A "crowdsource" request is more than a request for help. I am asking all of you who read this blog to put in a little bit of your knowledge of this situation in the comments as part of my research for this story.

What I need from all of you is to give me whatever information you have about the Taxi Alliance strike that is going on right now and that will continue until Friday morning (that's when the scheduled 48 hours of the strike will end).

I could actually write off-the-bat a littany of reasons why the GPS system that is being rammed down the throats of taxi drivers is a really bad idea --not just from an ethical standpoint but also from a legal one; especially if we are talking about how this would impact not just the civil rights of drivers but of passengers as well.

But the one sticking poing in this situation is the division between the two unions. On one end is the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, led by a woman called Bharavi Desai. On the other end is the opposing union, New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, led by a Fernando Mateo.

I have spoken to Ms. Desai and have gotten background on their grievances. I have tried contacting Mr. Mateo to no avail.

This is what I am missing in this story :

I am, by sentiment, by heritage and by political perspective, a fan of the organized labor movement --which, as I see it, improves the lives of its members and the content of the body politic. As a result, each Labor Day seems an occasion more for nostalgia than celebration. My ideas about the decline of the labor movement are confused and the solutions, tentative.

The proportion of the US work force which is represented by union continues its decline year-to-year. The sectors in which union-membership growth occurs at all, public employment and health care, are largely outside of the profit-making sector of the economy so that those employers are somewhat less frantic and use fewer scorched-earth “preventive labor relations” tactics. Retail giants like Wal-Mart and Starbucks fight unions tooth and nail, mostly with success. For a thoughtful, but somewhat dated, essay by labor educator-gadlfy Harry Kelber on unions’ very long losing streak click here.

As my family has been active in labor unions for several generations, I continue to be a strong fan of them and of expanding employee rights. For links to the lyrics of the song and a YouTube of Pete Seeger & the Weavers singing it, go to the end.

Tuesday, the US Senate, it is said, will vote on the Employee Free Choice Act, a union sponsored bill which, if enacted, would ease unions’ ability to organize workers.

UPDATE: On a cloture motion, Senators favoring the Employee Free Choice Act gained 51 votes -- a majority of Senators but --not enough to cut off debate. (60 needed).
2nd UPDATE: Every single GOP Senator (except for Arlen Spector,PA) voted against the bill. Every Democratic Senator (and right leaning Leiberman and left-leaning Sanders) voted for it. Evict more GOP Senators. Remember this issue if ever someone says to you it makes no difference which party is in control

For a person like me, who came of age in the course of the civil rights movement of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, it was a perfect left-wing storm: Blacks, Asians, Jews, clergy, labor united, demanding dignity and workers' rights. Your chance to march with them is Saturday June 9, 2007. More about that after the jump.

Demanding enactment of a NYS “Domestic Workers Bill of Rights” hundreds of domestic workers – largely, it seemed, West Indian and Asian, packed into the Sanctuary of Judson Memorial Church, listened to their leaders, AFL-CIO president John Sweeny, socialist-author-blogger, Barbara Ehrenreich, State Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith and leaders of Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ). There was, by the way, lots of great food.