Taxi strike across Italy today. They threaten a 48-hour strike in the run-up to the European elections

On Tuesday 21 May it will be very difficult to find a taxi, from 8am to 10pm, throughout Italy. The unions have confirmed the strike, which culminates with a demonstration in Piazza San Silvestro, Rome, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 'The adhesion to the national taxi strike is almost total throughout Italy. It is practically impossible to find a taxi,' stressed the unions that called today's strike.

An abstention from work that practically all unions and acronyms agreed upon except Loreno Bittarelli's 3570 - the last one dates back to July 2022 - which called for 'the participation of the entire category in defence of their work, to oppose the illegitimate use of rental authorisations and to safeguard their autonomy and independence from the slavery of algorithms and multinationals'.

"On Monday we will have a meeting with a government representative, if the interlocution is not positive, given the technical timeframe, we are ready to go on strike again for 48 hours, close to the European elections". The indication was given by the union representatives who called the strike in Piazza San Silvestro.

But consumer associations have spoken of a 'pointless strike' that only serves 'to maintain caste privileges'. According to the Codacons, " citizens will not feel any difference to any other day of the week because taxis are already habitually unavailable in major Italian cities". For Massimiliano Dona, president of the National Consumers Union, it was the 'usual unmotivated and pre-emptive strike to maintain caste privileges'. For Assoutenti it was an 'absurd and unmotivated strike'.

The taxi drivers are asking the government for certain rules for the sector: 'Ours is not and must not appear to be a corporate defence, we will take to the streets also to protect users,' stresses the national head of Ugl taxi, Alessandro Genovese. 'Today users can count on certified tariffs, tomorrow, without adequate implementing decrees and therefore without rules, it is not said: if the demand for taxi and ncc services grows, the algorithms of the multinationals go through the roof; in emergency situations or natural disasters, prices, as we have seen, have risen by 400%. And he recalls that 'in February ministers Urso and Salvini had convened us to define the appropriate implementing decrees with the commitment to approve them by April. But some meetings at the Mise, where Uber vice-president Tony West was received, and some statements at question time gave us the impression that everything is at a standstill, while because of the multinationals operating in the big cities deregulation is there for all to see'. The Usb coordinator Riccardo Cacchione explains that 'the overall attitude of the majority in this last period has triggered our alarm: the interference that Uber has imposed on politics is nothing new, and therefore what is to all intents and purposes a stop to confrontation and a rehash between different ministries requires us to go directly to a confrontation with the Prime Minister Meloni. We strongly demand that the majority conclude the confrontation with our category, and we ask that the appropriate implementing decrees, which have been at a standstill for five years in the ministries of Economic Development and Transport, and which define the rules and constraints to protect public transport, be approved as soon as possible'. The national secretary of CGIL taxi, Nicola Di Giacobbe, urges: 'We are striking to ask the government to write and approve decrees that serve to implement the spirit of the sector's framework law, not to overturn it to accommodate the pressures of those who want to make a profit out of mobility'.