Taxi vs Uber. A noisy group of taxi drivers, on national strike from this morning at 8am until 10pm this evening to demonstrate against the deregulation of the sector, took off from Piazza Barberini, along Via del Tritone in Rome. Various chants chanted on the megaphone – ‘It’s us, it’s us, Italy’s taxi drivers are us’ and other slogans against Uber – and yellow and red smoke bombs. The concentration is planned in Piazza San Silvestro.
As for the strike, white cars will stop throughout Italy until 10pm. However, the social transport service for the elderly, disabled and sick will be “guaranteed”, the unions say. The strike was called by the single trade unions CGIL – FAST – UGL – UTI – TAM – CLAAI Unione Artigiani – SATaM – Or.SA Taxi – Uritaxi – ATLT – ATI Taxi – SITAN/Atn – USB Taxi – Unimpresa – Federtaxi CISAL against “the reorganization of non-scheduled public transport envisaged by the implementing decrees recently presented by the Ministry of Transport, with particular reference to the provisions that will regulate digital intermediation platforms”. What worries taxi drivers most is in fact the entry of multinationals and the politics of algorithms.
