Cabbies regroup as airport protest cools
When taxi drivers swarmed the Ottawa International Airport on Aug. 11 to protest a fee increase, arriving passengers — and for a time, the airport itself — were caught offguard.
As dozens of honking cabs circled the airport and other cabbies, some with their families, stood and berated any rival driver trying to collect fares in their place, the airport was forced to supply free shuttles to bring passengers into central Ottawa. Later the airport obtained a court injunction and trespass notices to deal with the protesters.
But Friday morning, more than two weeks after the dispute started, only seven disgruntled drivers occupied the picketing area many steps from the main entrance.
The men still banged large drums. They booed and yelled at the occasional Blue Line cab. But they stopped drumming when they saw travellers with young children. Some waved at passersby. One played a flighty little number on a recorder.
Arriving passengers heard them, but rarely got near them.
Meanwhile, about 70 parked taxis lined each side of the Airport Parkway. None blocked traffic. Some cabbies held “Locked Out” signs, but none was yelling or making a fuss.
As the dispute began, Ottawa’s multi-line taxi company, Coventry Connections, allowed other cabbies to pick up airport fares — as long as they pay the fee protesters are upset about. Now there’s no shortage of taxis at the arrivals gate.
“We’ve heard from a few passengers who were annoyed with the noise, but no one’s being stranded,” said Airport Authority spokeswoman Krista Kealey.
The protesters’ message is clearer than before, branded on a large sign: “Airport Taxi locked out. Company wants 400% increase. 275+ families suffering.” It hits the main points fairly efficiently. In this deeper stage of the prolonged protest, however, people aren’t taking as much notice.
But that’s not stopping angry drivers. Najib Mankal, a cabbie leading Friday morning’s protest, said they will keep coming back in shifts until negotiations end.
“We’re going to stay as long as it takes,” said Mankal, adding that it hurts to see other cabs — under the same union — taking what would be their fares. “We’re brothers, yet they stab us in the back. We’re supposed to help each other, not help the company and shoot each other in the foot.”
What good is a protest, exactly, if it doesn’t bother anyone?
The union president said they’ve regrouped and spread out. This week, drivers also picketed city hall, while continuing protests at the Coventry Connections headquarters that began on Aug. 18.
“It’s not that we’re slowing down or people are not coming,” said Amrik Singh, head of Unifor Local 1688. “It’s in how we’re planning.”
Singh conceded that smooth operations at the airport could affect the drivers’ perceived necessity and, to that end, affect negotiations, but that’s just part of a labour dispute, he said.
“They always bring scabs and replacement workers, but one day this whole thing is going to get settled. I don’t know when, but yes, that may have an effect on the process,” said Singh.
“I will not go as far as (saying) backfiring, but I will say yes there is a factor.”
The company and the union will return to the negotiating table next week.