When I arrived in Milan yesterday, I went into my usual autopilot mode and trundled over to the taxi stand. It turned out that the cab drivers were on strike and no taxis were operating. So there I was, stuck at Malpensa airport. In the end, I managed to get into town by various means, but it took much longer than planned. The strike extended to today as well, making my trek back to Malpensa eventful too. The reason the cab drivers were striking are the plans by the Milan city government to expand the number cab licenses. According to my Italian colleagues, the number of licenses has remained constant since the early 1980's, and the proposed increase is just 10% or so. I find it very hard to have any sympathy with the cab drivers in this instance. It's not like their business is going to be diluted dramatically as the city's economy has grown by much more than 10% in the last 20 or so years. And their protests were not winning them any sympathy from the Milanese either. Yesterday 2,000 cabs drove at walking speed from Linate airport to the center, snarling up traffic in the entire city for hours. Today they repeated the performance from Malpensa airport, also shutting down part of the beltway that encircles Milan. Not only is their cause rather weak (unless there are other facts which I am not aware of, but my cursory reading of Italian newspapers did not mention any), they're also alienating potential local support. Next time I am down there I am not going to be very generous with my tip, and I'll let the driver know why.