Ola, Uber drivers’ strike to go on

Mumbai: Ola and Uber drivers will continue their strike on Friday, as negotiations that were scheduled between the cab union and aggregator companies on Thursday afternoon did not take place.

Ola and Uber have closed their Mumbai offices where the meeting was called. Sources said that representatives of the companies flew to their Bangalore office.

Meanwhile, Govind Mohite, general secretary of Maharashtra Rajya Rashtriya Kamgar Sangh (MRRKS), said, “We had attempted to meet Ola and Uber representatives but they were not present in their offices, which were locked. We have asked the police to contact them, but the cab aggregators’ representatives have not taken its calls either.”

Mr Mohite said that he had asked cab drivers whether the strike should be continued or not, and they were in favour of the former.  

The drivers want the base price to be increased from Rs 40 to Rs 100. They also feel that the incentive on riding time should be Rs 1.20 per minute. But as the company is ready to increase the fare from Rs 4.80 per km to Rs 12 per km, it has scrapped the incentive on riding time.

The city has around 50,000 app-based cars. The drivers of the cars were demanding that a minimum base fare of Rs 100 to Rs 150 depending of the range of the cars, while the per kilometre fare should be increased to Rs 23 from rs 18.

Meanwhile, an Uber spokesperson said, “We continue to engage with all relevant stakeholders with a view to restore services to the people at the earliest. We have always been and continue to be committed to sustainable driver earnings and to discuss all other issues raised by the driver partners. We look to the support of law enforcement in helping driver partners get back behind the wheel without fear of intimidation and assault.”