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

The Ottawa taxi driver who made headlines for secretly filming Uber drivers is no longer an elected union official after the union said he "undermined" an ongoing labour dispute involving airport taxi drivers.

Roy Noja can still drive his taxi and is still a member of Unifor Local 1688 but he is no longer an executive member at large in the union's Blueline unit.

The national head of Unifor, Jerry Dias, told CBC News Monday that Noja violated the union's constitution by working out of the Ottawa airport taxi stand, where other taxi drivers have been locked out by their dispatcher, Coventry Connections, in an ongoing labour dispute.

"We can't, as an organization, have an elected union officer undermining workers who have been locked out. ... So that's a direct violation of our constitution and we can't tolerate it," Dias said.

Noja said Monday that he's hired a lawyer to look into the matter.

He also said that while he's in favour of supporting the airport taxi drivers "for the first week," he thinks it's unfair that Unifor should take sides with the airport drivers on an ongoing basis.

"They should be doing a fair game for everybody and open the airport to everybody. Even if it's Capital, Blueline or the airport people, we should be joined in one stand ... and I think it's not fair for the union to do that and leave the other drivers behind," Noja said.