New York Taxi Drivers threaten to strike over GPS

Yes, it's a few days old but this was something of an eye-opener for me...

"A trade body representing more than 8,000 New York taxi drivers is threatening to call a strike over the city's plans to introduce satellite positioning systems in every yellow cab."

Link

...and now for some enlightening comments as to why this idea sucks.

"Several years ago I got a cab ride out to NASA in Greenbelt, MD for a job interview. My cabbie told me that he was the longest tenured cabbie in the county. This was the first time I'd seen one of those computerized dispatch systems that are now ubiquitous in taxis. I asked him what kind of effect the digitized system had had on his work.

He related that lots of the cabbies would routinely turn off the system and claim that the equipment was experiencing glitches. He said that the computerized system actually made the work more inefficient for the cabbies. Previously they had been able to easily combine trips, such as picking up a short fare on the way back from the airport. The new system also made it more difficult for the cabbies to run errands during the day for personal stuff. This was very irritating. He said that he also hated the demise of the dispatcher and common radio network, which allowed the cab drivers to talk to each other and keep from getting too bored."

"I drive a cab, and one of the many reasons i drive it is to use the vehicle.
I don't have a GPS system in my cab, and i must say that this GPS crap is bullshit, being a cab driver is one of the worst jobs ever, its dangerous because you are more likely to get mugged, you're always on the road so you're more likely to get in an accident, you have to pay a shitload for the car everyday to the company before you can even start making money for yourself, and some days you don't make any money - even after working 12 hours.
The taxi cab commissions shouldn't be monitoring what the drivers do with the cars that they spend so much money on anyway.

And the arguement that GPS will help the drivers maneuver better is just a good excuse for them, yea, it'd be great if a computer could always navigate me, i get lost sometimes, but i'd rather use a fucking map then being monitored all the time, and taxi driving isn't the only job their using GPS to spy on workers. Gps should always be fought against in any workplace.
And the fact that it will see how much cab drivers take in fares is just fucked up too, just more taxes to claim."

I say they all forget about the strike, BUT they all get mohawks and greet every fare for the next week with "You talkin to me"? If that doesn't scare the authorities out of implementing this, nothing will.