SYDNEY TAXI DRIVERS

Evening Star, Issue 21036, 25 February 1932, Page 11

SYDNEY TAXI DRIVERS

MANY WITHOUT ANY WORK SLEEPING IN THE CARS. Some of the most harassed workers of Sydney are the taxi drivers. A great many are receiving the dole, having no work at ail. Those who can get a cab drive it, even though their earnings be insignificant. A correspondent of the Melbourne ‘Argus’ saysßecently the police took action against a number of taxi drivers on charges of having slept in their cabs near the railway station. The drivers did so not from choice, but because it saved expense. They liad to pay somehow the cost of tyres to replace those damaged by rivals inspired by political hatred. The antagonism existing among the drivers is exemplified by the steps taken regarding membership of the Road Transport Union. Supporters of the Lang Plan seek to make themselves felt in that union as elsewhere. “ Any drivers who do not support Mr Lang aro regarded as ‘ black,’ and their enemies want the Road Transport Union to say so. The cause of this exhibition of spleen is the fact that the taxi drivers who are being proceeded against worked for the Federal Labour Party in the East Sydney election. Some citizens assert that there aro spies who busy themselves in making trouble in the unions for those who object to political bondage. There is fear that more tyres will be gashed.”