The document summarizes the author's work as a field intern with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) conducting research interviews with taxi drivers. Over 10 weekly journal entries, the author details progress completing phone and in-person interviews using a survey to collect drivers' experiences with on-the-job violence. The goal is to support passage of the Taxi Driver Protection Act by documenting dangers drivers face. By the final entry, the author has conducted 19 interviews and plans to analyze the data and write a report on the economic impacts of violence faced by taxi drivers.

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Labor and Workplace Studies Field Internship
May Chen
Fall 2012
Stephen Cheng
NYTWA diary
First week journal entry (covering September 4th and 5th, 2012)
This week I began as a CUNY field intern with the New York Taxi Workers
Alliance (NYTWA). Having spoken with Ryan Richardson, I already knew going in that
I would be working on survey- and interview- based research. The research I will be
doing is related to the Taxi Driver Protection Act, a piece of legislation that the NYTWA
is still trying to pass in order to give taxi drivers more protection on the job. The
importance of this proposed law was underscored by the constant, ever-present dangers
of professional taxi driving, such as murder, assault, and robbery. Over two years ago,
then-Governor of New York State David Paterson vetoed it by exploiting a legal
loophole. To add insult to injury, quite literally, drivers such as ______________were
viciously and brutally stabbed just a few months before Paterson’s veto.
The first step for me was to do some research. Ryan gave me access to previous
research projects that former NYTWA interns completed, such as an Occupational Health
Internship Program (OHIP) from the summer of 2010. The OHIP report covers violence
on the job for taxi drivers and therefore serves as an important basis for current and future
research efforts by NYTWA to promote the Taxi Driver Protection Act and related
legislation. Furthermore, speaking of current and future research, my specific task is to
interview drivers, most of whom are members of the NYTWA. I will do thirty interviews
in total and use the data from these interviews to write a new report concerning the
dangers drivers face while working. The report is meant to promote the passage of the
Taxi Driver Protection Act and to inform the general public, academics, and
policymakers.
So far, I have no concerns about the project. Over a year ago, I worked on a
similar project with Brandworkers International in which I assisted with survey- based
research. Finally and additionally, I will keep trying to acquaint myself with the political
economy of the taxi industry (i.e. medallions, the “independent contractor” status of
drivers, etc.). As part of my next journal entry, I will write more generally about the taxi
industry in New York City while also focusing on my work.
Second week journal entry (covering September 11th and 12th, 2012)
This second week with NYTWA I did some additional research and I developed a
“first draft” survey that I will (after some revisions and editing. I know that I will have to
consult with Ryan and Bhairavi Desai.) use to interview at least thirty taxi drivers who
are members of the organization. So far, the challenge has been to keep a balance
between the questions that reflect my research interests (i.e. socioeconomic backgrounds

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of NYTWA’s member drivers, the reasons for immigration among these drivers, etc.) and
the interests and priority of NYTWA (i.e. collecting information on the experiences of
drivers who were victims of job-related violence). There is a possibility that I will need to
pare down the current survey draft. In any case, I already emailed Ryan a copy of that
draft and I hope to discuss the survey with my NYTWA colleagues.
Going into this field internship, I have thought about how I can do some
independent social science research and I discussed this possibility with Ryan (when we
first met after a long time during the last few weeks of summer). Obviously, this survey
project gives me the opportunity to do so, since I am primarily doing these interviews so
as to back up the case for turning the Taxi Driver Protection Act into law. Given that so
many drivers face assault, robbery and murder on the job, the passage of the Taxi Driver
Protection Act is crucial. Equally crucial is the information that NYTWA can gather from
this survey. Although questions on socioeconomic matters are, ultimately, questions on
drivers’ backgrounds, they are also important because of the changes in the taxi industry
over the decades.
These changes are related to the political economy of the taxi industry, given that
a shift from a commission- based compensation system to one that is lease- based. The
former system allowed garage owners and taxi drivers alike guaranteed income streams,
but the latter only gives the garage owners a steady income whereas taxi drivers have to
operate at a loss (by paying upfront and out of pocket for gasoline, the medallion, the
lease, etc.) before they truly earn any money. Growing precariousness within the labor
force of the taxi industry meant, in turn, that workers with few opportunities for upward
socioeconomic mobility (i.e. fairly recent immigrants) have scarce employment options
(i.e. taxi driving). Likewise, medallions, which are licenses that allow taxi drivers to pick
up passengers on the streets, become highly coveted (in monetary terms) and even turn
into financial assets by way of loans from speculators as drivers become compelled to
work harder for pittances.
Third week journal entry (covering September 18th, 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM, and 19th,
1:00 PM – 6:00 PM, 2012)
I edited the first draft of the survey I developed (most of the questions were taken from
previous research by past NYTWA interns) and I went over it with Bhairavi and Ryan. I
developed the survey with my experience with Brandworkers International in mind. Not
surprisingly, I wound up with a survey that reflected the intent and model of a survey I
worked with while interviewing food processing and distribution workers for a brief time
period last year. Brandworkers, a member organization of the Food Chain Workers
Alliance, performed survey- based research as part of a national project that resulted in a
comprehensive report titled “The Hands That Feed Us,” which was published just a few
months ago.
Since the survey I developed for NYTWA was in fact too comprehensive, and thus too
long, it underwent additional extensive editing by Bhairavi (with input from Ryan and
myself too). I wanted the survey to retain some questions about the socioeconomic and

