Cab drivers stop work in SW China city
3/11/2008 16:22
About 20 vehicles, including three police cars, were smashed as cab
drivers went on strike in Chongqing, China's fourth biggest city today,
according to local authorities.
Cab drivers in the main urban zones of
Chongqing stopped work to protest a number of issues today.
Insufficient
supplies of compressed natural gas, which fuels most cabs in the city,
competition from unlicensed cabs, and high fines for traffic violations ignited
the strike, said a worker at the municipal transport administration, on
condition of anonymity.
The municipal government and Communist Party of China
(CPC) Chongqing Committee had held several meetings to discuss the action and
issued a series of measures to resume cab services, said Zhou Bo, vice publicity
director of the committee.
Zhou said officials should be alert for
consequential problems, police should keep traffic flowing, unlicensed cab
drivers would be penalized, and an investigation would be conducted into the
prices of compressed natural gas.
More than 100 people gathered on a business
street at around 11:30 a.m., in the Jiangbei District, stopped cabs and pulled
out the drivers.
"All cab drivers agreed to stop work, and we damaged the
cabs of those who didn't keep their words," one of the crowd, who refused to
give his name, told Xinhua, adding that most of the 100 people were cab
drivers.
A cab driver, who only gave his surname as Huang, said he worked in
the taxi service of the municipal public transport group.
He found some
people smashing cabs in Shaping District as he drove on the street in the
morning, and he returned to his company.
"A strike is not what I want, but my
cab will be smashed if I drive," said Huang, adding that many his colleagues had
the seem feeling.
Members of the public could find no cabs in service during
the rush hour.
Municipal transport administration vice director Zhang Yujun
said some drivers were willing to work, but they either found their cab windows
smashed, or their passengers pulled from the vehicles.
Known as the "mountain
city", Chongqing, unlike other Chinese cities, has very few bicycles, and cabs
are the most frequently used mode of transport after buses.
The municipality
has 16,000 licensed cabs, with almost 9,000 in main urban zones.
Xinhua
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