MELBURNIANS are again facing transport chaos with cab drivers shutting down Spring St and Melbourne’s trams beginning a four-hour strike.
A line of taxis stretches 300m along Spring St, blocking the road, as drivers continue their war against Uber.
Drivers have flooded the steps of Parliament House to protest and will begin rolling strikes across Australia in their fight against ride-sharing service.
The protest comes at the same time as a four-hour tram strike that will run until 2pm.
The strike comes as it emerged public transport workers have received pay rises worth 28 per cent in the last six years.
Normal tram services were unlikely to be restored before 4.30pm.Rail, Tram and Bus Union assistant branch secretary Phil Altieri defended the union’s right to ask for an 18 per cent pay rise over four years after admitting tram and train workers had received 28 per cent over the last six years.
A tram driver walks off the job at the Essendon tram depot. Picture: Nicole Garmston
He conceded it may look greedy but said Yarra Trams was foreign owned, its profits had soared by $50 million in the last year and that money was being sent overseas instead of spent here by workers.
“They are taking that money out of our members pockets, who would have spent it on the Victorian economy anyway … put it in perspective, this is not the car industry in decline.
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said the union and its members were being greedy and hurting vulnerably Victorians that worked in the city.
Some 120 replacement buses have been brought in to ease the pain, with more on standby to ferry around passengers and will run on a frequency of six to 12 minutes.
The Victorian Taxi Families has announced strikes across the country starting next week. “We won’t give a day, but it could be at the airport or in Melbourne’s CBD,” one of the taxi drivers told the rally.