The main French collective of transport car drivers (VTC), the National Intersyndicale VTC (INV), is calling on its members to a day of action, Thursday December 14, through a snail operation on the Paris ring road. Objective: to denounce the conditions, which will be reserved for VTCs during the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP), in the summer of 2024.
Brahim Ben Ali, secretary general of the INV, says he is waiting “1,000 to 2,000 drivers”, and announces a mobilization “historical”. The snail operation will be carried out over a distance of seven kilometers. The convoy will leave at the end of the morning from Porte de Vincennes to reach Porte de Gentilly. A rally will also take place, around 4:30 p.m., in front of the Ministry of Transport, in the 7th arrondissement.
During the Olympic Games, the 60,000 VTC drivers will be excluded from the priority Olympic routes in Île-de-France. These – 185 kilometers in total – will be reserved for taxis, buses, emergency vehicles and people accredited by the Olympic committee. The INV claims access to these routes without any restriction for the entire duration of the Games.
“ Public institutions justify these measures by the lack of regulation in our sector, exacerbated by the arrival of more than 60,000 new drivers, often part-time, and the proliferation of mafia networks fraudulently exploiting the profession of driver “, explains the INV in a press release, published on December 4.
The collective, which claims 2,800 members by 2023, is asking, in this regard, for the establishment of a numerus clausus, as is the case in Belgium, in order to regulate false driver profiles and “clean up the profession”according to Brahim Ben Ali.
For Thursday’s mobilization, INV has provided notice, but the collective warns that it will not hesitate to do without it if necessary in the future: “ If all of the demands are not met, we will increase the mobilizations in civil disobedience,” says Brahim Ben Ali.
“If we have nothing, we will have to invite ourselves to the Olympics otherwise”
The announcement of Thursday’s demonstration was communicated after the association of VTC of France (AVF), the Union Indépendants (CFDT) and the French federation of operators of transport cars with driver (FFEVTC) also announced a mobilization on January 11, 2024.
If some tensions exist between the different VTC collectives, the indignation at what they perceive as exclusion from the Games is unanimous. “ We can’t work like that, we keep getting in the way, protests Karim Daoud, president of the AVF. We have become a player in Parisian transport. Parisians take VTC more easily than taxis. Being forced to leave our customers 500 meters or a kilometer away is scandalous. »
Unions also say they are worried about the effects of these measures, fearing that they could open the door to further deterioration of their working conditions. “ The goal is for these reserved lanes to be sustainable after the Games, but if we don’t have them before the Olympics, we will never have them.” believes Karim Daoud. “If we have nothing, we will have to invite ourselves to the Olympics otherwise”, announces the AVF. More frontally, Brahim Ben Ali of the INV collective warns: “We will take the Olympic Games hostage.”
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