“You cannot hand out a union paper on state property,” a city parking authority staffer lied to a local Uber driver as he booted him off a Union Station sidewalk.
Carlos Gomez, a driver with the popular ride sharing company Uber and an organizer with the Independent Drivers Guild of Connecticut, recorded two videos of that interaction Wednesday with the city parking authority manager, Lue Hemingway, and an Amtrak police officer while standing by the bus stop outside of the train station.
Gomez is working with the Independent Drivers Guild, which represents 65,000 rideshare drivers in New York City, to establish a Connecticut-based organization that advocates for improved working conditions for drivers through state lobbying and contract negotiations.
The videos show the Park New Haven manager tell Gomez and fellow local Uber labor organizer Rosana Olan that they can’t hand out flyers about the drivers union there.
“If you want to hand out flyers,” he said, “you’re more than welcome to submit a request for approval from the state of Connecticut. It has to go to the DOT [Department of Transportation].
“Until you’re able to provide something that shows me that you have permission from the State of Connecticut,” he continued, “you cannot hand out a union paper on state property. That goes for any state property in the State of Connecticut.”
In another video taken by Gomez, an Amtrak police officer referred to the sidewalk outside of Union Station as “private property.”
Carlos Gomez.
Sammy Parry, the city parking authority’s chief operating officer, later told the Independent that Park New Haven does have a policy that prohibits soliciting inside or immediately outside of the train station.
Without commenting specifically on Gomez’s interaction, which he said he needs to know more about, he said that solicitors of any kind may not hand out materials inside the station or immediately outside the station because “you’re interfering with traffic flow. That would create traffic problems.”
The city has an agreement with the state, which owns Union Station, to operate the train station on its behalf. Park New Haven, as the city’s parking authority, runs the day-to-day operations of the station for the city.
What the Park New Haven manager told Gomez and what Parry told the Independent appear to be, per state policy and the U.S. Constitution, incorrect.
“You don’t need permission from the DOT to exercise constitutionally protected activities in publicly accessible spaces,” state DOT spokesperson Kevin Nursick told the Independent.
Carlos Gomez video
Park New Haven Manager Lue Hemingway.
The sidewalk outside of the station, and even the areas inside the station itself, are public spaces, he said. People do not need permission from the state to exercise their First Amendment rights there, including handing out labor organizing materials.
The only exception, he said, would be if the organizers or other solicitors were blocking an entrance or egress, or were otherwise creating a safety hazard by, for example, crowding out a train platform.
Otherwise, he said, “you have a right to be there. As long as you’re not impeding access and movement in or outside of the building, then there’s no problem.”
New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLAA) Attorney James Bhandary-Alexander represented Gomez when he was arrested by city police several months ago for allegedly disturbing the peace while labor organizing outside Union Station. (The case was ultimately nolled, after Gomez had to make 14 appearances in state court, according to Bhandary-Alexander.)
Legal aid attorney James Bhandary-Alexander and Uber driver Rosana Olan at the state Capitol.
Bhandary-Alexander has been helping local rideshare drivers organize and petition for driver rights up at the state legislature.
“Right now we are being paid less than minimum wage and the apps are making it harder and harder for us to make ends meet,” Gomez told the Independent about the reason for his union organizing. The Independent Drivers Guild, he said, won New York City drivers pay raises and some benefits. “Unlike most jobs,” he continued, “we don’t all work in the same building, we don’t have a staff list, so being able to flyer where drivers make pick ups and drop offs is an important way to reach my fellow drivers. The only way we can build driver power is if we come together and fight for it adn I hope Connecticut won’t block us from doing that.”
Bandhary-Alexander said that Park New Haven’s order violated Gomez’s First Amendment righs.
“We are not going to allow Park New Haven to violate the constitutional rights of these workers,” he told the Independent by text. “We are asking Park New Haven to immediately rescind their policy of forbidding 1st-amendment protected speech between rideshare drivers at Union Station. If these drivers want to talk union, they have a right to do it at Union Station, without intimidation or misinformation.”
“To have law enforcement and an agent of the City of New Haven collaborate to spread erroneous information about the rights of our residents to talk,” he continued in a phone interview, “to associate, to unionize, is really disturbing.”