The association that defends the interests of taxi drivers in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Élite Taxi, has called for a general strike in the sector throughout Catalonia for this Tuesday. Hundreds of taxi drivers will gather on Gran Via, starting at 9:30 a.m., following their leader Tito Álvarez with the intention of putting pressure on the deputies of the Parliament of Catalonia so that the project of the anti-uber law, which represents a drastic reduction in the number of Transport Vehicles with Driver (VTC) permits. Álvarez intends to paralyze taxi service in the city from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and, on this occasion, he knows that he is alone, since the rest of the taxi drivers’ associations have distanced themselves from the protest.
The mobilization began at 7:30 a.m. with hundreds of taxi drivers marching towards the city center. At 9:30 a.m., the black and yellow vehicles will begin to be stopped on Barcelona’s Gran Via – between Plaza Tetuán and Entença and on Passeig de Gràcia between Rosselló and Plaza de Catalunya – and thus begin a series of actions that will include the filing of a complaint by Elite against Uber to the Catalan Competition Authority and a rally in front of the Foment del Treball.
The reason for this demonstration, after Álvarez obtained a parliamentary commitment, is due to pressure from lobbies with different interests. On September 25, the PSC, ERC, CUP, Comuns and Junts registered the proposal for the future law on the transport of people in vehicles with up to nine seats (the anti-uber law, also named as Titus Law). The deputies presented the regulation, together with Tito Álvarez, to Parliament and announced that, in a few weeks, the parliamentary debate would begin.
This project decapitates VTC services which, for the most part, are in the hands of Uber and Cabify. As soon as the rule comes into force (if it retains the current articles), it will result in the removal of 600 of the 990 VTC licenses currently in force in Barcelona (where there are 10,517 taxi licenses). In addition to the reduction of authorizations, when it is necessary to authorize new authorizations, administrations will give priority to the creation of taxi authorizations and if new VTCs are necessary, they will only be granted short authorizations (two years), which will not be automatically renewed and will disappear as they expire. Moreover, once the project is approved, the challenge process is so long that the taxi industry believes that by the time Uber gets a European ruling against the law, many years will have passed and most licenses will have disappeared.
Uber quickly understood that it needed to push before the bill was passed to make it much more flexible. On November 12, the Uber company organized, within the employers’ association Foment del Treball, a day during which it criticized the future regulations, assured that it would harm mobility in Barcelona and showed that it was not alone, but that it had as allies the main lobbies of the city: the Restaurant Guild, the traders of Barcelona Oberta and the business groups Mou-te per Barcelona and Barcelona Global.
This Tuesday, the taxi also wants to show its muscle in front of the parliamentarians who will have to debate the law. Álvarez assures that Uber and the rest of the associations have met lobbies and parliamentarians to put an end to it. Elite also demands that VTCs that repeatedly fail to comply with the regulations be harshly sanctioned by withdrawing their licenses.
The Association of Pakistani Taxi Drivers of Catalonia (PakTaxi), the Taxi Union of Catalonia (STAC) and the Group of Taxi Companies (ATC) have already announced a few days ago that they are distancing themselves from the protest of the elite considering that there was no dialogue during the call and considering that there were points, such as the requirement of a B1 level of Catalan for drivers taxi and VTC, which should be modified in the future law on taxis.
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