Chinese construction workers protesting no pay for two months and poor working conditions had an audience of thousands yesterday, when they crowded onto the shoulder of the Uriah Butler Highway during rush-hour.

The workers, numbering about 85, held high scraps of paper on which Chinese characters were written.

They pumped fists in the air and shouted to passing motorists.

Their protest caused a traffic gridlock, which only worsened when police officers arrived and detained the men, who work with a construction company based in Port of Spain.

The men live in freight containers, and a barrack-type building on a compound along an unnamed road off Warren Road, Cunupia.

Two Chinese men seen leaving the compound yesterday said they were ’looking for food’ and did not respond to questions about the protest.

The protest, on the shoulder of the South-bound lane of the highway, began just after daybreak, and caused a traffic pile-up from Freeport.

Immigration officers were called to the scene. Some ten workers were found to have expired work permits.

The work permits of at least 25 others were close to the expiration date, but their passports were all valid, according to an Immigration officer.