After a 20-minute meeting there will be mobilizations of taxi drivers - Sectors

The dialogue that was scheduled yesterday between the Government —headed by the Minister of Transportation, Guillermo Reyes— and the 26 leaders who are part of the taxi drivers’ strike committee lasted only 20 minutes. For this reason, the call for the summoned mobilization could not be reversed.

The trade union representatives got up from the table due to what they considered “lack of guarantees”. They also expressed that they felt disrespect towards the taxi industry.
“A few hours before we were summoned to this meeting, and more than 45 days have passed since the Government has the points that lead us to mobilize in the country” said Yorley Rodolfo Ossef, president of the Santa Marta taxi owners association, who assured that they hoped that said meeting would take place earlier.

The meeting, which was attended by representatives of the Ministries of Labor and ICT, was agreed on February 17 between both parties, after the intention of the taxi drivers to carry out a national strike became known.

It was precisely on these ministries that one of the main criticisms of the leaders revolved. “We see it unfortunate that the illegal transport makes a demonstration in Bogotá and immediately, the next day, they were attended. We wished that the ICT, Labor and Finance ministries had been in person and not virtually because communications like this are not very fluidOssef said.

Transport Minister, Guillermo Reyes.

It should be remembered that among the claims that were brought to the dialogue table by the union are complaints about the increase in the price of gasoline and the regulation of mobility applications such as Uber, Cabify or DiDi.

At the end of the meeting, the Minister of Transport regretted that the representatives of the taxi drivers withdrew from the table and said that it seems that what they wanted is to insist on the protests. “We have been talking to taxi drivers constantly.

So much so that today we have several documents that respond to the concerns of the
taxi drivers and that we have been working inside the Ministry,” he said.

Reyes argued that the presence of the ministers via virtual also occurred in the meeting he had with the representatives of the platforms and that the idea is to maintain and promote the national table with the taxi service unionso that in a maximum of two months adjustments to the public policy that strengthen their current conditions are built.

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Twitter: @BogotáTransito

The minister was emphatic that the government’s idea has never been to suppress people and that “the realities cannot be ignored. It is necessary to regularize the provision of the transport service. The construction process of the draft bill will continue but it will only be presented for consideration by the Congress of the Republic once it has been agreed.«, said.

In turn, Julián Osorio, representative of taxi drivers and owners in Manizales, said that although it was valuable to have the space for dialogue and not go to the streets in fact, discontent had been present since last November.

“It is not prudent to continue with this table, because we ended up doing you a favor. The responsibility for a problem that has been going on for so many years, that concerns so many ministries and that is even a problem for the industry due to illegality 13 or 14 years of the platforms and deserves a face-to-face discussion by the ICT ministry”, he said.

The spokesman pointed out that the issue of network neutrality cannot allow “illegality to continue to be and undo in this country. The ICT Minister, you should know that the law that she supports is Law 1391, it has a fourth article and a sixth paragraph that says that as long as it is providing an illegal service and makes an imminently unfair competition, the State can enter and that is what we are demanding”, he argued.

According to the taxi drivers, each one is losing 1,500 pesos per gallon of fuel in gasoline and 1,300 for vehicular natural gas. «That, projected at six gallons, is being 9,000 pesos, and projected after 25 days that an individual public taxi-type service rolls in the country, we are talking about almost 300,000 pesos,» said Osorio. For this, he asks for a special subsidy for the taxi union.

In this line, the presence of the Ministry of Finance was requested because it pointed out that although the Minister of Mines can give the go-ahead to the differential rate, the Treasury portfolio could say that this would create a fiscal gap for the country.
Reyes added, after the interruption, that it was unfortunate that the taxi drivers chose mobilization and not conversation.

“We have had dialogues with the union. This is not the first meeting to which we summon them. We have done it throughout the national territory, we have responded to several of your concerns and we hope that your refusal will not result in electoral fines. We are here and due to agenda issues it was not possible to be in person at all the ministries and That cannot be the pretext for a national strike. We accept and commune with the protest but we are not going to allow an attack against the mobility of Colombians. We are not going to allow the blockades”, said the minister.