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immigrant backgrounds of the drivers, but ultimately they were omitted so that the
primary focus of the survey can be job-related violence. Nonetheless, I will still be able
to do some qualitative social science research for NYTWA.
Fourth week journal entry (September 25th, 1 PM to 8 PM, and 28th, 1 PM to 4 PM,
2012)
I started doing interviews this week. The interviews are done by phone. Ryan gave me
access to the current working copy of the survey and an Excel spreadsheet with the
information of drivers. I also made sure to keep a day-by-day call log to keep track of and
classify calls (i.e. scheduling interviews for later dates and times, leaving voice messages,
not getting any replies, noting any out-of-service numbers). I completed three interviews
– two on Tuesday, the 25th, and one on Friday, the 28th. Although the NYTWA survey I
am working with is considerably briefer than the first survey I worked with during my
time with Brandworkers, the survey I am using for the NYTWA still takes longer (a half
hour to an hour, at least, for each interview). The probable reason is that while the
research for Brandworkers and the Food Chain Workers Alliance was primarily
quantitative (as exemplified by the majority of multiple choice questions) whereas the
NYTWA survey has more of a qualitative focus (a balance between open-ended
questions and multiple choice questions). I can also add that the Food Chain Workers
Alliance research ultimately culminated in a report that helped (or can help) workers’
centers and unions pinpoint new areas for organizing campaigns whereas the NYTWA
research, which will also result in a report, is meant to draw public support for the
passage of the Taxi Driver Protection Act.
There is, however, one similarity to note between my past involvement with the research
for Brandworkers and the Food Chain Workers Alliance and the research for NYTWA: I
had to and I am interviewing workers while they are on the job. In one case, I interview
workers as they unload supplies from trucks. In the other case, I speak with taxi drivers
on their shifts. Whereas in the former case there is a strong preference that I interview
food distribution workers on the spot, in the latter case I can still schedule interviews for
later dates and times (and I had to do this several times, making notes in my call logs
while doing so).
By late November I hope to complete thirty to forty interviews at minimum and begin my
data analysis and report for NYTWA.
Fifth week journal entry (Tuesday, October 2, 2012, 1 PM to 5 PM and Friday,
October 5, 2012, 1 PM to 7 PM)
I continue with the interviews and so far as I can tell a “good day” amounts to getting
three interviews in a given field internship session with NYTWA (of course, in terms of
my scheduled times with NYTWA). As I have written before, the modus operandi I go
by is to go through the Excel spreadsheet that lists drivers and their information and make
phone calls accordingly. Also, I keep call records as I make the phone calls.

