LIHUE — The management at Lihue Airport, starting May 15, moved the taxi waiting area from the baggage claim to a curb about 50 yards before the terminal. The changes upset some drivers, who complained of unsafe working conditions and
LIHUE — The management at Lihue Airport, starting May 15, moved the taxi waiting area from the baggage claim to a curb about 50 yards before the terminal.
The changes upset some drivers, who complained of unsafe working conditions and mistreatment and discrimination by airport management.
“We have to wait out in the sun, no shade, right up by United (Airlines), where we get all the fumes … and no water, no bathroom,” cab driver Bill Doherty said.
Cab driver Francisco Cabanatan said he and the majority of other drivers would rather work out of the former waiting area.
“This one is unsafe,” said Cabanatan, pointing to the road and adding that parking right after a turn exposes drivers to potential accidents. Additionally, the new area is right on the path of tradewinds carrying strong fumes from airplane fuel, he said.
Drivers who work at the airport sign in at a cab-holding area just past the cell-phone waiting area, and wait for their turn. The two drivers who are first on the list drive to a curb roughly 50 yards before the terminal, where they wait for a call from dispatch to pick up the next customer.
Up until May 15, the designated waiting areas for the first two drivers were the small lots immediately adjacent to the baggage claim areas, one on each end of the airport. There, drivers say they could wait under the shade and use the bathroom.
“Nothing has really changed, except for the customer’s perspective that when they call for a cab, the cab that pulls at the curb is theirs,” Kaua‘i Airport District Manager Dennis Neves said. Prior to the changes, he said, it was confusing for customers, who would call for a cab and watch it drive away, not knowing the driver was following the rotation system.
“This is all done for customer service,” Neves said.
He said drivers can still use the bathroom while they’re waiting by the curb, but if they miss the dispatch call while they’re away, the next guy moves in their place.
“We can’t have the customer penalized because the (taxi driver) decides he wants to go to the restroom because he didn’t plan ahead,” Neves said.
But Doherty and others are saying that since the changes last week, drivers have to wait sometimes for hours before being dispatched, all the while exposed to the elements and far away from the bathrooms.
“The sad thing is, we’re a public service and we’re just treated like dirt,” cab driver Greg diSilvestre said. “Everybody forgets that, but taxi is a public service; we take people to the hospital and to the courthouse just as much as we go down to Poipu.”
Neves said only two or three out of about 40 or 50 drivers working at Lihue Airport have complained about the changes. Cab driver Kevin Singleton, however, said drivers won’t speak up against the airport management because they’re afraid of retaliation. Doherty and diSilvestre had similar comments.
Doherty said when drivers complain, it usually leads to their badge being suspended.
“The majority of the people are intimidated by the airport management,” he said.
Cabanatan wanted to find out if the airport administration had reconsidered their decision. Neves said customers “seem to be happy,” and the changes will stay unless he feels they’re unwarranted.
Upset, Doherty drove his working van around the airport Monday afternoon, displaying large signs that read, “Larry Miller, Airport Nazi.” Miller works for the airport administration under the state Department of Transportation. After Doherty drove a few laps around the terminal, staff from the airport’s private security, under Miller’s watch, pulled him over, seized his working badge and told him to get off the property.
Miller told The Garden Island Monday he had no comment. Neves said the airport has a set of cab rules that covers rules of conduct.
“When he put those signs up, we didn’t think we needed to have a hearing; that’s covered in our cab rules, so we removed him from the airport,” he said.
Doherty, a licensed pilot and a Vietnam veteran recipient of a Purple Heart, said that under Neves’ administration, there are no hearings before losing a badge, printed airport rules and regulations for cab drivers are nonexistent, and verbal ones are interpreted differently.
Cab driver Wyn Hanson said workplace discrimination and harassment at the airport has happened for many years, and he wanted to add his support for Doherty.
“He is a war hero, and they treat him like he is a second-class citizen,” Hanson said.
Neves said he hasn’t decided whether to give Doherty’s badge back, and without it, he is not able to work at the airport. On Wednesday, Doherty went to the airport to ask for his badge, but he said he wasn’t allowed to speak to Neves, so he sent a certified letter to Neves asking for his badge back or a hearing. He received his badge back Friday.
‘Cry baby ahead’
On April 26, Neves sent a notice to taxi drivers informing that on May 15 the dispatch would change to a single-point system, and the taxis would be moved to a “pre-staging” area by the curbside before the terminal.
On the day that the changes took effect, diSilvestre and a few others complained to the airport administration.
Later in the day, diSilvestre noticed that a roadside electronic display read, “15 mph, cry baby ahead,” right before the new cab waiting area and in plain view to anyone driving into the airport.
“They put the sign up and they mocked us while they were putting it up,” said diSilvestre, who took pictures of the sign. In those pictures, a state worker is in front of the sign. Neves said the worker in the picture programs the sign.
“Somebody must have programmed it that way, but he did not program it that way,” he said. “He was trying to get it programmed to ‘Caution, 15 mph.’”
