From Monday, 16th of October 2023 till Tuesday 17th of October 2023, 14 cab drivers unions have announced a 2 day strike. The objective behind the strike would be to seek a govt to regulate cab aggregators like Uber and Ola etc in Chennai launching their own apps. Banning of bike taxis would also be sought out. The strike would create issues for many commuters now who depend on these cabs to go to their destinations.
It is now said that the strike would affect the availability of cabs on the app based services and the fares would shoot up due to huge demand.
Most of the unions have extended their support for a 2 day strike on 16th and 17th of October 2023. Pont is that 80% of call taxis would not be plying in Chennai city on these 2 days. This was brought out by a statement from the federation of All Taxi Drivers Union comprising CITU affiliated TN Call Taxi Workers Union and Road Transport Workers Union.
The cab aggregators have been operating taxi services without following any regulation. This was pointed out by Mr. S. Bhoopathy, general secretary of TN Call Taxi Workers Union. He added that despite the union govt releasing the motor vehicle aggregator guidelines in 2020 it has not been implemented in TN till now. Both the commuters as well as the drivers have been affected by the absence of rules. He was of the view that the regulation would help both commuters as well as the drivers.