Some 1,000 taxi-owners and drivers in Dazhou have been on strike since 24 November and no taxi has been operating in the city since then. The strike is in response to the local government’s recent move to cancel all existing tax driver permits (Taxi Operation Certificates – TOCs) and re-sell them at a higher price through an auction. The government is not planning to pay any form of compensation for the rescinded certificates, most of which cost around 100,000 Yuan. Also of concern is the government order that taxi-owners switch to using another newer [and more expensive] brand of automobile. Some 800 taxi-owners and drivers staged a sit-in in front of the municipal government building to protest against the decision.

Police reportedly detained several protestors on 24 and 26 November. According to a reliable source, the police also issued a wanted notice against 15 of the strikers. Three of those on the list have been formally detained and will be held for a period of 15 days administrative detention, while one was warned against further participation in the strike. The remaining 11 are reportedly still under investigation.

One taxi-owner informed CLB that, after being widowed, she had borrowed some 190,000 Yuan from relatives and the bank to buy a taxi. She applied for a TOC and has now managed to pay back 50,000 Yuan to the bank, leaving her with a further 50,000 owing to the bank. She told CLB that if the government took away her permit she would be left in serious debt and with no means of making a living.

According to workers, some 160 representatives went to Chengdu, to complain directly to the provincial government of Sichuan. However, the provincial government explicitly stated that it supports the Dazhou government’s redemption policy. The protestors are therefore planning to take their complaint to the central authorities in Beijing. The workers also stated that the taxi-owners have been looking for a lawyer to make a legal claim but so far none of the lawyers they contacted have dared to take on the case. Local people interviewed supported the strike and were sympathetic to the plight of the taxi-owners.

Staff at the Dazhou Complaints Office and the Sichuan Complaints Office informed CLB that the decision rested with the local Dazhou government and that unless the central government intervenes and changes the policy, the matter will be settled in Dazhou. Staff at the Sichuan Complaints Office also predicted that the heavy-handedness of the government would prevail, as the government could not afford to lose the battle with the taxi-owners for fear of encouraging other protests by workers affected by similar economic changes in the city of Dazhou. CLB was also informed by the staff that the strike would last not much longer as each taxi-owner was losing several hundred Yuan each day and “they could not afford to suffer that long”.

One source also informed CLB that the issue was currently being negotiated and a decision would be known at the end of December. The strikers have vowed to resume their action, should the decision to cancel the certificates stand. According to this source, the Dazhou government had attempted to initiate the new policy in June of this year, but after mass protests in the summer, they were forced to withdraw. The reason for the government’s renewed decision to push through the policy is not known.