Uber App Has Europe Uber Worried
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Politics and Activism

Uber App Has Europe Uber Worried

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Uber App Has Europe Uber Worried

Two Tuesday’s ago marked day one of a strike in Paris involving a multitude of different public transportation workers and since then it has only escalated.

Backpacking through Europe this summer has been one of the greatest adventures of my life and, while I expected there to be hiccups, I never anticipated a three-day spontaneous trip to Luxembourg after all means of getting to Paris became unavailable.

Paris’ ultrafast, ultra sleek TGV rail service is renown throughout the country as the best in the biz, but with workers on strike even the smaller, regional trains are joining in, creating huge transportation issues throughout the area. At the beginning of the strike only one in three trains in France were running, and it has now spread to Spain where only half the trains are running.  

The protests began just one week before France’s National Assembly was scheduled to meet to speak about reforms to solve the debt crisis surrounding the rail network and services, and the reform plans that were scheduled to open up the rail system to competition and  unite the National Society of French Railways (SNCF) with the French Rail Network (RFF), which has accumulated over 32 billion euros in debt. If nothing is done about this, it is predicted that the debt will reach 80 billion euros by 2025.  

The leaders of the strike have said that workers will not return to work until there is a written guarantee from the government for a modified reform, one that would ensure jobs and wages. The protests have spread, with commuters teaming up against the strikers, claiming that the disruption to their lives is not worth the minimal effects of a modified reform. Now that France is entering the second week of strikes, and this has become the longest public rail dispute in memory, the government is becoming even more firm on its resolve not to back down. This week, however, it will be taken to the courts and we shall see who comes out on top!  

These protests are, unfortunately, coinciding with massive protests across Europe about the Uber app, a car sharing network that allows you to find a place in someone’s car who is going the same place as you for just a little money for gas. Taxi drivers from London and Barcelona to Paris are protesting the app saying that it is a detriment to their livelihood. They are asking for tougher regulations on the San Francisco-based mobile app. The largest of these protests, to date, has been in London, where black-cab drivers were joined by private car services to protest what they saw as a failure to hold Uber drivers to the same standards as cab drivers, who need a license to drive that can cost up to $270,000 apiece. These protests have even gone so far as windshield smashing and traffic chaos in Paris, further leading to a total public transportation meltdown. Today, the vast majority of Paris’ professional taxis, cabs and trains are on strike.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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