traveled to New Orleans to attend the People's Summit, a gathering of groups organized around their shared opposition to U.S. economic and trade policies. The undercover effort entailed groups opposed to U.S. immigration policy, labor laws & racial profiling. The new revelations heighten and broaden the serious questions that have yet to be answered by the NYPD and elected officials surrounding it's Muslim surveillance program accusing Police Commissioner Kelly of overstepping his authority with surveillance tactics that critics claim violate the U.S. ConstitutionKen Nash and Mimi RosenbergSat, 07 Apr 2012 08:49:46 +0000