Jerry Dias, Unifor head, urges Ottawa airport to join labour negotiations

The national head of the union representing Ottawa's disgruntled airport taxi drivers says the ongoing labour dispute will escalate if Ottawa's airport authority won't negotiate, as the authority continues to refuse to do.

The airport taxi drivers have been locked out by their dispatcher, Coventry Connections, since Aug. 11 in a dispute over pick-up fees.

Coventry has long held a contract with Ottawa's airport authority to be the sole taxi provider at the airport, and now the authority is charging Coventry a higher rate for the right to provide that service.

• Listen to the Ottawa Morning interview with Jerry Dias here.

Coventry has said the authority's increase is only fair after years of being charged comparatively low market rates, and Coventry, in turn, is now charging its airport drivers more for the right to service the airport (about $1,300 per month more, according to Unifor, the union representing the drivers).

Taxi drivers who have refused to pay the sharp increase to Coventry have been locked out of the airport taxi stand.

• Roy Noja, taxi driver who filmed Uber drivers, no longer union official

Since then they have staged protests at the airport, on Ottawa roads heading to and from the airport, and at the offices of Coventry Connections, to the displeasure of many residents.

Can't charge this much more 'overnight,' union says

Jerry Dias, national president of Unifor, said Monday that the situation will only "escalate" if the airport authority refuses to come to the table, as the airport continues to refuse to do.

"The airport authority — who haven't [asked for a fee increase in 22 years] — can't try to make up 22 years of inactivity overnight. You can't say to workers that we are going to increase your fees by $1,300 a month when they know they're making minimum wage. That is completely ridiculous," Dias said Monday.

"If they're going to sit at the airport and say that they have no skin in the game, well then this thing is going to escalate."

In a media release issued Monday, after all three groups met to discuss the issue, the authority said it "does not and will not insert itself" into the talks between Coventry and its drivers, and that it encourages Unifor and Coventry to head back to the bargaining table.

Coventry, for its part, said Monday that while the meeting with Dias and the airport authority was "courteous," Coventry requires "a credible response" to the proposals it presented to Unifor in order to move forward.

Dias said Monday he plans to stay in Ottawa until a solution is found.