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So far, I have had few problems in my talks with drivers. If I am unable to reach drivers,
usually the problem is due to an out-of-service number or bad timing. If I speak with a
driver who is not available at the moment to complete the phone survey, I schedule the
interview for a later time and day. Otherwise if I can get the interview right away, then I
do so. So far I have nine or ten completed interviews and one partially completed
interview (I may finish this interview tomorrow or the coming Friday).
Although I currently do not have a great deal of data, from what I can tell the drivers I
interviewed are mostly from countries in South Asia (i.e. Bangladesh, Nepal) – three are
immigrants from northern or western Africa (i.e. Algeria, Senegal, and Ivory Coast).
They moved to the United States over the previous three decades (1980s, 1990s, 2000s)
and the last few years (i.e. 2010). I was unable to ask why these drivers moved to the US,
but one driver from Nepal who arrived in the late 2000’s (2007, if I recall correctly) cited
political troubles as a reason for his move.
As yet though, I have yet to be able to draw any actual conclusions from my interviews.
The above are merely a few first impressions.
Sixth week journal entry (Tuesday, October 9, 2012, 1 PM to 5 PM, and Friday,
October 12, 2012, 1 PM to 7 PM)
As usual, I continued with the interviews. I’ve managed to go through the entire list of
taxi drivers who have been victims of job-related violence. For most of the remaining
drivers, I had to leave messages. Although one person told me that he would be available
after 5 PM on Friday, October 12, a call-back led me to his voice mail.
On Tuesday, October 9, one of the drivers, __________, came into the office to talk with
me about his case – he was a victim of a beating and a robbery after leaving his work
shift in the late evening/early morning. Since he had to leave soon for his then-upcoming
taxi driving shift after he arrived at the office, he left me with his memory stick. From
that memory stick, Ryan and I obtained two files that contained police reports on
___________’s case. I also emailed ____________ a copy of the survey (with some of
the question blanks filled in with data I obtained from the files and from my conversation
with him) – he responded that he will return a completed copy by postal mail.
I have been trying to list some general observations that I can draw from my research so
far and I noticed that most of the drivers I interviewed tend to have little faith in the
ability of the police to provide protection and to bring attackers to justice. Thus, they are
victims not just of physical attack by bystanders and/or passengers but of the apathy of
the police department. I don’t know if NYTWA has already addressed this issue but I will
make sure to check with Ryan and Bhairavi.
Seventh week journal entry (Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 1 PM to 4 PM and Friday,
October 19, 2012, 1:30 PM to 8:30 PM), written Saturday, October 20, 2012

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This week I was able to get in touch with several drivers. With a few of the
drivers, I agreed to call them at later dates and times (two I will call on Tuesday, October
23, and one I will call on Friday, October 26). I was able to complete two interviews
yesterday, Friday, October 19. Also, on Friday I emailed five surveys (out of
convenience. If I have an email address for a given driver, Ryan told me that I can send
an email with the survey to that driver after having left two messages). Given that I
already called or tried to call all the drivers that I have on the Excel spreadsheet list, I
have already (a while ago) started calling drivers again.
Of the two surveys I completed this week, one was with a victim of a rather brutal
and vicious attack (I shall refrain from details in this entry) and the other was a witness to
an attack on another taxi driver. The driver who was the victim noted, perceptibly, that
taxi drivers are looked down upon by the public. This observation conforms to similar
observations from others drivers I have interviewed, who have also noted that police
indifference is common.
As for the other driver who was a witness to an attack, he told me that his
passenger left his cab without paying, walked across the street, bought food from a
vendor, walked back across the street, and started kicking another taxi driver. In the
meantime, the driver had already called the police. The police officers arrived just in time
to see the passenger attacking the other driver and make an arrest. So far, this has been
the most unusual incident that I have heard of in my interviews.
As for the total number of interviews, the latest count I have is 12 completed
interviews (this is the most accurate statistic that I have for completed interviews - I may
have over-counted in a previous entry) and three partially competed interviews. And
again, I emailed five surveys.
Eighth week journal entry (Tuesday, October 23, 2012, 1 to 6 PM and Friday,
October 26, 2012, 1 to 6 PM)
This week, if I recall and count correctly, I was able to complete six interviews (at
most. At the very least, four interviews). Currently, the total number of completed
interviews is eighteen. One taxi driver came into the office to complete the interview in
person. I was also able to complete one or two previously incomplete interviews. I can
add an addendum in a few days’ time with precise statistics if necessary. Also, I am still
waiting for completed surveys to be returned via email or postal mail.
The research project is progressing nicely, as Ryan himself has said with
enthusiasm when we last spoke. However, I will need to make callbacks so as to obtain
additional information from taxi drivers who have been victims of on-the-job violence. I
only need to ask two key questions about lost shift time and fares so that the upcoming
NYTWA report will include the economic impact of violence on the job. I will also add
these questions to the survey and make sure to email copies of a revised version of the
survey to five of the drivers.

