The majority of strikes and worker protests in China are ignored by the official media. However, the Chongqing cab strike last week was just too big to ignore, both for the local government and the national media.

Initially, the official media, while reporting and confirming the drivers’ grievances, said the strike was organised by a small group of drivers and that most drivers only stayed off the streets for fear of being attacked. It also praised the government’s attempts to resolve the dispute as quickly as possible. Subsequently, some commentators pointed out that strikes were a natural phenomenon in a market economy and that the Chongqing strike should act as a catalyst to further discussion on the restoration of the right to strike, which was removed from the Chinese constitution in 1982 on the grounds that under a socialist system strikes were unnecessary.

Early Xinhua reports on the strike on 3 November, translated and edited below, show how quickly the official media and local authorities responded to the potentially destabilising protest.

Around 7.00.am this morning, there was not a single cab on Xin’gai Road in Chongqing, an area normally bustling with cabs. Around 8.00.am, we saw many people waiting for cabs on Xinnan Road in Yubei district. As they waited, they complained: Why aren’t there any cabs today? Some say that they are late for work; others say that they are late for the train or their flights. When they discover that the cabs are on strike, they hurryto get on public buses.

We later learned that the primary reasons for the strike are that 1. The Chongqing authorities failed to take effective action against the proliferation of unlicensed cabs. 2. Fares were too low, with the meter only starting five yuan. 3. Cab companies charged 70 to 80 yuan a month in administrative fees to drivers, and 4. There were severe shortages of fuel in the city center.

The Chongqing Administrative Office for Communications and Transportation confirmed that taxi fuel (compressed natural gas) was in short supply, and that the government has not done enough to curb the growth of unlicensed cabs, and that traffic fines were excessive; each cab-driver receives on average ten traffic tickets a month.

Chongqing has a total of 16,000 cabs, of which close to 9,000 operate in the city center. As of now, there are basically no cabs in the districts of Yubei, Yuzhong, Shapingba, Jiulongpo, Nanan, Jiangbei etc.

According to Zhang Yujun, deputy bureau chief of the Chongqing Administrative Bureau for Transportation, not all Chongqing cabs went on strike from the outset. However, when some cabs went out they were attacked, passengers were dragged out, and the cabs were not allowed to operate.

Mr Huang, a cab-driver with the Chongqing Public Transport Group, said that as he started his shift this morning, he saw some people smashing cars in the Yanggongqiao area of Shapingba. He was forced to return to the company’s parking lot. He said: “Many cab-drivers do not want to go on strike; but they do not dare go out for fear of being attacked.”

The Chongqing government called an emergency meeting this morning to investigate and deal with the strike incident. At the same time, the Chongqing Public Security Bureau launched an all-out investigation into the organizers of the cab strike.