Madrid rejects "legislate to exterminate the VTC" as in Catalonia

Madrid rejects "legislate to exterminate the VTC" as in Catalonia

The conflict of the taxi in the capital is encased with protests of all signs before the parties and a proposal of the union unacceptable for Garrido

  The conflict of the taxi in Madrid gets entangled at times, gets more complicated every day and becomes politicized as the days advance. Not even the supposed coup of effect of the taxi drivers when announcing yesterday a new proposal to end the unemployment, improved a little the situation of blockade, because in fact the five organizations of the union insist on copying the Catalan model of demanding the precontracting of the VTC with a minimum time in advance, a "red line" that the regional government of the popular Angel Garrido, insisted yesterday, will not trespass in any way as much as the conflict continues to grow.

The number 2 of Garrido, Pedro Rollán, was blunt. "We are not going to legislate to guarantee the extermination of the VTC. We are not going to follow the model of the Generalitat, "assured the Vice President of the Community, who stressed that his" will to agree "with taxi drivers is still intact but that, under no circumstances, will address" certain issues ", including impose a time limit for hiring.

And that is precisely the main claim that the union makes to the community to end unemployment in a document with four other claims. The draft, still pending fringe, that the five convening organizations will deliver to the Community on Wednesday requires as a first point to impose that temporary one hour pre-contract to companies such as Uber and Cabify, as Catalonia has already done, in front of the spatial limitation that promulgates the regional government (that can not be contracted with the App to vehicles that are too close to the client).

The other four requirements of the taxi drivers are that the VTC can only be hired to perform a service of minimum kilometers (they point to five kilometers); that vehicles with a driver do not have surface parking; that the VTCs can not walk down the street waiting for customers and that they have to return to their base compulsory after the service; and that the new regulations clearly define the concept of "customer acquisition". From the regional government and anticipated that they do not welcome any of these claims because they undermine the "healthy competition."

Manifestations everywhere

While waiting, however, that the regional government of an official response to the new document, the taxi drivers continued yesterday, ninth day of strike, with their protests, smaller, without incident, although causing another very complicated day for mobility in the capital of Spain. The union put in its sights the UGT (with a demonstration in front of its national headquarters), because they accuse the union of having taken sides with the workers of the VTC. But one day, the taxi drivers had as their main target the PP with a new mass demonstration in front of its headquarters on Genoa Street and another rally at Puerta del Sol in front of the headquarters of the regional government of Garrido.

But the taxi drivers were not the only ones to take the street. For the first time since the strike began, the VTCs were also seen. The drivers of Uber and Cabify demonstrated at the doors of the 'headquarters' of Podemos, a party that from the outset has sided with the taxi drivers in front of the "vultures" of the multinationals, and the PSOE in Ferraz, and They blame the government for "washing their hands" and leaving regulation in the hands of the communities, putting 14,000 jobs at risk. "We are fair competition", "in the future we all fit", "we are workers, not multinationals", "I also have to bring my children to eat" were some of the slogans that VTC drivers shouted in front of the venues.