Angry RMT cabbies picket Labour conference at Leicester Town Hall Angry cabbies picketed a Labour Party event at Leicester Town Hall at the weekend as the latest part of their battle with city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby.
The RMT union staged a protest outside the civic building which was hosting delegates for the Labour in Leicestershire conference on Saturday.
The union claims some 60 placard-bearing, chanting taxi drivers demonstrated on the Town Hall steps while more than 130 Labour councillors, MPs, and activists attended events inside.
Sir Peter was among the speakers - along with Leicester MPs Keith Vaz, Liz Kendall and Jon Ashworth as well as Feltham and Heston colleague Seema Malhotra - but he said he had not seen the assembled group outside.
The union, representing 325 city hackney cab drivers in the city, objects to a new council-imposed misconduct penalty points system for drivers.
A list of infractions has been drawn up each carrying a set number of points.
Drivers breaking the rules accumulate points and may have their licences revoked if the reach 12.
Leicestershire and Rutland RMT secretary Umar Khan said the protest was peaceful.
He said his members were concerned council officials were targeting hackney drivers over private hire drivers.
He said: "This is why we want to speak to the city mayor and question the fairness of the policy and how the scheme is being implemented.
"We are not against the policy but we are now starting to question the fairness in which points are being issued.
"Our members have no faith in those officers issuing points.
"Have the officers been instructed to solely target the hackneys?"
The council insists all the 1,900 hackney cab and private hire drivers are being treated equally under the new system which kicked in for a 12 month pilot period on December 1.
City mayor Sir Peter said he had not seen the protesting cabbies.
He said: "A colleague suggested they might have turned up late and gone to the wrong door.
"I'm not going to talk to them until the 12 month experimental period ends.
"Then we will review how it has worked."
The union staged a series of go-slow rush hour processions before Christmas causing widespread traffic disruption.
The cabbies also incurred a considerable amount of ill-will through the events and have indicated a change of strategy.
The union will hold a public meeting in the community hall at Leicester's Central Mosque, in Conduit Street, at 4pm on Thursday, February 4.
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