Several Las Vegas cabbies were arrested on Tuesday while protesting outside of a convention. Fifteen taxi drivers at the National Association of Broadcasters convention were booked during the protest.
According to Officer Jose Hernandez, 14 people were booked and released on suspicion of traffic-related violations. Twelve of those include failure to obey a traffic signal. One was for failing to obey to a traffic police officer and one was for walking in a roadway.
One person was arrested because of an outstanding warrant.
"The majority of those are people not obeying the traffic control devices at the crosswalks," said Metro Capt. Todd Fasulo to FOX. "What they specifically do is when they go to cross the street, they will wait, and the light will turn red, and then they still go out into the street in an attempt to stand in front of certain vehicles and conduct their protest."
"Common process on a simple jaywalking is a ticket," said arrested cab driver Mark Muller. "You sign the ticket and agree to show up in court. Not this time. They went full force. They wanted to make an example of a situation that they felt got out of control the prior day."
"We're the ambassador of the city, as they call us, because we're the first ones to greet the conventioneers and the tourists," striking cab driver Ermias Aboye said, according to FOX . "How come nobody is hearing us right now? So we need to raise our voices and let the people hear us."
"I started driving in 1976 up in Reno, and I've driven in other cities," said striking cab driver Michael Reid. "I can tell you this is the worst city in the country for a cab driver. They treat you like garbage. They treat you like you're nothing."
The cab drivers were protesting against the Yellow-Checker-Star cab company on Tuesday. According to union officials, nearly 400 drivers were at the demonstration outside the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Some of the drivers have been striking since March 3 over a contract dispute with the Yellow-Checker-Star cab company's management. The drivers were trying to discourage the 90,000 NAB attendees from using Yellow-Checker-Star.
The cabbies had bullhorns and noise makers to grab attention and requested things like "better working conditions" and a more "competitive wage."
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