For the past several years, Alberto Guzman’s towing and auto repair company, North Main Tow in Martinez, has struggled to stay afloat — a predicament he blames squarely on AAA and its dominating position in the emergency roadside service field.

He’s far from alone. The West Coast community of tow truck operators — many of whom are multi-generation-run businesses — is speaking out against Emeryville-based AAA of Northern California, Nevada and Utah (NCNU) in a battle now playing out in court.

It’s a battle with parallels to one being waged with Uber and other ‘gig economy’ companies that rely heavily on contractors. And some believe it may also be affecting the response motorists can expect when their cars break down and they turn to the ubiquitous AAA membership card for help.

Guzman, who has operated his towing business for more than 30 years, said the recent trouble started around 2011, when AAA began its “optimization” program that required its network of contractors to bid for territory and ultimately cut down on the number of contract stations, forcing some out of the network and the winners to invest in new equipment and resources to expand services.

Guzman said he won the bid for territory that included 28 miles of freeway from the Caldecott Tunnel entrance in Oakland to San Ramon and invested in new equipment and tow trucks, which cost upward of $125,000. But at the rates that AAA pays its contractors, Guzman said it was difficult to afford the resources — such as the cost of employing his 25 workers — to service the area.

Things grew worse in March, he said, when he received a letter from AAA saying the organization was using its right to revoke his contract in 30 days, forcing him to lay off all 25 of his employees. The notice came after AAA took one-third of his territory and began using its own fleet of drivers to provide service, he said.

A class-action suit alleges that the control AAA has wielded over its network of contractors — including the volume of customers and geographic area they serve, the hiring of employees and using AAA-branded trucks and uniforms — is more analogous to the relationship of an employer and employee than an organization and independent contractor. The suit also alleges that AAA routinely breaches its contracts with these contractors in not paying them what their contracts require.

AAA would not comment on the specific allegations in the lawsuit or how roadside service response times for its 4 million members in the NCNU region have changed over the years, but tow companies say that with limited resources, it’s difficult to provide service to members quickly. According to former tow truck company owner Steve Sgarlato, the NCNU chapter of AAA, which had long been among the top-ranked AAA clubs regarding consumer satisfaction, dropped to the bottom of the list within two years of the “optimization” program.

Sgarlato said he sold the company his father started decades ago in Campbell, Dick’s Towing, because of the struggles in working under AAA. Sgarlato also formerly chaired the Contract Station Advisory Committee and said AAA was largely unresponsive to pleas to negotiate.

“AAA looks forward to moving past this litigation,” the agency said in a statement. “We are proud of our long-standing relationship with our tow service providers, and we value the joint commitment and vision we share to serve members.”

The suit was filed in December 2013 by the Cozzitorto family in Sacramento, which operated a tow station since 1973 in Sacramento and worked with AAA for about 23 years until it closed up shop in 2014.

Dan Charlebois, who ran a tow station in the Sacramento area and formerly chaired the Contract Station Advisory Committee for AAA, said that in his area, AAA pays the contract stations about $52 to $58 for a tow service call, while the cost of doing a tow is closer to $62. Other operators claim, too, that they are subsidizing the costs of providing service calls to AAA members, who, according to AAA’s website, pay between $21 and $96 annually, depending on the region and type of membership.

Towing is an expensive business. Tow trucks run upward of $125,000 a piece, and insurance premiums for a tow company can be more than $200,000 per year because of the dangerous nature of the work. Drivers do not make high wages — typically between $13 and $15 per hour, depending on the area — but with low rates from AAA, operators say, those costs eat up profits.

Upward of 75 people gathered earlier this month in a Contra Costa County courtroom, where a Superior Court judge determined that AAA used coercive and misleading language in a settlement offer that many of its towing partners perceived as a threat.

The judge told AAA that it would have to rewrite the language of a contract addendum that it had issued to its network of towing company partners in an effort to settle the suit.

Cheri Ellison Carroll, who owns Ellison Towing in Mountain View with her husband, said at the hearing that while her station had performed well and received incentive bonuses from AAA, they weren’t enough to compensate for the low rates and high business expenses of the towing industry.

“We’re hemorrhaging (money),” Carroll said.

The tow companies have a strong case for allegations that they are treated more like employees than independent contractors, said Richard Reibstein, a partner with law firm Pepper Hamilton and co-head of its independent contractor compliance group.

“Companies like AAA, who have detailed rules about how (contractors) are to do stuff, are sowing the seeds for their own demise for misclassification,” Reibstein said.

Uber is facing misclassification lawsuits of its own, and FedEx recently settled a long-running dispute with FedEx Ground California drivers over misclassification for $228 million.

Contact Annie Sciacca at 925-943-8073. Follow her at Twitter.com/AnnieSciacca.