A CORK taxi union which denies racism for refusing black drivers has admitted some of its members hurled eggs at the cars of Africans after they refused to respect a strike last week.

The chairman of the Cork Taxi Drivers Association (CTDA) said he fully condoned such behaviour and would not apologise for the continued policy of refusing membership to black African taxi drivers.

Derry Coughlan, who has held the position for 17 years, told the Sunday Tribune: "These people are too soon on our shores" to be granted union membership. "We will leave them settle in for a while," before memberships will be considered, Coughlan said.

The stand-off began last week when a number of African drivers refused to stop working during a strike on the basis they were not allowed to join the union in the first place.

One of the African drivers involved in the dispute, Lamma Niankoye, said he and his friends were subject to intimidation by white drivers taking pictures of their cars and telling them they would be "dealt with". Eggs were also thrown at their vehicles.

Coughlan said: "Some of our members lost the head completely when they saw what was going on and they began throwing eggs." When asked if he would condone such behaviour, he said: "I would."

Niankoye (42), a Guinean living in Ireland for the past eight years and driving a taxi for two, was refused membership in 2007. "I said, 'Look, I am doing the same job as you guys and you are part of a union and I want to be part of a union.' I said what are the conditions and he said: 'No, the union is just for the Irish.'"

He added that a friend by the name of "King" was similarly refused member­ship three weeks ago.

"We are being discrimin­ated [against] for whichever reason... Everyone knows it's because of our ethnic belongings, just because we are black Africans," said Niankoye, who has a wife and three children. "There are all sorts of charges, like we overcharge or we rape. There has never been a black taxi driver in Cork convicted of rape."

Coughlan insists the African drivers are too "new" to the industry and there are too many public complaints about their service. "We are not racist because in our organ­isation we have drivers from India, Chile, Poland, Pakistan, Albania, Bangladesh, England, Scotland and Tunisia," he said.

"We are getting far too many complaints from the public that they don't know the routes and they are not giving a fair deal on the meter structure. Statutory rights come into this. They seem to think that they can take what they want off people, these black drivers."

John Ussher of the Irish Taxi Federation, of which the CTDA is an affiliate, said: "We will be watching the situation in Cork very closely..."