Vinasun taxis parked on Dien Bien Phu Street in front of the company headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City Friday.

Taxi drivers of Vinasun company in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday continued the strike they began Tuesday, dissatisfied with the company’s response to their demands.

They said the raised income still would not let them meet daily expenditures. They wanted a 2-percent rise for four-seat taxi drivers and six percent to seven-seat ones.

Ta Long Hy, director of Vinasun Taxi Company, said the company “has done all it can” while the drivers insisted they would continue to strike until their demands are satisfied.

Around 250 taxi cabs on Friday were parked in three lines on Dien Bien Phu Street in front of the company headquarters. There were some skirmishes between the drivers on strike and those not.

The wildcat strike on Tuesday occurred on several streets in Districts 7 and Binh Tan. On Thursday the drivers gathered in front of the company headquarters with banners, forcing the company to meet with them on Friday to find out a solution, which has turned out not satisfactory to the drivers at all.

The drivers said they’d been promised 55 percent of the daily collection, but this had been cut to 51 percent by the company, citing the economic crisis and higher gas prices.

However the drivers argued that they, and not the company, were paying for the gas.

Their monthly incomes had dropped from VND5-7 million (US$278-389) each to VND3-4 million, depending on the size of the cars, they said.

Ta Long Hy, director of the Vinasun Taxi Company, had said the proportion was “reasonable and not small at all compared to other large taxi companies.”

Several small strikes have been carried out by the drivers since late August and the company labor union has asked the company leaders to meet with the drivers to solve the problem.

The company has reportedly asked the police to find out who incited the strike and damaged its business.

Source: Thanh Nien, Tuoi Tre