Taxi service blocked in Rome while the protest of taxi drivers against what they call the "pro Uber amnesty" continues in Turin and Milan. The Senate approved the trust placed by the Government in the Milleproroghe Decree with 153 votes in favor and 99 votes against. The text is now being examined by the Chamber.
The unrest in the capital also extended to the airports of Fiumicino and Ciampino practically emptied of white cars. A thousand taxi drivers gathered spontaneously near Palazzo Madama.
Again this morning the Turin drivers will be in authorized garrison in front of the civic building, from 9 to 13, awaiting the Roman vote in the Senate on the milleproroghe decree, containing the amendment that paves the way for multinationals such as Uber. Principals have also been announced in other Italian squares.
“The margin for rethinking is laughable – says Federico Rolando, national spokesman for Federtaxi – this could open up future panoramas of the fight, which will be established during the category assembly scheduled for the 22nd in Rome, before the definitive passage to Parliament. Taxi drivers have been waiting since September 2015 for the promised table on the enabling law agreed with the government".
The union organizations of Milanese taxi drivers have requested an urgent meeting with the prefect, Luciana Lamorgese, after the First Commission for Constitutional Affairs of the Senate approved an amendment to the Milleproroghe Decree which, according to the taxi drivers, "turns back the clock of eight years" and which, "if approved, in their opinion, "gives the green light to a whole series of abusive actions in the passenger transport sector". In particular, the new structure would favor Uber.
National and local organizations in the taxi sector they then declared a state of agitation and asked for an "urgent meeting" with the prefect “to represent the reasons and motivations for trade union action”. In a press release to the category they explain that it is "a provision that damages us and paves the way for the actions of the multinationals that have been operating in the area for some time in defiance of current regulations". "After the numerous reassurances received - the unions denounce - the regular workers in the sector wake up this morning with this infamous pro-multinational and abusive surprise!".
But what does the offending text provide?? Nothing that justifies such outsized verbal protests nor the decision to interrupt the public service without any notice, not only leaving customers on the ground but causing inevitable repercussions on city traffic. The test included in the Milleproroghe decree (the provision that every year, at the end of the year, extends the deadlines of many laws) precisely introduces an extension, until 31 December 2017, to the entry into force of the measures that limit the services of Rental With Driver (NCC). The modification proposal, first signed by Senator Linda Lanzillotta (Pd), limits itself to and explains what is already foreseen in the text approved by the government which extends to 31 December this year the deadline for issuing the decree of the Ministry of Infrastructure against the abusive exercise of the taxi service and the rental with driver service. The ministerial decree should, explain the Senate technicians in the dossier, also define "the general guidelines for the programming and planning activity of the regions, for the purpose of issuing the authorization titles by the Municipalities".
The amendment that has so alarmed taxi drivers, therefore allows the owners of the rental service with driver to park on public land until the ministerial decree is issued instead of necessarily stopping in remittances, in the municipalities where the taxi service is provided. A rule that is already in effect today.
