This time, it isn't taxi cab drivers staging protests against Uber in France, alleging that the ride-hailing app is stealing their business.
It's now drivers for Uber and other ride-sharing companies who are holding protests in Paris, upset over the French government's announced crackdown on ride-hailing apps.
The Verge is reporting that hundreds of Uber drivers and chauffeurs from other ride-hailing apps flooded the streets in Paris on Wednesday, holding what they called a "funeral march" protest in an attempt to speak up about being against French Prime Minister Manuel Valls' plans — announced last week — to bite down on and restrict ride-hailing apps' drivers.
The website reports that the drivers staged their protest outside of a Paris train station while blocking surrounding streets with their cars. Others even threw objects at a taxi, according to the Verge, although there weren't any indications of the protest getting violent with riot police on hand.
Wednesday's protest comes a week after thousands of taxi drivers protested in Paris, even burning tires, paving the way for Valls to announce that France will enforce restrictions that would force Uber and other ride-hailing services from using salaried drivers.
"Mr. Valls guillotined us," Joseph François, president of the Alternative Mobilite Transport (AMT) driver association, told the Verge at Wednesday's protest.
His strong words come in reaction to Valls sending a letter to Uber and ordering it to stop using drivers designated for cars carrying at least two people.
François claimed that Uber and other ride-hailing apps account for 70 percent of all such business.
"For us, this decision was made under pressure, under constraints," François said in reference to taxi unions and Valls' decision. "That is what we are denouncing."
He added: "They are going to destroy an entire ecosystem in order to stop an evolution that is unstoppable. We cannot return to the Stone Age. It's just impossible."
How is this tense back-and-forth between Uber, taxi companies and the French government going to be resolved?
