ITF and unions cheer as Uber pulls out of Denmark

The company claims that the Danish government’s new taxi law – introduced after a vigorous public and lobbying campaign by ITF unions and others – has proved the final straw for the ride-sharing app operator. It has announced that its last day of operations in the country will be 18 April.

Unions say that Uber knew from the start of its Danish operations in 2014 that its business model was illegal under the country’s existing laws – a fact backed up by a court ruling in July 2016. It remains illegal under the new law, which stipulates among other changes that it will become obligatory for taxis to have seat sensors, video surveillance and taxi meters.

Jan Villadsen, president of ITF union 3F Transport, said: “The illegal Uber-business model has had a high price for Danish taxi drivers. Now they can work without illegal and unfair competition again. It took two years and six months to kick Uber out of Denmark, and international solidarity and co-operation has been very important in helping achieve that.

“But other companies and business models like Uber are expected to enter Denmark and multinational companies are creative, so we will have to be very focused on this during the coming years. The people behind these operations have got a single goal – they want to create value for themselves, not for society.”

Mac Urata, ITF inland transport secretary, praised the Danish unions for their creative public relations campaign that sent the message home to the Danish citizens that the Uber business model is destroying their welfare state. He added that he hoped unions in other countries would take heart from this victory as they fought their own battles against Uber and similar ride-sharing services.  

The ITF is supporting workers and unions around the globe who are also fighting against Uber and its like – including in Argentina, India and Qatar and Japan.

This news article takes a look at the battles Uber is facing in Europe (in Danish only).

Read about the ITF’s international meeting on the threat to workers of ‘Ubernomics’. 

Read about the latest UK legal ruling on Uber. 

Find out how your union can help taxi workers.