This Wednesday, February 22, a national strike of taxi drivers is taking place after failing to reach an agreement in the talks with the National Government. On February 21, the taxi drivers got up from the dialogue table demanding the presence of other ministers in the conversation.
They also assured that there were no guarantees to reach an agreement. Therefore, starting this Wednesday morning, in different cities, crowds of taxi drivers began to be seen.
(In addition: Taxi drivers will lift strike in some points of Bogotá).
This is the case of Cali, Bucaramanga and Santa Marta. In Bogotá, in the last few hours, some union leaders affirmed that They would lift the strike at different points because there were no guarantees for the demonstration.
They assured that they were immobilizing the cars and they were also breaking them. For this reason, the demonstration will not continue in some parts of the capital where the taxi drivers began to withdraw.
Faced with this news, theresident Gustavo Petro spoke and He was open to dialogue with the drivers’ union. “In my government there is no lack of guarantees. The taxi driver is a worker, often a woman, the head of the family, and the State must help dignify his work. The doors of dialogue are open“, the president wrote on his Twitter account.
In my government there is no lack of guarantees. The taxi driver is a worker, often a woman, the head of the family, and the State must help dignify his work.
The doors of dialogue are open. https://t.co/n4atsE6bt3
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) February 22, 2023
Herminso Bermúdez, one of the leaders of the union in Bogotá, stated the reasons for demonstrating are several, among them is nonconformity for transportation applications. As he says: “If they buy a private car it is to transport the family; If they want to enter the guild, no one will reject them.”.
(Read: Why are taxi drivers preparing protests for this Wednesday?).
Another of the reasons mentioned by Bermúdez is that there is no agreement with thethe fuel rates. They hope that the increases for the union will be more moderate; Otherwise, it would imply an increase in the price of the fare for each trip.
It also points out that the penalty regime has been discussed for almost 10 years and is still under discussion. “It’s not a fact because it hasn’t been presented to Congress.”
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