Michael Tatham collection on the United Taxi Workers Organizing Committee

The United Taxi Workers Organizing Committee (UTWOC) was formed in 1979 in response to a shift in many Boston taxicab companies, including Checker Taxi and Town Taxi, away from an employee-driver basis to one of voluntary leasing. The drivers contended that this change rendered them powerless to control their hours of work, lease, and gas charges. The two existing unions – the Back Bay Taxi Drivers Association and International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 496 – allegedly did little to protect the drivers.

Boston taxi drivers were difficult to organize because of high turnover and a broad mix of personal and ethnic backgrounds. The UTWOC was founded by a small group of dissidents who concluded, as tension over new employment terms mounted, that their best hope lay in a new organizing drive. Efforts were made throughout the winter of 1979 to 1980 to get drivers at Town Taxi, the city's second-largest garage, to sign union cards. The high turnover rate of drivers impeded this process, as did the already-established jurisdiction of Teamsters Local 496 and the Back Bay Taxi Drivers Association.

Despite a lack of militant support, UTWOC leaders filed with the National Labor Relations Board for recognition in the summer of 1980. On November 5th, the NLRB ruled in favor of the UTWOC and ordered an election. After a brief campaign in which it was blocked at every turn by management and its agents, the new union was defeated in a general membership vote on December 5, 1980.

Sources:

Tatham, Michael. "UTWOC History." Unpublished typescript, undated.