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Ninth week journal entry (Tuesday, November 6, 2012, 1 PM to 5 PM and Friday,
November 9, 2012, 2 PM to 7:45 PM)
Over the previous week, when Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath transpired, I
was unable to go the NYTWA office on Tuesday, October 30, and Friday, November 2.
However, the office was open then from Wednesday, October 31, to Friday, November 2.
Nonetheless, transit problems prevented me from arriving at NYTWA’s office on Friday,
November 2.
Going back to my survey work, I made sure to revise the survey. I have included
questions on lost days of work, lost earnings due to the lost work time, and amounts due
on car repair and hospital bills. All these questions touch on the economic and financial
losses that taxi drivers must face should they become victims of violence. I have been
able to call back several previously interviewed drivers and ask them about such losses.
Additionally, I have already re-emailed drivers (and emailed a few more drivers. Ryan
was able to find some additional email addresses from the files.) with the revised survey
version. If I recall correctly, ten surveys have been sent via email. I was also able to
complete an interview on Friday, bringing the number of more-or-less complete
interviews up to nineteen. There is still one incomplete interview (I have emailed the
partially completed survey to the driver).
Ryan has told me that soon we will move from the information-gathering phase to
the data analysis phase (soon to be followed by the writing and editing phase, of course).
Tenth week journal entry (Tuesday, November 13, 2012, 1 PM to 4:15 PM, and
Friday, November 16, 2012, 2 PM to 8 PM)
This week I have continued calling back already-interviewed drivers and I’ve
been able to obtain additional information on lost work time, lost potential fare earnings,
and amounts due on medical and car repair bills. I have also tried again (numerous times
already at this point) to reach out to drivers that I have not interviewed before. Although
most drivers I’ve spoken with have been cooperative, on Friday afternoon/night I did
encounter some hostility and cynicism from one driver, by the name of ______________,
who told me that he has visited the NYTWA office so as to receive legal assistance (and
probably other forms of assistance, such as financial and economic aid, i.e. worker’s
compensation) for his case, which dates back to the spring of the previous year (2011),
but has received no help from NYTWA. I sensed his lack of willingness to cooperate by
the tone of his voice. He was also suspicious about why I would approach him over the
phone for an interview after a year and a half to two years and he wanted to know how he
can concretely benefit from the interview. Given that he didn’t sound willing to speak
with me over the phone for the interview, I offered to email him the survey. Yet after I
took down his email address, he nonetheless went back to saying that if he thinks the
interview isn’t worth his time, he won’t answer it. In any case, I told him to respond to

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me via email if he’s willing or unwilling to answer the survey. After our phone
conversation, I emailed the survey to him and I spoke with Ryan about __________’s
case. Ryan says that ___________ already has a worker’s compensation lawyer. I
consulted ____________’s file, which only contained a report form with a brief set of
notes.
I have also begun brainstorming the report that I’ll need to write for NYTWA. In
a discussion on Friday with Ryan, we may bring together the qualitative data that I
gathered with the survey and quantitative data from a previous Occupational Health
Internship Program report.
Eleventh week journal entry (Monday, November 19, 2012, 1 PM to 8 PM)
I started brainstorming the report and toward that end I jotted down some notes
that contain a tentative outline and I started to draft an “introduction.” I’ve already
written that Ryan told me that we may bring together information from previous
NYTWA research with the current research – a decision (and goal) that I’m open to and
willing to see through. I will meet with Ryan and Bhairavi on Monday, November 26,
2012 at 1:30 PM to discuss the report’s development.
I went in on Monday so as to start making up hours – unfortunately, I was unable
to come in on Tuesday because of a medical appointment. In any case, I will make sure to
make up for lost time due to Hurricane Sandy and the appointment.
Twelfth week journal entry (Monday, November 26, 2012, 1 PM to 3 PM and
Tuesday, November 27, 2012, 1 PM to 4 PM)
These recent internship sessions at NYTWA were used to keep up with the
brainstorming of the report. I was able to meet with Bhairavi and Ryan at 1:30 PM on
Tuesday, November 27 and we discussed two key possibilities: 1) integrating drivers’
narratives into the report itself and 2) presenting the report in a more scientific fashion
while including the narratives in an appendix. Bhairavi also suggested developing a
three-column chart with information such as dates of attacks, initials of drivers’ names,
and drivers’ stories. Ryan suggested as well that I can refer to previous research such as
biannual surveys by NYTWA dating from 2007, 2009 and 2011 along with research by
the Occupational Health Internship Project.
In terms of social theory, I’ve speculated as to whether the “branding” of New
York City (to borrow a concept from the sociologist Dr. Miriam Greenberg, currently a
professor at University of California, Santa Cruz) has led to the obscuring of
socioeconomic class relationships and divisions. It’s not an unfounded thought, given that
drivers have told me about indifference from the police and the general public – there
may be a connection between the indifference and the social effects of urban political-
economic trends on the perspectives of people in the city. To expand on these thoughts, I
will turn to Greenberg’s book, Branding New York: How a City in Crisis Was Sold to the
World. Julian Brash’s Bloomberg's New York: Class and Governance in the Luxury City

