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Taxis go on strike across Italy over Uber benefits

Taxi drivers were striking between 8am and 10pm on Thursday as part of an ongoing row over perceived perks for non-official car hire services.

Published: 23 March 2017 11:32 CET
Taxis go on strike across Italy over Uber benefits
File photo of a taxi sign outside the Colosseum, where taxi drivers were protesting on Thursday. Photo: AFP

The strike, announced last week, follows six days of unofficial strike action at the end of February, which led to violent protests outside parliament.

Although not all taxi unions signed up to the strike, taxi services in Italy's big cities have been left severely depleted by, including services to and from airports.

According to the leader of Uritaxi, a union which is not taking part in the industrial action, many drivers weren't working on Thursday due to “fear of retaliation” from other drivers.

At affected airports, additional staff are on hand to advise travellers, and in Rome, replacement bus services are taking visitors to and from the airports.

In the capital, taxi drivers marched from the Colosseum to the central Piazza Madonna di Loreto, where union representatives will report on the ongoing talks with the government.

Similar protests are taking place in Milan, Naples, Genoa, and Turin.

Rome mayor Virginia Raggi, who has expressed support for the drivers and criticized government reforms “imposed from the top down”, reminded taxi drivers that they were “the first ambassadors of our capital”. She called on those protesting to guarantee a minimum level of service and avoid any incidents which could damage the city's image.

“We understand the difficulty of the situation and their [drivers'] reasons, but the capital, particularly ahead of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, is in the spotlight of the world,” noted Raggi.

The row is over government regulation of car-hire and car-share services, which taxi drivers claim benefit from rules regarding tariffs and licenses.

Currently, Uber or NCC drivers can purchase their licenses in smaller towns, where they cost less, but use them to work in cities, something taxi drivers are unable to do. Private car hire drivers are also able to charge as much as they like, compared to taxi drivers who are limited to fixed tariffs.

Italy's transport ministry on Wednesday unveiled a decree aimed to stop 'abuse' from private car hire drivers in an effort to avert the strike, but the measure was not enough to appease the unions.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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