Saying "NYC taxi drivers are unionized" is disingenuous

There are 51,000 yellow and green cab drivers in New York City, who compete with each other for the 13,000 medallions the city has allowed. Because a cabbie cannot afford the $500k+ it takes to buy a medallion, he or she must pay a daily lease of a medallion (generally along with the car, though a few cabbies provide their own) from the cab service that owns the medallion (this can cost hundreds of dollars per day). None of the cabbies are employees of the cab services; they are independent contractors. Nobody is getting health insurance or accruing vacation leave here. They have to pay for the gas they use.

Of these 51,000 medallion cab drivers, 15,000 are in the National Taxi Workers' Alliance, which was recently affiliated with the AFL-CIO (and is the first independent contractors' association to be affiliated; AFL-CIO was resistant for a long time to that idea). The cabbies do not have collective bargaining rights or agreements with the medallion owners. Cabbies are not protected by FLSA. As the drivers are independent contractors, the cab service can set whatever hours requirements they wish for them. A cabbie is not guaranteed to make even the minimum wage (most do, though they still make less than Uber drivers).