This is what happens without worker solidarity.
1. Taxis would not come outside of the city core to pick you up. Or if you booked a ride they would find a more convenient fare, take that and never show
2. The card machine was always "broken" and they would insist on cash, maybe make you go to an ATM
3. They would drive people on poor routes to drive up fares. Especially foreigners. I had this tried on me.
4. They wouldn't take you to destinations they didn't want to go to. Try getting out to Yerba Buena Island (I used to live there)
I'm generally for worker solidarity, and in fact I wish we had more of it in software engineering, but do I feel bad for the taxi drivers in SF? No, they had it coming.
Yes Uber is a game changer but they are not here to serve us, they are here to take over the taxi industry globally and make billions out of it (you need to spend money to make money).
Unfortunately startups try to cut down prices and screw the providers (see Spotify, Uber, Netflix which clearly aren't expensive enough), but the simple new way of offering a service is already a revolution. Booking a taxi by credit card and without negociating, paying for PopcornTime service, etc.
