Angry taxi drivers on work stoppage attacked Uber drivers but also their colleagues who had refused to join the 9-hour work stoppage in Athens and Attica on Tuesday. strike. It was mostly Uber drivers who became the target of strikers as the operation of the transportation network company in Greece was the main reason for the mobilization of the powerful Greek union SATA.
In several incidents the striking taxi drivers attacked Uber taxis and they did the same with colleague cab drivers who had refused to join the work stoppage.
In at least one incident, strikers noticing an Uber taxi driving by stopped it, surrounded it and started to kick the vehicle.
The incident occurred outside the offices of Taxi Drivers Union (SATA) in Marnis Street in downtown Athens, where the strikers had gathered.
In another incident, it needed the intervention of riot police calm down the upset spirits and rescue an Uber driver from the angry crowd that threw water bottles at the car.
Strikers attacked also taxi drivers who refused to join the work stoppage. At one point, they stopped a cab and started to swear at the driver, his children and his whole family.
The strikers walked through the Greek capital to the Finance Ministry holding banners anc chanting slogans.
Banner: “We say NO to each innovation-platform stealing the tax and our country.”
SATA president, Thymios Lyberopoulos, threatened of “violent actions” if the legislation that regulates the taxi market and the Uber operation is not passed through the Parliament and implemented by summer.
SATA is a powerful union that has long managed to prohibit the opening of the tax market, despite the lenders’ pressure on several Greek governments. The SATA is vehemently against any change including private companies involved in the transportation of tourists.
The work stoppage is scheduled to end at 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.
The taxi strike coincides with a 24-hour strike of trains and Proastiakos that makes access of Metro to Athens airport impossible.
They should tax Uber. But, unfortunately, artificial intelligence (AI) and gig economy, gig workforce is here to stay. The more online our world becomes, the more irrelevant these taxi unions and the like will become.
Uber has been around for awhile. don’t taxi companies / drivers learn from them instead of fighting them.
Uber. And others apps are giving customers what they want.
Upfront charges,payment over phone with credit card, profiles of drivers, quick convenient service, perception of a safer ride, clean cars are all enticing to customers. Look at what they are doing
And why it is working. People were tired of getting
Scammed by some taxi drivers. Some drivers took advantage of customers and gave taxis a bad reputation. Look at yourselves and learn and offer you’re customers what these apps offer.