For weeks now, dozens of yellow taxi cabs have lined up

Maltzide City Hall in Lower Manhattan with a message.

We are not going to be treated as second-class citizens in a city

that our blood, sweat, and tears have built for over 100 years.

Berrivy Decide is the president of the Taxi Workers Alliance

That's a union representing 25,000 drivers, many of whom are in debt.

From loans they used to buy New York City taxi medallions.

Those medallions were once worth more than a million dollars

and they gave cab drivers the exclusive right to pick up passengers.

But after Uber and Lyft took to the streets, they crashed in value.

We're all hungry, we're tired.

The city has started a debt relief program, but many drivers say it is not enough relief.

We are feeling a certain level of weakness.

So Decide is joining the drivers in a hunger strike.

She spoke with NPR over the weekend, day 11 of the strike.

The truth of the matter is we refuse to settle for anything less than a real debt relief.

So drivers and their families can get their lives back.

Decide says drivers are facing an average of $500,000 in debt

and that relief grants from the city are barely putting a dent in that.

They're still going to end up being foreclosed on,

losing their jobs, everything they've invested into.

And along the way, they're going to be living in poverty with 60-70 hour

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