By DEEPTI HAJELA
Associated Press
via Breitbart News

NEW YORK (AP) - The army of yellow cabs that trolls New York City’s streets was somewhat smaller Wednesday as some drivers idled their cars to protest new global-positioning technology the city wants installed in all taxis.

Exactly how many of the city’s 44,000 licensed taxi drivers went on strike was hard to gauge: The group leading the work stoppage called it a “resounding success,” while city officials said disruption was minimal.

Officials put the number of striking cabbies at about 20 percent; the taxi group put it at more than 90 percent.

Cabdrivers in Philadelphia who face similar requirements also went on strike Wednesday, but organizers called off the planned 48-hour strike early and said taxis would return to work by Thursday morning.

“We don’t need to (strike a second day),” said Ronald Blount, a spokesman for the Taxi Workers Alliance of Pennsylvania. “We got our message out.”

Only about 100 of the city’s 1,600 medallioned drivers were working by midday Wednesday, Blount said.

But Linda Miller, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Parking Authority, said that she had heard no complaints and that, although she had no estimate of how many cabs were on duty, she doubted Blount’s.

The New York strike, occurring as the city hosted the U.S. Open tennis tournament and Fashion Week, caused some headaches in midtown Manhattan and at LaGuardia Airport in the borough of Queens, where lines were longer than usual in the morning.

Outside midtown’s Pennsylvania Station-a commuter hub for subway, Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit trains-there were many more people than cabs during the morning rush hour. After waiting almost 20 minutes, financial analyst Matt Achilarre had no sympathy for the striking drivers.

“It’s pointless-they’re not making any statements,” said Achilarre, 26, who commutes by train from New Jersey. “I applaud the cabbies that are working. They’ll get a windfall.”

Some cabbies said idling their vehicles would have gotten them nowhere. Yasser El-Sayed stayed on the job Wednesday because he needed to pay his bills.

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