The 32-year-old came to the
U.S. as a teenager, educated himself, and earned a living driving
customers around the city that has become his home.
But what he
suffered on the job in America broke him down, and he said it caused him
nearly the same emotional and physical stress he survived in his
war-torn homeland.
His managers at Yellow Cab made his work life
unbearable, calling him and fellow African drivers "monkey" and
hurling racial epithets at them. According to records in an arbitration
proceeding, the bosses told the drivers — mostly Muslim — to "go
back to Africa" when they protested questionable fees
and preferential treatment of American drivers.
When Odawaay and
other drivers protested, their supervisors were indifferent. Wayne
Roberson, a manager of training and hospitality at Yellow Cab,
responded, "Mohamed come and Mohamed go," according to the legal
documents.
Odawaay and 17 of his fellow drivers banded together
and took legal action against Yellow Cab in 2010 — first attempting a
federal lawsuit, then pursuing arbitration as required by agreements
they signed with Yellow Cab when they were hired.
On Feb. 21, a
private arbitrator issued a final award — the drivers received an
average of $12,000 each for being subjected to a hostile work
environment.
Odawaay received $15,000.
"(Yellow Cab's)
managers intended to identify (the drivers) as inferior and come from an
inferior country located in an inferior continent," wrote Federico C.
Alvarez, an arbitrator who decided the case.
Alvarez is a former Denver District Court judge and a Harvard Law School graduate.
"They used these comments to stifle (the drivers') demands for
concessions and allegations of discrimination," Alvarez wrote in his
decision.
In all, the drivers
were awarded a total of $202,100, and their
attorney, Diane King, was awarded $1.1 million for the cost of fighting
the case on their behalf. King said the attorney fees were so high
because Yellow Cab made pursuing the case difficult and filed motions to
drag out the case.
She described the drivers as hard workers who
already came from horrible circumstances to have to work for people who
called them names.
"It is very rare in this day and age, but it
absolutely happens," King said of the racial slurs. "This was done by a
large group of managers."
Yellow Cab declined to comment on
specific allegations against the company and its managers, but released
a statement about the decision.
"Yellow Cab has a long history
of diversity among its fleet of taxi operators and
staff, a history of which we are extremely proud," wrote Margaret
Nathan, a spokeswoman for the company. "Please note that the proceedings
were in fact an arbitration before a single arbitrator and not a court
proceeding. We disagree with the arbitrator's decision and the way he
chose to view the evidence. Arbitrations are supposed to be a private
process and we are disappointed the participants chose to take this to
the media."
Drivers for Yellow Cab sign a contract to work for the
company. Many drivers lease the cabs from the company, while others
own their own vehicles.
Yellow Cab requires drivers to make
weekly payments for their lease, insurance and auto-shop repair fees.
Sometimes, drivers also have to pay fines they rack
up for not filling out trip sheets correctly, which document things like
the locations where fares are picked up and dropped off. The trip
sheets are important because they are sometimes audited by the Public
Utilities Commission.
Drivers alleged the company was cheating
them out of wages in unexplained fees and unfair charges on their
auto-shop repairs. Drivers were bribing workers in the repair shop to
help them get their taxis fixed faster. Some of them handed over
artifacts from Africa in order to get some of their fees reduced.
One
week, Odawaay earned more than $900 and told his 10-year-old son, an
aspiring basketball player, that he would take him to a Denver Nuggets
game and buy him a pair of Air Jordans.
When
Odawaay went to Yellow Cab to tally what he owed, he was left with $76,
and the company never disclosed what the charges on his account were
for, he said.
Odawaay drove home and couldn't bring himself to go inside and face his son, he told The Denver Post.
"I just waited outside in the car," he said. "I waited until he goes to bed because I know he was waiting for those shoes."
Odawaay eventually saved up the money and bought his son the shoes.
"Getting called names and dealing with this continually is hard," Odawaay said. "I'm a free man. I am not a slave for anybody."
The allegations against Yellow Cab include not only racial slurs, but other indignities.
For
example, one driver's freedom was threatened after he was singled out
by Roberson based on a police description and accused of rape.
Roberson
wouldn't turn over GPS records that would have exonerated the driver
until he was threatened with a subpoena by a police detective, according
to the arbitration records. The driver asked another manager, Michael
Rivera, to help clear him and he also refused, the records show.
The
GPS data cleared the driver, but Roberson told his employees that the
driver was guilty and should go to prison "for the rest of his life,"
the records show. The case against the cabbie was later dismissed by
prosecutors.
The range of life experiences is wide for the
drivers — some are unsophisticated, while others come from a more
educated high society in Africa. One driver was the son of a prime
minister in Somalia before he fled his homeland, and others were
businessmen and doctors, Odawaay said.
"And they worked for a high school dropout who calls them the N-word," Odawaay said.
Ross
Alexander, general manager of Yellow Cab; Roberson; and Rivera,
driver operations manager, were all named as supervisors who used
racial slurs and discriminatory tactics against the drivers. The company
would not make them available for comment.
"All parties agree
that (Yellow Cab's) managers yelled, swore and uttered comments to (the
drivers) that were questionable at best and intended to show disdain,"
Alvarez wrote in his decision to award money to the drivers. "Examples
included 'Go back to Africa,' ... Not only do (the drivers) allege this,
but also Mr. Alexander admits doing so, as does Mr. Roberson, and Mr.
Rivera."
It's unknown if the three managers still work for Yellow
Cab. Nathan, the spokeswoman for the company, said she could not comment
about their employment status.
Odawaay now works as an insurance
salesman, and he helped found Union Taxi, a rival cab service in Denver.
Instead of leasing a cab from a company, the drivers for Union Taxi are
part of a cooperative of owner-operators who take home more money
working for themselves, Odawaay said.
He said that for a long time
he was not in a position to leave his job at Yellow Cab despite the
racial slurs and abuse because his family back in Somalia and his four
children here in the U.S. rely on him.
"You are supporting people
back home who can't eat if you leave," he said. "Every dollar you get is
going to a money transfer back home."