-----Original Message----- From: James Devine <jdevine at popmail.lmu.edu> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>If Rudy is so opposed to rude cabbies, wouldn't the problem become worse
>with unregulated entry? With the medallions, I presume, there are some
>regulations imposed by the companies and the city. But with a free-for-all
>of competition, how could the city punish a cabbie for being rude?
The point of all this is that Rudy's threats are at best a short-term temporary solution to the strike and are probably mostly an attempt to threaten the medallion owners - the cab companies - into applying the whip hand to force the cabbies back to work. Rudy would never go through with the threat in the long-term (since the city would have a major lawsuit to recover the value of the medallions by the owners), but it does show the leverage the city holds on owners of capital (in this case the medallions) to force control over the workers. Another reason the Medallion system should be rejected by progressives.
--Nathan