Taxi strike targeting Uber brings chaos to Spanish cities
Taxi strike targeting Uber brings chaos to Spanish cities
Reuters July 30, 2018
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish taxi drivers blocked major
city streets including Barcelona's Gran Via and Madrid's Castellana on Monday
in a protest to pressure the government to curb licences to online ride-hailing
services such as Uber.
Union representatives were due to meet officials of Prime
Minister Pedro Sanchez's government later in the day to try to resolve the
dispute, in which taxi drivers have choked main roads and snarled airports, bus
and train stations since Saturday.
Along with counterparts in many other European countries,
Spain's taxi drivers say that ride-hailing apps have made it impossible to
compete.
"Uber and Cabify are putting the viability of the
taxi sector and 130,000 jobs at risk...The union considers this unfair competition
intolerable," the UGT union said in a statement.
Union representatives say the current law of one
ride-hailing licence for every 30 taxi licences is not being respected and want
an end to the practise of transferring ride-hailing permits between drivers.
With backers including Goldman Sachs and BlackRock and
valued at more than $70 billion, Uber has faced protests, bans and restrictions
around the world as it challenges traditional taxi operators, angering some
unions.
London cab drivers are examining the possibility of
bringing a class action suit against Uber after the mobile app was granted a
temporary licence renewal to operate in the British capital.
(Reporting by Paul Day; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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