Council Vote Averts Cabbie Strike
Officials End Plan to Sell 50 More Taxi Medallions in City
The municipal council today scrapped a two-year-old plan to sell 50 more taxi medallions after the move prompted a lawsuit by a city cabdrivers association. The cabbies had also been planning a strike this week but decided to wait until the outcome of today’s vote, several drivers said today. A few dozen cabbies crammed into the council’s conference room for the vote today on the measure, which reverses an ordinance change that would have brought the number of available Newark taxi licenses to 650 from 600, the available number for the last several decades. Cabbies had complained that even at 600, there has not been enough business to go around since the nationwide economic downturn began almost four years ago. Cab drivers sometimes wait “…
