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Two weeks before the Super Bowl, several suing over working conditions are dropped by Gulf Coast Transportation.
By GRAHAM BRINK
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 16, 2001
TAMPA -- Veteran cabbie Bill McLaughlin joined a lawsuit last week against his employer to help win better working conditions, including a minimum wage.
Monday, the company told McLaughlin that he need not apply for his weekly lease anymore. He is out of work as of Saturday.
"They just canned me," McLaughlin said during a cellular phone interview from the front of his Pontiac Safari Wagon -- the one with 410,963 miles on it. "It seems like retaliation to me."
McLaughlin isn't the only newly unemployed cabbie.
Gulf Coast Transportation, which operates more than half the cabs in Hillsborough County, including those with United Cabs, Taxi Plus, Thrifty Cab and ABC Taxi, let go several other cabbies involved in the lawsuit, just two weeks before the Super Bowl comes to town.
Gulf Coast general manager Nancy Castellano referred questions to the company's attorney, who declined to comment Monday.
McLaughlin and 24 other local cabdrivers filed the lawsuit in federal court in hopes of being declared employees, not independent contractors. By treating drivers as independent contractors, Gulf Coast is exempt from paying the minimum wage.
The cabbies, however, argue that they have none of the freedom of true independent contractors. Gulf Coast retains control over almost every aspect of the business, from the meter rates to the placement of advertising on the cars, the cabbies claim.
Many drivers pay about $450 a week to the company to lease a cab, use the dispatch service and pick up customers at Tampa International Airport, which has an agreement allowing United to operate at the airport. Cabbies who use their own cars pay a smaller fee, about $290 a week.
The cabbies say they work 30 to 40 hours a week to pay off the lease, then another 30 to 40 hours to make a profit.
As employees, the drivers would be entitled to a minimum wage. The cabbies also want Gulf Coast to pay minimum wage for all the hours they worked for the past three years, which for some cabbies could be about $50,000 to $60,000.
John Bailey, also a plaintiff, fully expects the company to tell him that his lease won't be renewed. He already knows of at least two other plaintiffs who have had the "talk" with the company.
The "layoffs" could end up affecting tourists coming to town for the Super Bowl, Bailey said. New drivers would likely be less experienced and unfamiliar with the roads and hotels in the area, he said.
"It's fairly transparent what they are doing," Bailey said. "We are all waiting for the ax to fall."
One of the cabbies' attorneys, David Sockol, said he will seek an injunction restoring the cabbies to their jobs. Federal laws forbid companies from retaliating against employees who file lawsuits or other legal actions.
Sockol conceded that winning such an injunction can be difficult. The cabbies may have to wait to see how the lawsuit turns out; if they prevail, they could be entitled to back pay for being unfairly laid off.
Sockol called Gulf Coast's actions "deliberately spiteful" given that the Super Bowl, and the big paydays cabbies expect, are just two weeks away.
McLaughlin said he hopes he lands work with another local cab or limousine company. He has no regrets about joining the lawsuit, saying that the outcome could benefit all cabdrivers, not just him.
"The company isn't interested in if we are surviving as long as they make money," he said.
- Graham Brink can be reached at (813) 226-3365 or brink@sptimes.com.