Minnesota-based financial company OSK, in a Brooklyn federal court lawsuit, accuses the NY Taxi Workers Alliance of using “nonstop militant action” to disrupt their business plans.
By: Jose Martinez – TheCity.nyc
A federal lawsuit has disrupted the fragile peace over a debt-relief deal for hundreds of financially strapped taxi medallion owners, months after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer brokered the pact among the city, a group of cabbies and a holdout lender.
O’Brien-Staley Partners/OSK, whose taxi-industry investments include loans for the expensive metal badges that allow yellow cab drivers to pick up street hails, charged that the New York Taxi Workers Alliance “seeks to coerce” the firm into restructuring its entire loan portfolio — even in cases where borrowers are paying or have a proven ability to pay.
“Once NYTWA started advising companies in good standing to strategically default on their loans, everyone feels it crossed over a line from public advocacy to tortious interference,” Jerry O’Brien, the CEO of O’Brien-Staley Partners, said in a statement to THE CITY. “Rather than arguing in the press, we’ve asked a judge to instruct NYTWA to stop — just stop.”
The suit accuses the taxi workers alliance of relying on “uncompromising militancy” and “nonstop militant action” to disrupt the Minnesota-based firm’s payment plans with individual borrowers whose already-shaky finances were slammed by the onset of the pandemic in 2020, when the number of taxi trips plummeted as the city largely shuttered.
“‘Uncompromising militancy’ and ‘nonstop militant action’ are not tools to disturb lawful transactions,” OSK said in the lawsuit filed June 2, according to court records.
“Well before the city announced its own medallion debt-relief initiative, [OSK] was working with individual driver-owners to facilitate payment based on each borrower’s unique circumstances,” the firm’s attorneys wrote in the suit initially filed on May 24 in Manhattan federal court but moved to Brooklyn last week.
‘Crushing Debt’
The executive director of the taxi workers alliance said the suit was blowback against drivers who pushed for debt relief.
“This baseless lawsuit is an attempt to retaliate against drivers and their organization for fighting for — and winning — relief from a debt that’s led to suicides and abject poverty,” the TWA’s Bhairavi Desai told THE CITY. “We will continue to fight for our members with all our vigor and force.
“All drivers deserve a life free of this crushing debt.”
The lawsuit, which seeks at least $774,046 in damages, is the latest twist in a long-running battle between OSK and the 25,000-member organization, which represents drivers for yellow taxis and green and black cars.
OSK contends the taxi workers alliance “has no collective bargaining authority” and seeks to stop it from “encouraging, advising or otherwise inciting borrowers to strategically default under the terms of their contracts.”
Desai called the suit “meritless.”
In March, OSK had accepted an invitation from Schumer to take part in a Taxi and Limousine Commission debt-relief program that is designed to cap debt-service payments at $1,122 a month, with the city guaranteeing the restructured loan.
The earlier deal followed months of protests —- and a two week hunger strike at City Hall by medallion owners — until the city and the taxi workers alliance agreed in November to a debt-restructuring deal with Marblegate Asset Management, the largest holder of taxi medallion loans.
