More than 70 buses blocked the entrance to Chengdu’s Baihua Centre Bus Station on 1 November 2008 as drivers from the Wenjiang Guanghua Bus Co. staged a one day strike demanding wage increases, CLB has learned.

That afternoon, management agreed to an increase of three yuan for each driver, each trip, which according to a Wenjiang Guanghua Bus Co. official would result in an average monthly increase of 500 yuan. The affected 309 and 319 bus routes resumed normal service the following day.

The Chengdu municipal union federation claimed to be unaware of the incident, while the chairwoman of enterprise union (who was also the company’s deputy general manager) told CLB Director Han Dongfang that the union did not support the drivers’ strike action.

As with the taxi drivers strike in Chongqing [2] that occurred two days after the Chengdu bus strike, the enterprise union was both unwilling and unable to represent workers rights and interests. When unions are directly or indirectly controlled by management, ordinary workers are left with little choice but to take matters into their own hands.