February is slow for Haybe Jamaac, a taxi driver at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
The holidays are over. People aren’t traveling for summer vacations yet. So he only works about four days a week to avoid spending too long waiting in line on the airport’s cold, dark ground transportation floor.
And in recent years, Jamaac has watched as prospective passengers ignore his taxi cab in favor of the rideshare app services on the other side of the garage.
As the taxi industry has faced near extinction in the past decade due to rideshares like Uber and Lyft, the airport has become a last stand for taxi drivers in the Puget Sound region. And even at the airport, with its daily flow of passengers, business isn’t what it once was.
As their fares wane, taxi drivers want a say in their future. They say they want more oversight from the Port of Seattle Commission and for drivers to have more voice at work.
Teamsters Local 117 is the union for the 409 taxi drivers who work at Sea-Tac, the majority of whom are immigrants, said Joshua Welter, a union representative. Drivers showed up in force at a Port of Seattle Commission meeting in December to ask commissioners to take action.
On Tuesday, the commission will discuss extending the airport’s program contracting taxi services another five years. According to meeting materials, port commissioners will look into retaining current fees drivers have to pay per trip, explore the idea of a new virtual queue, and review the drivers’ dispute resolution system.
The airport has been directly contracting with taxi drivers since 2019 as part of a pilot program. Before that, the airport typically contracted a third party to manage taxi services, most recently a company called Eastside for Hire.
That did not go well.
“Working at the airport was really hard, because every company that [had] control had a monopoly, and they were kind of indirectly abusing the drivers,” Jamaac said.
Taxi drivers routinely packed commission meetings in 2019 after Eastside for Hire said the drivers would have to pay to access the airport. They protested and went on strike, marching across the taxi dispatch line on the third floor chanting “Eastside unfair” and “stop the pay-to-work scam.”
The conflict led Eastside to fire 29 union activists for not paying to access the airport. Referred to by union members as “The Sea-Tac 29,” all the terminated drivers were reinstated by Eastside after protests and pressure from the Port.
The conflict also led the Port of Seattle to come up with a new three-year pilot program, where, instead of having another company handle taxi services, the port would contract with drivers directly.
Jamaac said he appreciates the improvements made since the pilot program began, like quarterly meetings to get driver input, but drivers at times have felt pushback from Port staff.
Welter said there has been a “disconnect” between how staff engages with taxi drivers and what the commission directed in 2019. Drivers spent most of last year “playing whack-a-mole against antagonistic proposals from the Port staff,” he said.
For example, one staff proposal included eliminating the union, the “back bone” for taxi operators, said driver Worku Belayneh.
“We are not protected by any rules and regulations as a single operator,” said Belayneh, who has been an airport taxi driver for seven years. “They can shut me down anytime, I could lose my job and lose everything. … How am I going to run my life after that?”
Taxi drivers, as independent owner-operators, are largely excluded from the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act. Still, drivers say the union is vital in ensuring they have a voice at work.
Jamaac argues the employees don’t understand what working as a driver is like, yet “they’re sitting at a table and they make a decision for the drivers.”
“I’ve always wanted the relationship between the staff and the driver community to be collaborative, and for there to be some cooperation, and it sounds like that didn’t happen,” said Port Commissioner Hamdi Mohamed.
Lance Lyttle, the airport’s aviation managing director, acknowledged that “not every issue is resolved,” since the December commission meeting.
At meetings with drivers during the pilot program, Port staff endeavored to work out the nuts and bolts of the operation and find out what wasn’t working for drivers, said Charla Skaggs, a Port contractor with external relations.
One of the sticking points has been the question of minimum fares. Many metered taxi drivers want them to ensure they can make a living.
On short trips, those drivers might make less than $10 after waiting potentially hours for a ride, Jamaac said, and then have to pay the $6 fee required by the airport. Between that and gas, they don’t make a profit.
As business declines, each fare, no matter how short, is becoming increasingly important.
In the last decade, the arrivals of Uber and Lyft have siphoned trips from taxi drivers. Taxis went from the selected ground transportation mode of 8 percent of airport arrivals in 2014 to only 3 percent in 2017.
Even fewer people took a taxi in 2022, though the airport is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a spokesperson.
“95 percent of my fares are gone because of the rideshare companies,” said driver Samson Hailegiorgis.
To help, the Port wants to test out a new “virtual queue” that mimics rideshare apps, but drivers worry it could confuse passengers and lead to a decrease in fares. Many taxi riders don’t use smartphones, and drivers are concerned a virtual queue could again siphon some of the trip fare to a technology company.
Virtual queues for taxi drivers have been used at other airports in the United States, often allowing drivers to receive a text when they have a fare so they don’t have to wait at the airport.
The commissioners, for their part, appear to be listening to drivers’ concerns. They’re agreeing to retain the $6 fee per trip, instead of increasing it as Port staff previously suggested. And they’re suggesting that the Port “explore” a virtual queue, making sure to loop in drivers along the way, “with the understanding that implementation of any virtual queue option requires Commission action.”
A committee will review the dispute resolution system, which drivers have argued sometimes results in unfair suspensions as it currently operates. The order also states commissioners will “emphasize contractual customer service standards” for the curbside manager.
The commission also committed to considering a minimum fare next year in the order if the county doesn’t act on one first.
The proposed order also states the commission will continue to recognize and regularly meet with the Teamsters 117 union.
The drivers say they want any other proposed policy changes coming from Port staff to be voted on by commissioners.
“If the Port Commission has oversight, then we’re in a good place,” Jamaac said.
