Taxi drivers take to the streets in day of French strikes

Taxi drivers take to the streets in day of French strikes
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January 26, 2016 8:04 am
Taxi drivers take to the streets in day of French strikes
Adam Thomson in Paris

A striking taxi driver stands in the road and waves down vehicles who approach Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport
France was braced for mass strikes Tuesday as taxi drivers, air traffic controllers, civil servants and teachers demanded more purchasing power, job creation and an end to disruptive competition to traditional industries.
Hundreds of taxi drivers took to the streets of Paris, burning car tyres and blocking routes to the capital’s principal airports in a protest that was expected to spread chaos throughout the capital.
A protest by air traffic controllers prompted France’s Civil Aviation Authority to ask airlines to cancel 20 per cent of their flights in France. BFM TV reported that low-cost airline EasyJet had already cancelled at least 35 flights either arriving or taking off from France. It said that Air France had also cancelled some of its short- and medium-haul flights.
Meanwhile, many of the country’s 5.6m civil servants were expected to stage dozens of strikes and demonstrations around France in protest at what they claim has been a consistent erosion of jobs and pay in recent years.
According to the CGT union, one of the country’s largest, civil servants have lost between 8 per cent and 10 per cent of their purchasing power since 2010. It also says that some 150,000 jobs have been eliminated since 2007.
The strikes stand to add further problems to President François Hollande and his Socialist government as the French head of state battles with stubbornly low economic growth and record-high unemployment. Mr Hollande has promised not to run for re-election in 2017 if he does not manage to reverse the upward trend in unemployment in recent years.
Against the challenging economic environment, the far-right National Front party has made unprecedented gains in recent local elections, and has now established itself as a force to be reckoned with in the run-up to the 2017 presidential contest.
On Tuesday, hundreds of taxi drivers blocked the road at Paris’s Porte Maillot, one of the capital’s principal entry points. By 8.30am, they had already succeeded in blocking one direction of the eight-lane highway. Television images showed the strikers lighting fireworks and dragging metal barriers in front of commuter cars desperate to pass.
Waving flags and burning tyres, the taxi drivers were protesting about the rise of disruptive competition like Uber, the US ride-sharing application, and Heetch, a French ride-sharing app that has become popular among young people.
Taxi drivers complain that the competition has led to a 30 per cent reduction in their revenue in the last six months, and demand that the government take action to stem what they insist is unfair competition.
Among other things, they argue that minicab drivers working with services such as Uber do not have to pay the elevated prices for a regular licence — these have reached as high as €240,000 — and therefore compete under different conditions.
In June last year, police in riot gear used tear gas to break up a protest by taxi drivers, who had all but stopped transport to and from the capital’s airports.
People trying to reach Charles de Gaulle and Orly international airports were caught in the disturbance, causing many to miss their flights. Aéroports de Paris, the airports operator, warned passengers via its website to take public transport as the only means of reaching the terminals.
Singer Courtney Love was one of the many victims of the strike action. After her car was assailed by picketers. Ms Love took to Twitter to urge Mr Hollande, in coarse language, to get to the airport, asking: “Is it legal for your people to attack visitors?”