Palma taxi drivers call off further industrial action

Transport calm and order will return to Palma and the airport today after protesting Palma taxi drivers and the Balearic Transport Minister, Josep Antoni Ferrer, reached a deal last night and called off any further four-hour stoppages. Ferrer has agreed to increase taxi inspections at the airport and revise the Balearic taxi norms and regulations. Representatives from the PIMEM Palma taxi association, the UGT union and Ferrer spent most of yesterday in talks and Ferrer also pledged to solicit the support of Palma City Council in order to ensure that a satisfactory long term solution to the dispute over which taxi drivers have the right to collect passengers at ports of entry, is found. The Mayor of Palma, Joan Fageda, travelled to Madrid yesterday for talks with the Development Minister, Francisco Alvarez Cascos, who in turn promised Fageda that the controversial taxi decree will be modified “but only when the Balearic government understand the situation in Majorca, can justify the eventual changes to the law and approach central government themselves.” Fageda was due to meet the under secretary of State for Transport as well, but that meeting was cancelled on the back of the assurance given by the Minister.