It's complicated to get around Orléans this Wednesday, December 4 in the morning. After distributing leaflets in front of Loiret hospitals last week to denounce the news of the new agreement with the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam), angry taxis decided to block Orléans.
Wednesday morning in Orléans, the Thinat and Europe bridges were particularly difficult to cross. Around a hundred taxis are present (around fifty on each bridge) to organize a filtering barrier, blocking one lane in each direction of traffic.
An operation on the tangential
“Around 10 a.m., we will take off to park in front of Social Security, Place De-Gaulle. Then, those who want to will go and join the movement in Paris. But given the first echoes we have from there, they are not still very organized, so I'm not sure that many people get up there”, indicates Jérémie Racon, secretary of the Loiret Taxi Federation.
The movement will not stop there, he explains. “After lunch, we will conduct a snail operation in both directions on the tangential around Orléans, from east to west first, then from west to east. We do not have the authorization to demonstrate only until 2 p.m., so the operation should not last.”
Taxis intend to protest against measures added to the Social Security financing law, including the organization of compulsory health carpooling for patients transported in a medical setting. Concretely, these patients will have to agree (unless there is a valid reason) to share the journey to reduce Social Security costs or will have to advance the costs on the basis of carpooling pricing. Small taxi drivers speak of an “Uberization” of their profession. A system that would favor large transport companies.
