You can feel the sorrow and the pity permeating today's Star Tribune story by Herón Márquez Estrada on the oppressed Somali taxi drivers of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, compelled to serve all comers: "Cabbies on edge as penalties begin." They resist the mandate to work as common carriers, but they also have a few other issues to raise with Estrada:

Things were relatively quiet at the airport Friday, the first day that taxi drivers faced tougher penalties for refusing to transport passengers with alcohol.

"There were no incidents," said Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. "Everyone was in compliance. It was pretty much business as usual."

That doesn't mean, however, that anger, bitterness, hurt feelings, accusations and harsh words weren't expressed by many of the hundreds of taxi drivers affected by the MAC's new penalties.

"The new ordinance is very tough," said Mekonnen Doyamo, an airport taxi driver for about 10 years. "It's excessive punishment ... The new rules ruin our life totally."

The airport each year handles more than 700,000 taxi rides. Since 2002, the MAC says, it has received about 4,800 complaints from customers of drivers who refused to drive people carrying alcohol.

Many cab drivers, however, take exception with that number. They maintain the MAC is inflating the figures by citing all the drivers in line when one of them refuses to transport alcohol. The MAC denies the allegation.

"Their number is not just a little off; it's a lot off," said Ali Mohamed, a driver at the airport for eight years. "They are creating a hostile environment."

Drivers questioned whether the penalties needed to be raised. Some pointed out that the federal Transportation Security Administration in August limited how much liquid can be carried on planes. As a result, the number of alcohol-related refusals has slowed to a trickle, roughly 12 to 18 a month, according to the MAC.

The MAC unanimously approved the tougher sanctions last month. Before, a violation meant that a cabbie had to go to the end of the customer line; now drivers will have their licenses suspended for 30 days for a first offense, and up to two years for a second.

"The numbers [of refusals] have gone down," Hogan said, "but that's still significant. It's still an issue for some people."

Hogan said that officials made certain that the airport's 900-plus licensed cab drivers were notified of the rule change in the past two weeks and knew that it began Friday.

Alcohol-friendly cabs?

Despite the anger at the parking lot where cabbies awaited assignment Friday, there was at least one happy group: Local 120 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which spent the afternoon trying to persuade taxi drivers to organize.

"Any time that we can get involved with workers that need representation, we're happy to do so," said Rhys Ledger, the strategic campaigns director of Teamsters Local 120.

The union said it had a fairly simple solution to the problem: Designate certain cabs for alcohol, the same way that some cabs now are set aside for use by smokers or large groups.

"It's a very simple solution to an issue that's been made unduly complex," Ledger said Friday afternoon.

Many drivers waiting for fares at the airport Friday agreed with the idea, noting that it wouldn't add much inconvenience.

"I don't like to carry alcohol," said Rasheed Garaad, a driver for about six years. "You have special smoking cabs, so what's the difference?"

Hogan said the MAC considered the idea but in the end decided it would be too unwieldy to have separate cabs designated as alcohol-friendly. "With cigarettes, it's a safety issue with secondhand smoke," Hogan said. "With alcohol, it's not a safety issue."

Also, he said, the airport heard from several people who said they would stop using the taxi service at the airport if forced to use special cabs to carry alcohol.

Changing the issue

Drivers said the fight with the MAC over the alcohol issue is symptomatic of a deeper, ongoing rift between the agency and the drivers, who are independent contractors.

Drivers pay more than $3,500 a year for a license, but they complain that they do not get much in return. Many drivers wait outside the airport for hours to get a fare, averaging three or four rides a shift.

Some note that the 600 or so drivers who wait for fares at a parking lot near the airport have a small break room, six portable toilets and a bathroom at a nearby gas station.

"The real issue is, we challenged the fee and the services we get from the airport," said Liban Mohamud, a four-year driver.

"When we asked for more services, they changed the issue, and started talking about the alcohol and religion."

It's interesting to see that "some note" -- who would they be, Mr. Estrada? -- that the drivers "have...a bathroom at a nearby gas station." That is of course the public restroom (depicted below) at the SuperAmerica next to the taxi holding pen. You can see that SuperAmerica has a gripe of its own regarding the taxi drivers, who've taken to using the restroom to do that wudu that they do so well and leave the mess behind for SuperAmerica to clean up after them. Estrada must not have bothered to take a look.

How many grievances can you count in the story? The $3,500 fee, the lack of business, the lack of amenities, the oppressive mandate to serve as common carriers -- you would think it's enough to compel a driver to ply the taxi trade somewhere in the Twin Cities other than the airport, or to look for another line of work entirely. What are they thinking? Are the drivers interested in adding union dues to their overhead? It seems like a funny niche for the Teamsters to be working. Maybe the Teamsters will threaten to crack some heads for their members' rights to turn away business in honor of the fatwa issued by the Muslim American Society's Minnesota chapter. Is that the issue the Teamsters are selling?

I have one recurring question that invariably arises in connection with the Star Tribune's coverage of Muslims in Minnesota: Where is a reporter's natural curiosity when you need it?

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