D.C. Taxi Drivers Plan for Strike on Halloween

THE CHANCES you'll be able to catch a cab without a hassle in the District on Halloween are looking frightful: It appears that some of the city's taxi drivers are set to strike for 24 hours beginning at 6 a.m. Wednesday.

The work stoppage is a protest of Mayor Adrian Fenty's decision earlier this month to switch the city's taxis from the zone fare system, which was strongly backed by the city's cab industry, to time-and-distance meters.

According to The Post's Sue Anne Pressley Montes, strike organizers said as many as half of the city's 7,500 drivers will participate. However, Montes reports, "their claims are difficult to gauge ... because there have been no mass meetings on a strike, and the taxi industry is represented by several organizations."

Organizers said the timing of the strike is coincidental, but acknowledged that business is usually brisk on Halloween. Expect to see a lot of despondent-looking people walking around in costume.

Officials with the city's hotel industry, though, told Montes they're prepared for a potential strike. "[W]e've always got a plan B," Liz DeBarros, vice president of the Hotel Association of Washington, D.C., said. "We don't anticipate much disruption."

» "D.C. Taxicab Drivers Planning Wednesday Strike" [WaPo]

Photo by Michael Williamson/The Washington Post