Airport taxi drivers ordered to limit pickets to 10 vehicles, 18 hours a day
Judge tells protest to limit number of people, vehicles and hours, plus cap on sound
Airport taxi drivers locked out from working at the Ottawa airport have been ordered to limit protests to 10 vehicles and 20 people, for a maximum of 18 hours per day with no electronic amplification.
On Friday morning, the Ottawa airport authority sought a court order to restrict the protests of locked out airport taxi drivers.
Krista Kealey, the authority's spokeswoman, told CBC News the authority has been worried about passengers' safety.
"With the escalating activities we felt the need to file it for safety and security purposes for our passengers, for our employees and anybody else that this [lockout] has touched," Kealey said on Friday.
On the fourth day of the lockout four coach buses were blocking pickets from the airport taxi stand, where other taxi drivers have been authorized to pick up passengers.
Picketing drivers were shouting and driving in circles around the airport, honking their horns.
On Friday afternoon, a judge issued the permanent injunction to limit the picketing to the following:
- 10 vehicles circling.
- 20 people on centre island.
- Leafleting only on southern door (near OC Transpo stop) and south side of central door.
- Two people per door on departures level.
- 18 hours a day.
- No electronic amplification.
The labour dispute stems from an increase in fees caused by a change in payment structure, which was negotiated between the dispatcher, Coventry Connections, and the airport authority.
The drivers are refusing to pay, so the dispatcher locked the drivers out from the curb on the arrivals platform on Tuesday.