An Ottawa taxi driver is claiming he and a group of fellow Blue Line drivers got in to a scrap over turf with orphaned ex-airport cabbies who allegedly tried to steal fares.

The allegation of violence -- including punches and claims of a knife getting pulled -- comes at a time when union and company bosses are similarly slugging it out in the boardroom about the eligibility of airport drivers to be absorbed into Blue Line.

This most recent alleged dust-up is said to have occurred at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday night when a female customer came out of the Shaw Centre, on Daly Ave., holding a Blue Line voucher.

"We told the lady (to) just take the Blue Line car," said Roy Noja.

That's when another cabbie, Noja alleges, showed up and represented himself as a Blue Line driver.

That's when an argument apparently broke out about who's a Blue Line driver and who is not.

Noja said one driver jumped on one of his friends and punched him in the back. Noja said he pushed the guy away before chaos broke out and a knife was allegedly pulled out.

"Everybody was shocked," he claimed. "Police were there within a minute."

Ottawa Police would not confirm an investigation was underway when contacted Sunday.

Abed Madi, a former union chairman for airport drivers, said he was in that area, on Daly Ave., "just like everybody else."

"I wasn't involved in any fight. The heated argument started, and I had customers near my car. I picked up my customers and then I left. Simple as that," he said.

Noja is the self-declared leader of The Tigers, a group of about 300 cabbies who do not see eye to eye with Unifor, the union that represents the drivers.