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New York’s Uber and taxi drivers are now eligible for the vaccine! Excluding these essential frontline workers was gross neglect, and we are heartened this has been corrected.
NYTWA’s statement: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/NYTWA-Statement-on-Taxi-Drivers-Addition-to-1B-Vaccine-Rollout.html?soid=1101912670699&aid=9kOstjMRfeQ
NYTWA’s statement: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/NYTWA-Statement-on-Taxi-Drivers-Addition-to-1B-Vaccine-Rollout.html?soid=1101912670699&aid=9kOstjMRfeQ
It feels like drivers have been forgotten and left second priority in so many aspects of the recovery. Today brings some light of hope into what's been a tunnel of darkness.
Drivers - a majority low-wage, immigrant and people of color workforce - were treated like second-class citizens and ignored in the first rollout of the vaccines despite the inclusion of all other transportation workers.
Thank you to NYS Senator @jessicaramos & others for your leadership in bringing visibility to drivers.
Drivers are on the frontline, high risk, working in small, enclosed spaces. In NYC, we’ve lost more than 60 drivers to COVID, from members who were among the earliest to face exposure to those who contracted the virus immediately after going back to work.
Having priority access to the vaccine will keep more drivers alive and healthy, no longer forcing them to choose between economic survival and survival from a pandemic.
Giving priority to drivers and restaurant workers is also one step toward addressing the racial and class inequities in the vaccine distribution.
We call on our delivery brothers and sisters, and all retail workers, to be immediately added. We look forward to working with the Mayor's office and the Taxi and Limousine Commission to ensure the Governor's order is implemented.
And we join the calls for the White House to hasten supplies of the vaccine. We also call on other states to follow suit - both to recognize the priority for drivers and other service workers and to make vaccines available regardless of immigration status.
