DRIVERS' STRIKES & PROTESTS * WORLDWIDE
* South Africa - Taxi violence: Army on standby - NTA leading the strike
Cape Town,South Africa -News 24, by Verashni Pillay -Feb 13, 2009: -- Violence on the third day of a minibus taxi strike in Cape Town appeared to be abating, with police reporting no new incidents of violence on Friday... Special police units and metro police were deployed to quell violence and the army was on standby, Senior Superintendent Billy Jones told News24... A source in the taxi industry who wanted to remain anonymous said however that taxi drivers wanting to operate were still facing death threats, violence and intimidation from "criminal elements" taking advantage of the strike.. "No taxis can operate," said the high-ranking taxi industry official. He described how one taxi driver near Wynburg had been forced out of his vehicle and stripped naked... National Taxi Alliance (NTA) members have prevented taxis and some buses from taking people to work. Their rivals, the Western Cape Taxi council have been intimidated into suspending services.. (Picture by William McIntosh, Die Son - A Golden Arrow bus which was burnt during taxi violence in Cape Town)* South Africa - Bus petrol-bombed in Cape Town
Cape Town,SA -iol.za, by Clayton Barnes and Esther Lewis -February 13 2009: -- A total of 13 people were injured when a Golden Arrow bus was petrol bombed on Vanguard Drive, outside the Samora Machel informal settlement, ahead of the taxi strike entering its third day on Friday... And irate commuters at Nyanga have now called for a boycott of taxis from Monday, with many vowing to choose buses and trains to get to work in the future... Three men, described as "old" by witnesses, were apparently spotted sitting under trees close to a gap the fence along Vanguard Drive... As the bus, travelling to Lost City in Mitchells Plain, passed in rush-hour traffic just after 5pm, the men allegedly ran up to the bus and threw a petrol bomb into the back section. The men were seen running back through the gap in the fence, and disappearing between the shacks...
* Mexico - Tijuana bus drivers snarl traffic to protest diesel prices
Tijuana,Mexico -The Sign On San Diego Union-Tribune, by Omar Millan Gonzalez -February 16, 2009: -- Hundreds of public bus drivers virtually stopped traffic through this city's main thoroughfares Monday to protest the cost of diesel, which has gone up 50 percent in the last six months... The current price of diesel means that public transport providers can't break even on the fares they collect, said Virgilio Diaz, president of the Mass Transit Alliance of Baja California, which had 447 buses in the protest... In Mexico, drivers rent their buses from companies and pay for fuel themselves. However, the city must approve any fare increase for the 4,000 public buses and calafias, or shuttle vans, that move 750,000 passengers daily... The demonstration in Tijuana by drivers was part of nationwide protest Monday in major Mexican cities. The drivers are calling on the federal government to lower diesel prices or offer their sector a subsidy...
* India - Bus operators’ to protest today
Thiruvananthapuram,Kerala,India -The Kerala On Line -17 Feb 2009: -- The All Kerala Bus Operators Organisation will observe today as ‘betrayal day’ to protest against the ‘unilateral reduction of bus fares’ on the basis of fall in diesel price alone. It demanded that the decision be revoked as prices of spare parts, oil and tyre had not come down... The minimum charges for super express services was reduced by 33 per cent, super fast services by 20 per cent, fast passenger by 10 per cent and ordinary, city and city fast services by 12.5 per cent, though the National Transportation Planning and Automation Centre had recommended lower rate cuts... Noting that the reduction in price of diesel was marginal, the Minister urged the Central government to reduce it further in tune with the international prices for crude oil, which had dropped by 79 per cent. The price of diesel should be cut by at least 55 per cent, on par with the reduction effected for aviation fuel...Labels: bus drivers' strikes
posted by Unknown @ 11:27 AM
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