Spain: Taxi drivers threaten to take strike to French border
MADRID (AP) — Taxi drivers striking to demand tighter regulations for companies using ride-hailing apps blocked traffic for another day in Spain’s two major cities on Tuesday, while threatening to take their protest to the French border.
Hundreds of taxi drivers continued to block major roads in Madrid and Barcelona, with many wearing the yellow traffic safety vest that has become the symbol of protests in neighboring France.
Alberto Alvarez, spokesman for the Barcelona taxi driver association Elite Taxi, told Spanish television that “we are talking to our colleagues in France to go to the frontier also.”
The strike started in Barcelona on Friday, when some taxi drivers trashed cars operated by the app services Uber and Cabify.
Taxi drivers in Madrid joined the protest on Monday. They are promising to continue to disrupt traffic flows on Wednesday, when the Spanish capital hosts a major tourism trade show.
The taxi drivers in Barcelona want regional governments to force users of services of ride-hailing apps to contract rides 12 hours beforehand.
Taxi drivers in both cities already went on strike against the internet-driven ride-hailing platforms in July.
They complain that ride-hailing app drivers compete unfairly since they don’t have the same regulations and costs.
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