By David Helwig
SooToday.com
Friday, April 29, 2005

Out at the Sault Ste. Marie Airport, a dispute has arisen over two banners unfurled yesterday by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

Pierre Verhelst, elected last night as the new president of OPSEU Local 605, says he was given permission by Sault Ste. Marie Airport management to place the banner shown, and an identical one in French, on this airport fence.

His members have been working without a contract since January 1, and the union wants to warn the public about the danger of further cuts to Ontario's public service.

However, Verhelst says he was instructed to remove the signs by Barry O'Brien, the Ministry of Natural Resources' Aviation Services General Manager in the Sault.

Verhelst argues that the order violates the union's freedom of expression.

He says he was given no reason for it, except that the fence is supposed to be Ontario Government property.

Verhelst believes the fence belongs to the airport authority and he had all permissions needed to lawfully post the banners there.

Barry O'Brien has not returned two phone messages left by SooToday.com over the past 15 hours, requesting his side of the story.

The union's membership discussed the controversy during a meeting last night at the Holiday Inn, and Verhelst says further expressions of solidarity are being planned.

In the meantime, he says that OPSEU's burn barrel, placed at the airport in late January, has gone missing.

He's asking anyone who knows where it is to contact City Police.