Taxi, towards new strike on 5 and 6 June. White cars summoned to the ministry on Tuesday

With the European elections just around the corner, a new national strike is in sight - the umpteenth - for Italian taxis, which have been engaged for months in a tough tug-of-war against the reorganisation of regulations on non-scheduled public transport brought forward in recent months by Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, which is now in the home straight. The drivers of white cars, after the stoppage from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on 21 May, will once again cross their arms Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 June in protest against the so-called "Decreti Salvini", the regulations intended to bring the 2019 law reorganising the sector into line. In the crosshairs of the unions supporting the mobilisation is the multinational Uber in particular, which would benefit - compared to traditional taxis - from the regulation of digital intermediation platforms. The decrees in the pipeline would also allow substantial unfair competition to all rental operators with drivers, the main recipients of the reorganisation.

Some room for manoeuvre to avert the strike could, however, open up tomorrow, 4 June: the Porta Pia ministry has in fact summoned the taxi drivers' front (Claai, Fast Confsal Taxi, Federtaxi Cisal, Orsa. Taxi, SATaM, Sitan/Atn, Tam, Ugl-Taxi, Un.i.c.a Filt CGIL, Unimpresa, Unione Artigiani, Uritaxi, Usb-Taxi, UTI), which, however, remains cautious about possible developments. We will assess very carefully what will emerge from the planned meeting and only then will we express our opinion on the suspension of the strike proclaimed for 5 and 6 June," explained the organisers in a note circulated in recent days. "We believe that in order to achieve a real regulation of technological platforms and put an end to the age-old problem of abusive phenomena, which have been widespread in the sector for too many years, it is essential to approve certain and clear rules that cannot be circumvented through artifices and surreptitious regulations. The convocation represents an important step towards the creation of a stable and transparent regulatory framework, which is essential for the protection of workers in the sector and to guarantee a fair and safe service to citizens'. On the other hand, 3570, the largest radio taxi cooperative in the capital, confirmed its opposition to the scopero.

The 48-hour strike announced by the taxi drivers registers the clear opposition of the trade associations of the 'black cars', those of car hire with driver, which have never held out against the Salvini legislation. The taxi drivers, underlines a note by Andrea Romano, president of MuoverSì Confederazione Ncc e Mobilità, "perhaps they do not realise the disaster in which non-scheduled public transport in our cities finds itself, also due to rules that are completely unbalanced in their favour and totally inadequate to respond to the new demands of citizens. At this rate it is more than likely that it will be the passengers, who by the millions are already looking for market alternatives to a service that is stuck in the last century, who will go on strike'. The Ncc, Romano concludes, will continue to mobilise 'so that the Salvini decrees are corrected in the light of the repeated calls from the European authorities and in the interest of citizens, their right to free mobility, the quality of life in our cities and all those who work in the sector. And we will insist that Parliament, more than thirty years after the last framework law, finally put its hand to an organic reform of the sector that takes into account what users and our cities need."

As has been said, the process of regulatory reorganisation of non-scheduled mobility services initiated in February by Minister Salvini and characterised by a dense series of consultative meetings with the myriad unions of the taxi-Ncc sector is in its final stages: the last enlarged meeting took place on 3 April, with the presentation of the draft implementing decrees by the minister. One of the last steps was the go-ahead for the three decrees of the Salvini package, which came from the Privacy Guarantor on 23 May, with a few limited remarks on the retention times of personal data 'processed' in serializi di trasporto con conducnte (driver-accompanied transport services) and on the technical measures needed to guarantee the pseudoanonymisation of personal data collected in the Ncc service sheet. All that remains is the final go-ahead, which should take place shortly at a meeting with the categories at the ministry, assuming that the strike and the European elections do not lengthen the timeframe.