Dozens of workers contracted by car rental companies at the Twin Cities airport walked off the job Monday after their first paychecks from a new employer apparently equated, in many cases, to a fraction of a living wage.
Managers of the Avis and Budget car rental agencies contacted Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport police to respond to a "civil disagreement by some employees about their paycheck," according to airport spokesman Pat Hogan. Police found about 45 men and women milling about outside a maintenance and storage area on Longfellow Avenue, away from the main terminal. The employees left without incident shortly after police arrived.
The reason they were upset was simple, said Amin Omar, brandishing his two-week paycheck totaling $111 for what he said was 80 hours of work driving rental cars back and forth from the storage area to airport terminals and other sites such as the Mall of America.
The paycheck was the first one issued by Atlanta-based Stryden Staffing Services, which contracts for Avis and Budget. Stryden had just taken over for the previous staffing service, Greenville, N.C.-based GCA Services Group, which typically paid drivers a starting wage of $7 an hour, drivers said.
In interviews Monday evening, drivers displayed paychecks they said were a quarter of what they had earned and far below what they needed to live.
The drivers said they met late last month with a Stryden representative who allegedly told them they would earn a minimum hourly wage of $8 in conjunction with an unspecified commission.
After the employees received their paychecks Monday and complained, they said they met with a corporate Stryden manager who they said told them they were not paid by the hour but rather for each car they drove and that they were welcome to leave if they didn't like it.
One "lead" driver, Hussein Yusuf, brought out his two-week paycheck totaling $204 (no state, federal or Social Security taxes were withheld). The check showed him being paid 98 cents for rides to terminals and $1.87 for the occasional longer rides. He compared it to his old check under GCA, when he earned between $600 and $700 every two weeks for his $10-an-hour supervisory position.
"He told us we could drive faster," Yusuf said of the Monday meeting. "I've worked there since 2005 - you can do a maximum of 40 rides a day. ... If one car gets scratched, you get fired."
Employees said the largest two-week full-time paycheck they saw handed out Monday was for about $375.
After the talking escalated to shouting, police were called, said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, whom employees called to help them negotiate. Most of the workers are Somali.
A person who answered the phone at Stryden in Atlanta said he had just been made aware of the problem and was attempting to find out what had happened. He said he could not officially comment.
"We're working diligently to find out what all the facts are. Any problems that were made, it was definitely unintentional," said the man, who identified himself only as "Michael." "Michael" then talked with a supervisor and said he had been told to end the conversation. When asked for his last name, "Michael" hung up.
An Avis manager at the airport also declined to comment, referring calls to the company's New Jersey headquarters. A call there was not immediately returned. Avis and Budget are owned by the same firm, Avis Budget Group Inc.
Tad Vezner can be reached at [email protected] or 651-228-5461.
