A 24 hour strike originally announced by taxi-driver trade unions for October 12 has been put forward to the 18th of the month.

During talks last September with the city council traffic authorities, a majority of taxi trade unions came to an agreement on various points, including the abolition of rate differences applied to rides within or without the GRA, the abolition of extra charges for baggage and the fixing of a base rate for calls.

The possibility of offering discounted rates to women after 21.00 and people requiring hospital services was also discussed. The talks however became heated and broke down as members of four taxi trade union leaders walked out of the meeting.

Following further talks some days ago, the situation deteriorated further. Against a 12.5 percent tariff increase offered by the city council, taxi drivers held out for an 18 to 19 percent increase. Furthermore, the various taxi companies pointed out that their request to be directly administered by Atac, Rome