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Thursday, 20 November 2008
Shanghai mayor meets cabbies as disruptive strikes continue
Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng pledged to listen to grievances and try to resolve problems during a two-hour meeting with representatives of cab drivers and transport workers on Tuesday, mainland media reported yesterday.
Shanghai mayor meets cabbies as disruptive strikes continue
Lilian Zhang 20 November 2008
Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng pledged to listen to grievances and try to resolve problems during a two-hour meeting with representatives of cab drivers and transport workers on Tuesday, mainland media reported yesterday.
The representatives - 10 taxi drivers, four bus drivers and two bus conductors - had a free-ranging discussion with the mayor following taxi strikes in several mainland cities this month. The strikes, a headache for the central government and a source of social unrest, are in response to what the drivers call extreme work pressure, high cab rental fees and competition from unlicensed cabs.
Yesterday in Chongqing , several hundred drivers were on strike to protest against a proposed increase in the number of cabs in the city, Xinhua reported. They returned to work in the afternoon following talks with district officials, it said.
No demonstrations have been staged in Shanghai, but the country-wide turbulence caught the attention of the mayor, who has promised a safe and harmonious social environment for the 70 million tourists expected to visit the 2010 World Expo.
Official figures said more than 10 per cent of the 100,000 taxi drivers working for Shanghai’s 150-plus cab companies quit their jobs each year, mainly because of low salaries, passenger miscommunication and competition from illegal cabs.
At the meeting, some taxi drivers said they had to pay 600 yuan (HK$680) to their companies each day, saying they worked about 18 hours a day, to take home just 2,000 to 3,000 yuan a month.
Others called for the government to crack down heavily on illegal cabbies because the unlicensed drivers were eating into their business.
“Do you know how rampant the illegal taxis are? They have everything, including taxi meters and company titles,” one cab driver told the mayor. “Sometimes they give kickbacks to security guards so that they line up on streets to wait for passengers at night, but we are not allowed to do that.”
Mr Han said the government would take measures to protect transport workers in an effort to maintain the healthy development of the transport industry.
He said Shanghai would set up a 24-hour complaint hotline for taxi drivers and establish a regular hearing with transport representatives to improve communication with government officials. The authorities would also solicit public feedback on plans to improve management of public transport.
City transport officials used a compactor to crush 21 impounded illegal taxis as “a warning to others” last week, and more than 18,000 illegal taxis have been seized since the beginning of this year, local media reported.
Following a two-day strike by cabbies in Chongqing early this month, drivers in Lanzhou , Gansu province , and Sanya , Hainan province , went on strike last week to demand lower monthly cab rental fees and crackdowns on illegal cabbies.
Xinhua reported that the five-day strike involving hundreds of taxi drivers in Sanya, a popular tourist spot, eased on Saturday when the city government said it would act against illegal cabs. The city has about 1,200 licensed cabs and about twice as many unlicensed ones. Three Sanya transport officials resigned because of dereliction of duty, and 20 taxi drivers were detained for attacking drivers who did not participate in the strike and smashing cabs.
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Shanghai mayor meets cabbies as disruptive strikes continue
Lilian Zhang
20 November 2008
Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng pledged to listen to grievances and try to resolve problems during a two-hour meeting with representatives of cab drivers and transport workers on Tuesday, mainland media reported yesterday.
The representatives - 10 taxi drivers, four bus drivers and two bus conductors - had a free-ranging discussion with the mayor following taxi strikes in several mainland cities this month. The strikes, a headache for the central government and a source of social unrest, are in response to what the drivers call extreme work pressure, high cab rental fees and competition from unlicensed cabs.
Yesterday in Chongqing , several hundred drivers were on strike to protest against a proposed increase in the number of cabs in the city, Xinhua reported. They returned to work in the afternoon following talks with district officials, it said.
No demonstrations have been staged in Shanghai, but the country-wide turbulence caught the attention of the mayor, who has promised a safe and harmonious social environment for the 70 million tourists expected to visit the 2010 World Expo.
Official figures said more than 10 per cent of the 100,000 taxi drivers working for Shanghai’s 150-plus cab companies quit their jobs each year, mainly because of low salaries, passenger miscommunication and competition from illegal cabs.
At the meeting, some taxi drivers said they had to pay 600 yuan (HK$680) to their companies each day, saying they worked about 18 hours a day, to take home just 2,000 to 3,000 yuan a month.
Others called for the government to crack down heavily on illegal cabbies because the unlicensed drivers were eating into their business.
“Do you know how rampant the illegal taxis are? They have everything, including taxi meters and company titles,” one cab driver told the mayor. “Sometimes they give kickbacks to security guards so that they line up on streets to wait for passengers at night, but we are not allowed to do that.”
Mr Han said the government would take measures to protect transport workers in an effort to maintain the healthy development of the transport industry.
He said Shanghai would set up a 24-hour complaint hotline for taxi drivers and establish a regular hearing with transport representatives to improve communication with government officials. The authorities would also solicit public feedback on plans to improve management of public transport.
City transport officials used a compactor to crush 21 impounded illegal taxis as “a warning to others” last week, and more than 18,000 illegal taxis have been seized since the beginning of this year, local media reported.
Following a two-day strike by cabbies in Chongqing early this month, drivers in Lanzhou , Gansu province , and Sanya , Hainan province , went on strike last week to demand lower monthly cab rental fees and crackdowns on illegal cabbies.
Xinhua reported that the five-day strike involving hundreds of taxi drivers in Sanya, a popular tourist spot, eased on Saturday when the city government said it would act against illegal cabs. The city has about 1,200 licensed cabs and about twice as many unlicensed ones. Three Sanya transport officials resigned because of dereliction of duty, and 20 taxi drivers were detained for attacking drivers who did not participate in the strike and smashing cabs.
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