Airport taxi drivers are ticked at a SuperAmerica, where they spend time — and money — waiting for fares. Their big complaint: rude workers. The store hopes to find a solution.
Cabbies waiting for fares crowd a stuffy room attached to a convenience store across from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
But no more. Hundreds of drivers, many of them immigrants, launched a boycott at the store two weeks ago because they claim the management is disrespectful toward them.
“Some of these drivers are doctors and engineers, and when you go to any store, you want to be treated with respect. Here, they take your money and treat you like (dirt),” said Asad Shane, an Eden Prairie resident who has been driving a cab since 1998.
The drivers — many of whom didn’t want to give their names — say store employees have been rude to them, accused them of theft, tried to shoo them off the property and warned them they can spend no more than five minutes inside the store.
A spokesman for Speedway SuperAmerica said the store has had some problems with the drivers, but that the company, the Metropolitan Airports Commission and the drivers have been working to iron out issues they all have with one another.
“All of our employees go through diversity training, so we’ll reinforce the training,” said Angela Graves, a spokeswoman for Marathon Petroleum, the company that owns Speedway SuperAmerica.
“They’re very good customers,” she said of the drivers. “We just want to make sure their utilization of the store doesn’t interfere with other customers.”
The fuss is the latest in a string of gripes by local taxi drivers, who saw their business drop precipitously when air travel declined after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Among other things, they’ve seen the airports commission raise their annual fee (it was $2,100 before the attacks and is now $3,000), increase the number of permits issued to drivers and hike the airport toll passengers must pay. The drivers also have to cope with gas prices that have soared past $3 per gallon.
The drivers criticize the commission for not doing a better job of making SuperAmerica — which leases the property from the commission — keep the area safe and sanitary.
They are particularly angry about the waiting area’s restrooms, which they say are unclean, often lack toilet paper and feature loose fixtures and plumbing.
But commission spokesman Pat Hogan said airport workers inspect the waiting room and restrooms 10 times a week, and more often if there are complaints. He said that SuperAmerica has told the commission that it now cleans the area twice a day.
“They do have a recurrent problem with vandalism,” Hogan said of SuperAmerica. “The last complaint we had about the restrooms was not from taxi drivers but from the SA management, that someone had defecated on the floor. But when we see things broken, we do require that they be fixed.”
The current imbroglio has its roots in simple geography. Next to the SuperAmerica, behind a chain link fence, is a huge lot used as a cab holding area. At any given time during the day, it is filled with rows and columns of taxis and vans.
They wait for a “starter” at one of the airport terminals to summon them. Given the sheer number of cabs — there are 800 taxi permits at the airport — a hack driver’s wait can get pretty long.
Some recline in their car seats and nap, while others stand in groups and talk. Some play games, and the choice of game is often dependent upon what part of the world the drivers are originally from; backgammon is more popular among drivers from the Middle East, while those from Africa prefer dominoes or Scrabble.
They buy gas and other items at the store, but Shane said employees have recently accused drivers of shoplifting, although they haven’t called the police.
It is an accusation the drivers dispute quite vociferously; many of them are Muslims, and Islam has strict prohibitions against theft. “People working here, because of their background and religion, they’re not going to steal,” said Shane.
“If they say someone is stealing, show it on the camera and call the police,” he said.
Graves of Ohio-based Marathon said the store has had problems with some of the drivers milling about, creating obstacles for customers to park or enter the store.
“We want to make it convenient for other customers to come into the store, those types of things, and not blocking access to the convenience pumps,” she said. “We want to make sure people can come in and get the products they need when they need them. Also, we want to make sure the store has a good supply of the products the drivers enjoy.”
Graves didn’t say how much, if any, the two-week boycott has hurt revenues at the store. But Shane said he hoped the action showed that the cab drivers, a goodly number of whom were degreed professionals back in their native lands, just wanted respect and didn’t want their business taken for granted.
“A lot of doctors and engineers are here,” he said. “They are cab drivers, but they have a history of education.”
David Hanners can be reached at dhanners@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5551.
Source: Pioneer Press, Aug 10, 2006
