"Baltimore Airport Taxi Contractor Faces $10 Million Suit"

Wednesday, September 3, 2003

Baltimore Airport Taxi Contractor Faces $10 Million Suit
The Baltimore (MD) Sun


Michael Gutin had $90 in his pocket when he came to the United States from
the former Soviet Union in 1977, but today he owns a home in Owings Mills
and has put two children through college -- largely on the income he has
earned during the past dozen years as a taxi driver at Baltimore-Washington
International Airport. 

Abib Ahmed, on the other hand, said picking up passengers from the airport
seven nights a week barely brings in enough money to support his four
children, pay for food, rent, car insurance and put $475 a month toward
payment on his vehicle, a white sport-utility with red lettering and the
airport name on the door. Every month, he said, is a struggle. 

"There is no month that I didn't receive an eviction notice," said Ahmed of
his two-bedroom apartment in Baltimore County. 

The drivers represent dueling sides of a battle that has erupted between
some of the 300 taxi drivers stationed at BWI Airport and the company that
manages the fleet whose contract is up for renewal today before the state
Board of Public Works. 

Some drivers contend that they are treated unfairly, with unjust hours,
crushing cab-stand fees and intimidating management tactics -- allegations
they have been raised in a $10 million lawsuit against the airport taxi
contractor. 

Other drivers, however, paint a more generous picture of BWI Taxi Management
Inc., saying its system rewards seniority with good pay and steady work. 

The conflict has become so heated that a discussion of company policies with
a reporter outside the airport recently nearly turned into a fight between
cabbies. Night-shift drivers contend their arrangement with the company is
much less lucrative than for the dayside drivers. 

"They're sucking my blood for two years," said Baldev Singh, a taxi driver
who has been driving at the airport for two years. 

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and
Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, who make up the Board of Public Works, are due to
vote today in Annapolis on whether to grant BWI Tax Management a new
five-year contract, as recommended this summer by the agency that runs the
airport, the Maryland Aviation Administration. 

"There were a number of other firms which bid upon this particular contract,
but this particular bid satisfied all the requirements, unlike some of the
other proposals," Jonathan Dean, a spokesman for the state aviation
administration, said of BWI Taxi Management. "It was determined that they
were the most responsible bidder." 

BWI Taxi Management has agreed to pay the aviation administration at least
$9.15 million over five years to oversee the fleet. The company has managed
the airport's growing fleet since it was founded as Airport Taxi Management
LLC in 1997. 

In a lawsuit filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court last March, a dozen
taxi drivers accuse the company of violating agreements and infringing on
their earnings' potential. Their suit also alleges the wrongful termination
of driver Shuiab Leigh, who served as a spokesman for some of his colleagues
before being fired. 

Lawyers representing Airport Taxi Management have filed a motion to dismiss
the case as lacking merit. 

"We don't believe there's any basis to the complaint," said Michael
Petkovich, one of the attorneys representing Airport Taxi Management. 

Some 130 night-shift drivers, who begin their workday after 4 p.m., contend
that the 170 cabbies who work the day shift, which begins after 4 a.m., have
an economic advantage because they can work as many hours as they want.
Night drivers, meanwhile, typically pick up their last passengers when
flights mostly stop arriving at BWI around 1 a.m., so their shifts can't
last much more than eight hours, the drivers said. 

Meanwhile, drivers who own their cabs pay a $150 stand fee for the right to
pick up passengers at the airport. Those who rent vehicles from BWI Taxi
Management pay $590 for their car and the stand fee -- a nearly impossible
burden when earning about $100 a day. 

"You're basically a slave because you can't ever get out from underneath the
situation," said Damien Alexander, a lawyer with Smith Cooper LLC in
Washington who is representing the drivers' grievance. 

Alexander estimates each of the night side drivers have lost roughly
$100,000 during the last three to four years because day drivers are allowed
to overlap into their time. 

The lawsuit also alleges that Shuaib Leigh -- a spokesman for the year-old
Association of Airport Cab Operators -- was wrongfully fired for trying to
organize workers. 

The drivers said they have taken their grievances to both the company and
the aviation administration. Company management would not meet with the
drivers to discuss their issues, according to court papers and other
documents obtained by The Sun. 

Saeid Esfarjani, who owns BWI Taxi Management, declined to comment on the
lawsuit itself but described his opponents as a small fraction of the
drivers. 

Much of the division arose after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,
after which business slowed considerably for the airport, and its taxi
drivers, the company said. But BWI Taxi Management must have differentiated
day shifts and night shifts to ensure customer service around the clock,
Esfarjani said. 

"We have commitment to the state of Maryland," Esfarjani said. "Our contract
says we must provide this service."

The airport taxi drivers, who have individual contracts with BWI Taxi
Management, typically begin as night drivers and transfer to the day shift
as the fleet grows. 

"I earned my right to work anytime I want to," said Michael Tseytlin, who
has been driving at the airport for 10 years. "The everyday driver who works
day shift earned his right to work day shift." 

But some drivers allege that BWI Taxi management charges them stand fees
even when they are out ill or during the blizzard last winter, even when the
airport was closed. Yet they also feel indentured to BWI Taxi Management
because they have been renting a BWI car for months in the hopes of someday
buying one or own a taxi with the BWI logo on it. A new employer would mean
another new car, said Ahmed, the driver who is struggling to make ends meet.


"There is no other cab company that can support the debt that I am in," he
said. 

Like several other drivers, Ahmed has tried to take on second jobs to
supplement income. He worked as a cable television installer but the job
required long hours, and he couldn't manage both jobs. He also tried working
as a mail carrier, but couldn't get enough hours on that job, he said. 

However, Gutin, the driver who has put two children through college, said he
was able to work his way through the night side. He took a second job in a
supermarket when he worked the later shift. He said his wife also works to
help make ends meet. 

Now a day-shift driver, Gutin said many of his co-workers work only as taxi
drivers and are able to stay afloat. 

"This is a job at least you can work, make money and save," Gutin said. 

BWI Taxi Management has been managing the taxis at the airport on a monthly
basis since its last contract expired last October, said Bishop L. Robinson
Jr., a corporate lawyer for Airport Taxi Management and BWI Taxi Management.
He is not representing the company in the pending lawsuit. 

"The company has a reputation for excellent customer service, excellent
reliability with respect to the airport traveling public," said Robinson,
son of the former state juvenile services official of the same name. 

Alexander, the attorney representing the aggrieved drivers, hopes the Board
of Public Works will intervene. 

"It's just a mess," he said, "and they really need to look at it."


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