ROMA – The national strike proclaimed by the taxi drivers’ organizations against the new Dpcm started at 6 am and will last until 10 pm. Very high membership of the initials Claai, Usb Taxi, Tam, OrSA Taxi, Unimpresa, Federtaxi Cisal, Uritaxi, Ati Taxi, Ugl Taxi, UnioneTassisti Italiana, Satam, Associazione Tutela Legale Taxi. The drivers of the white cars met in Rome for protests in front of the ministries of finance and transport.
At Termini station they displayed a banner that reads “Today taxi strike. We apologize to the users but we no longer even have the money for fuel”. And if the “social” transport service for the elderly, the handicapped and the sick is guaranteed. “our sector has now arrived in an unsustainable condition – reads the note sent to the Government, Municipalities and Regions – insufficient or inadequate economic aid, the absolute inconsistency of any activity to combat illegal activities, which is found in the failure to draft adequate implementing decrees and the Dpcm on technological platforms, a further critical element “.
In Milan the strike is having 100% support. The estimate is Emilio Boccalini president of Taxiblu 02.4040, the most important Radiotaxi in Milan. “The Dpcm does not allow demonstrations and therefore most of the colleagues are at home and not, as usual in the parking lots – he explains -. Only taxis are circulating, with a special sign, which perform social services and transport sick people or invalid without making them pay “. “We are stopped today – Boccalini reiterates -, but in reality we have stopped for months, we are at an all-time low with racing. Here we do not risk losing only our job, but of seeing an entire category disappear”
The strike is only the tip of the iceberg: the problems of the category – from unauthorized access to the entry of multinationals that manage transport – have been going on for some time. And now the pandemic has exacerbated old crises and spawned new ones. “I don’t want to rank the cities, because every worker, every colleague has equal dignity and unfortunately has the same problems regardless of the city they work in. But it’s clear – he underlines Mouthpieces – I believe that these problems in a city like Milan can be perceived and amplified even more because they affect us on various fronts. In addition, we have not seen tourists in Milan for months “.
“Flights from airports are practically at a minimum as well as passengers who choose a taxi – he continues Mouthpieces – customers and workers linked to the world of fairs, major events and businessmen no longer arrive. As well as the people who work in the city offices. For months we have been asking, for example, to upgrade the taxi vouchers for the sick, the elderly and the categories most in difficulty. But not only. We offered to take the students. Nothing, no feedback has ever come to us in this sense. It was preferred to ‘cram these guys into public transport up to the current situation in Milan, with the’ rossà ‘area and all that it entails “.” All this is just the tip of the iceberg of problems affecting the category, which today rightly on strike “, concludes the president of Taxiblu 02.4040.
Peaceful siege also in Piazza De Ferrari by the taxi drivers of the Radio Taxi Genova 0105966 Cooperative which joined the national strike. Taxi drivers are asking for structural economic support and inclusion in the measures envisaged by the next Budget Law, certain rules to combat illegal activities, defense of an essential public service against multinationals. “In this long period of health emergency, companies are moving forward – explains the president Valter Centanaro – but the crisis is very strong for us too. Our cars didn’t even stop during the pandemic, but revenues fell dramatically. We had a 90% decrease during the lockdown and now we are still on 30% of ordinary work. However, we have been left alone by the central government, from which we ask for answers and support, through economic refreshments but also with forms of incentives for the use of taxis, which as never before perform a real service of public utility “.
The vice minister intervenes Laura Castelli: “In the coming days, we will convene an intergovernmental table, with all the institutional actors, including Regions and Local Authorities, to define together, in a structural way, interventions to support a fundamental sector in the remodeling of local public transport. And to further speed up the aid mechanism, direct and indirect, reserved for taxis and NCCs. We do not leave anyone behind “.
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