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should also be of interest. I’ll also turn to works on urban theory by David Harvey, Neil
Smith, and Henri Lefebvre.
Thirteenth week journal entry (Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012: 2:30 PM to 7 PM;
Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012: 1 PM to 6 PM;
Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012: 1:15 PM to 6:15 PM;
Friday, Dec. 7: 12:20 PM to 6:50 PM)
The week was devoted to trying to draft the report. Towards that end, I’ve
tentatively written sections of the report that are typically seen in most scientific papers,
such as the methodological section, results, discussion and conclusion, etc. For the
record, I’ve yet to include a literature review section, but I may. More over, I’ve also
started editing drivers’ accounts, thus developing stories that are based both on my
interview notes and previous notes from case summaries. The goal of the report is to
include both the discussion on the research along with the voices of the taxi drivers
themselves.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, December 11, 2012, I’ll also speak with Ryan about the
progress of the report. So far as I can tell, from a conversation with him, the greater
interest (from him and from Bhairavi) is in the narrative section, which contains the
stories of the drivers, and thus their voices. Since for the most part the research this
season (or semester) has been qualitative, the decision to directly include drivers’
accounts is perfectly understandable and justifiable. Readers will get to see and analyze
the data for themselves. It’s also possible that NYTWA will try to adapt information from
the report (which is in fact a policy paper) so as to develop fact sheets and pamphlets.
Fourteenth week journal entry (Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012: 1 PM to 5 PM;
Friday, Dec. 14, 2012: 2:30 PM to 7:30 PM)
I kept up with working on the report. Since I felt that I was running up against a
“wall” as I was trying to write the paper, I decided to keep editing the narrative section
(the section with the drivers’ firsthand accounts). I also met with Ryan on Friday in order
to discuss the progress of the policy paper. As I talked with Ryan about how the policy
paper’s contents should be arranged, I realized that I was over-thinking things by
assuming that I had to write a scientific paper, albeit a scientific paper that is nonetheless
accessible to the public (public-reader-friendly, sans ultra-technical jargon). Since Ryan
and Bhairavi were mainly interested in presenting the stories, Ryan suggested a paper
with an introduction that contains background data and statistics, the narrative section, a
conclusion that includes some recommendations, and an appendix with the methodology.
This set-up for the paper is perfectly reasonable and, for me at least, it reduces the
pressure of having to write a highly detailed and highly analytical paper.

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I may spend the weekend (Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 15 and 16) working on the
policy paper.
Fifteenth week journal entry (Monday, Dec. 17, 2012, 1:30 PM to 7:30 PM and
Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, 2:30 PM to 5:30 PM)
Monday and Tuesday were effectively my last days (or my last afternoons and nights)
with NYTWA. During that time, plus some time outside of the office on Wednesday, I
finished the first draft of the policy paper. As I’ve written before, the policy paper
consists of an introduction, twenty drivers’ stories, a conclusion with recommendations,
and a methodology (which makes up the appendix). Although I originally planned to
meet Bhairavi to discuss the paper on Thursday or Friday at the NYTWA office, Ryan
contacted me and said that feedback will be sent via email. Since I haven’t received any
emailed feedback as I write this final entry, I may possibly receive feedback next week.
Some concluding reflections: over the semester I’ve been able to develop some social
science research of sorts by doing phone interviews with taxi drivers. Although I’ve yet
to develop a concrete and precise capstone project topic, I think my time with NYTWA
should be relevant and/or helpful. I’ll see what happens as I plan my capstone project and
take my final class over the next semester in the spring. Other insights and recollections
are to be found in my final paper.