Taxi strike: key meeting as protest enters sixth day

Barcelona taxi drivers decided to maintain a strike to demand regulation against car-hailing companies after a meeting with the Spanish government on Monday.

In the sixth day of the strike, two of Barcelona's main streets remain occupied by thousands of cabs. Should their demands not be met, taxi drivers have threatened to block the French border and the port.

They are calling for limit to the number of licences made available for car-hailing services. Companies such as Cabify and Uber put their jobs in danger, they say.

Drivers camped out in the city occupying more than three kilometres of Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes on Friday, one of the capital's major roads. On Monday, they also blocked the Passeig de Gràcia.

The move came in response to Spain's High Court in Catalonia announcing that it would maintain the suspension of local regulation limiting the number of licences for car-hailing services. 

The old-school yellow and black Barcelona cabbies are striking because, for them, the unlimited issuing of said licences is unfair competition. They see the likes of Uber and Cabify as a threat. 

Moments of chaos in some of the Catalan capital’s streets have become familiar over the last few days. Many travellers seeking to travel around, or in and out, of the city in a cab have had to seek other means of transport such as the bus, or train.

"Second 15-M"

For taxi drivers, this is a momentous occasion. For people in need of getting from A to B beyond public transport, not so much.

“This is the second 15-M,” said Alberto Álvarez, spokesman of the union Elite Taxi. He referred to the occupy movement in Catalonia that began with a protest on May 15 (15-M) in 2011, when civil unrest swept across much of the globe. 

Violence in the streets

The strike began on July 25, originally due to last for 48 hours. During the first two days, taxi drivers protested in the heart of Barcelona as well as driving in a slow procession from the airport taking up a lane in one of the main motorways leading into the city. 

Uber and Cabify cars became the targets of aggressions. One of the most serious incidents involved more than a dozen strikers kicking and hitting a car carrying a family of French tourists. Private cab services temporarily suspended their services for safety reasons. 

Unauto, an association representing ride-hailing companies in Spain, said that the suspension of services by Uber and Cabify should be “a matter of reflection,” and accused the city council of Barcelona and the Spanish government of “giving in to blackmail.”

Uber and Cabify resumed their services on the morning of July 27, the same day the strike was set to end before it was once again called into effect. 

Strike spreading

Later on Saturday, taxi drivers in Madrid also decided to join the industrial action set in motion by the sector in Barcelona. The Professional Taxi Federation of Madrid (FPTM) made a statement saying that a spontaneous mobilization had taken place in the Spanish capital, with cab drivers cutting off access to the city's Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas airport as well as its principal train station Atocha.