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Taxi Drivers Protest Uber in Clashes Across France Taxi Drivers Protest Uber in Clashes Across France
(about 7 hours later)
Taxi drivers took to the streets across France on Thursday in protests against the expansion of Uber, the ride-booking service. PARIS — Irate taxi drivers blocked roads, burned tires and attacked drivers who they thought were working for Uber, the low cost ride-hailing company, during a day of protests Thursday that disrupted Paris and slowed traffic at the airports to a crawl.
French taxi drivers blocked the entrances to Paris’s major airports and train stations, while disruptions were also reported in other cities, including Marseille and Aix-en-Provence in the South. Fights broke out on streets, a couple of cars were burned and there were frustrated travelers all over Paris, as well as in major cities elsewhere in France that also awoke to find the labor battle on their streets.
In Grenoble, near the border with Italy, taxi associations burned tires on the highway, while in Paris, police officers in riot gear used tear gas to disrupt the protests. With arrests and fights still breaking out in several areas of Paris in the early evening, including at the transport hub at Porte Maillot, many Parisians were scrolling on their smartphones to try to figure out alternative routes home.
The anger from French taxi drivers is the latest in a series of challenges confronting Uber, which has been accused by taxi associations and some policy makers of breaking national transportation laws and of creating unfair competition to traditional taxis. The ride-booking service faces regulatory scrutiny in many of the countries in which it operates. The taxi drivers’ energy for the fight appeared unabated on a day that was one of the hottest here in recent weeks and that for many of the protesters started in the early-morning hours. Their unions threatened to extend the stoppage for another day.
The growing anger against the American technology company, however, has not stopped its meteoric rise from a small start-up founded in San Francisco in 2009 to a transportation giant that is now valued at more than $50 billion. Uber, which connects drivers with potential passengers through a smartphone app, operates in more than 300 cities and 57 countries, including the United States and China. “We are against the government,” said Nader Moghimi, 49, who has driven a taxi for nine years in Paris. “Their role is to protect us. If Uber is doing some economic terrorism, the government has to react.”
The latest problems in France relate to Uber’s low-cost UberPop service, which allows drivers without professional chauffeur licenses to pick up passengers through the use of their smartphones. While these drivers must pass security checks, French taxi associations claim that the Uber drivers do not comply with the country’s transportation rules and should not be allowed to operate. “Economic terrorism” is the favored term of Parisian taxi drivers for Uber’s lower prices, flexible hours and the way it is operating its UberPop service outside French law.
In contrast to Uber drivers, French taxi drivers must pay up to $270,000 for an operating license. The French drivers say Uber undercuts existing services. Costa Tsatsakis, 58, a Brussels taxi driver for 35 years, who said he had come to support his French colleagues along with about 30 other Belgian taxi drivers, said the violence was “regrettable” but that it was “the only way to fight back against the war machine that is Uber.”
In recent weeks, Uber’s low-cost service has expanded beyond Paris. That growth comes despite a ruling last year by a French court that banned unregistered drivers from picking up passengers. Uber has appealed the ruling, though police officers have begun stopping UberPop drivers in the French capital, who may then be fined. With signs on their taxis reading “Death to Uber,” “Uber Stop,” “Do not allow us to ‘Uberize,’” and “Uber Go Home,” about 300 drivers blocked all traffic at Porte Maillot, which leads to the main Paris ring road, and were being restrained by the riot police from blocking adjoining streets.
This is not the first time that European taxi drivers have voiced their anger by taking to city streets. Last year, more than 10,000 drivers in cities like London, Madrid and Milan staged a one-day protest against Uber. As they faced off against the police, they yelled obscenities and at one point a policeman hit a taxi driver with his baton as other taxi drivers leapt to restrain the man. That was a rare moment of physical violence, although earlier in the day two cars were burned near the roundabout, according to the drivers.
Altogether nearly 3,000 taxi drivers participated in the strike nationwide, according to Agence France-Presse. There were at least eight arrests in Paris and eight in Lyons, where over the weekend a would-be customer said that, on being turned down by a taxi driver, he commented that taxi drivers should not be surprised that clients prefer UberPop. He was then beaten by at least a couple of taxi drivers, he said.
In France the UberPop service is illegal. It allows anyone who wants to become a driver to sign up with Uber without a professional chauffeur license and to pick up fares through the Uber app. Other Uber services are permitted under strict conditions.
On Thursday, the police detained both protesting taxi drivers, who were arrested amid the violence, and UberPop drivers, who were arrested for attempting to offer their services illegally.
Earlier in the day there were blockages in Marseilles, France’s second largest city, and Nice, as well as in Lyons, halting traffic and forcing people with flights to catch to walk long distances to get to their terminals.
In Paris, tourists could be seen trudging toward the airports hauling large suitcases, and on the subway letting strangers help them navigate up and down the stairs.
Two young women appeared to have hired two motorcycle drivers, who tied the women’s luggage onto the back of their bikes before speeding away. Other tourists seemed completely confused about why there were no taxis in Paris on Thursday.
Residents had varying views of the mayhem. Several interviewed on television expressed solidarity with the taxi drivers, but said they shouldn’t stop people from getting to work by creating an “operation snail,” the French term for intentional traffic tie-ups.
However, a businessman on the Champs-Élysées, who would give his name only as Anthony, said, “The government has a completely outdated way of thinking. For a European city, at the height of summer, this should not be happening.”
The singer and actress Courtney Love reinforced Paris’s image as an unreliable destination, thanks to its frequent work stoppages, when she posted on Twitter, to her nearly 2 million followers, about being caught in the protests.
France has heavily regulated labor markets and the taxi drivers, who must buy a license at enormous cost — they pay as much as $270,000 euros in Paris — are furious that unlicensed drivers have been able to enter the market for free. In contrast, a New York City taxi medallion now costs around $850,000, according to the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
Last year a French court banned unregistered drivers from picking up passengers. Uber has appealed the ruling, though police officers have begun stopping UberPop drivers in the French capital, who may then be fined.
This is not the first time that European taxi drivers have voiced their anger over Uber by taking to the streets. Last year, more than 10,000 drivers in cities like London, Madrid and Milan staged a one day protest.
Several European cities, including Berlin and Amsterdam, have banned some of the company’s services, saying that they do not comply with local transportation rules. And in Spain, Uber closed its operations after a judge ruled in December that the company’s low-cost service did not conform to Spanish laws and could amount to unfair competition for taxi drivers.Several European cities, including Berlin and Amsterdam, have banned some of the company’s services, saying that they do not comply with local transportation rules. And in Spain, Uber closed its operations after a judge ruled in December that the company’s low-cost service did not conform to Spanish laws and could amount to unfair competition for taxi drivers.
In response, Uber has asked the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, to intervene, saying the bans violate the bloc’s rules against discriminating between rival services.In response, Uber has asked the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, to intervene, saying the bans violate the bloc’s rules against discriminating between rival services.