Labor & Employment Law

L.A. Carwash Workers Detail Abuses at Workers? Rights Hearing

By admin

Chloe Osmer of the Clean Carwash Campaign in Los Angeles sends this report on yesterday’s National Workers’ Rights Board hearing investigating the abuse and harassment faced every day by carwash workers.

Several Los Angeles area carwash workers yesterday told a National Workers’ Rights Board hearing that they had been cheated out of wages, harassed and fired for trying to form a union and forced to work in dangerous conditions.

Along with the testimony from workers, board members heard from community and labor leaders (including Steelworkers President Leo Gerard), academics, and health, safety and environmental experts on the deplorable and often dangerous conditions that continue to plague Southern California carwash workers.

California has more establishments and employees in the carwash industry than any other state. Too many of these employers routinely violate basic labor laws, leading to unsafe and unhealthy workplaces for their workers and the communities they serve

Workers have reported being paid less than half of California’s $8 an hour minimum wage and some are paid only in tips. Violations also include underpaying workers, hiring minors, operating without workers’ compensation insurance and denying workers meal and rest breaks. Others have faced illegal harassment and threats of violence for attempting to form a union.

Aura Lopez told the board that in 2008, she severely injured her back in a fall on the job and was refused proper treatment.

A month after the accident, the owner saw me talking to a union organizer about how to get help for my injuries. The owner then fired me and told me never to come back to the carwash.

As former carwash cashier Maria Aide Hernandez?who left the job when her paychecks began to bounce?testified:

I saw my co-workers work for far less than minimum wage for 50-60 hours a week with no overtime pay. I saw workers have accidents because they were not provided with basic safety equipment, and I saw the owner fire or reduce the hours of workers who they suspected of supporting a union.

The Community-Labor-Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) Carwash Campaign, a coalition of community, religious, environmental and immigrant rights organizations, formed in March 2008 to aid Los Angeles carwash workers in their efforts to form a union with the Steelworkers.

USW’s Gerard told the board:

The United Steelworkers is fully committed to help carwash workers in Los Angeles form a citywide carwash union to raise standards throughout the industry.  A stable, unionized workforce would be a win-win situation for both workers and responsible owners.

The board released several findings and recommendations for making critical improvements to the conditions in the industry.

• Urging the City of Los Angeles to do business only with those carwashes that have signed the CLEAN Carwash Agreement, in which employers pledge to abide by minimum employment, health and safety, and environmental standards and to respect workers’ right to organize a union free from intimidation, harassment or other interference.
• Urging all L.A. carwash businesses to sign the CLEAN Carwash Agreement, and urging the Western Carwash Association to recommend to its members that they sign the CLEAN Carwash Agreement.
• Requesting that the City of Los Angeles review whether existing local laws and procedures regulating the carwash industry could be improved to enhance compliance of carwashes with wage and hour, health and safety, and environmental laws.
• Recommending that the California Department of Industrial Relations spearhead a multi-agency task force to investigate complaints and prioritize the collection of stolen wages.

National Workers’ Rights Board hearings are a project of the national nonprofit organization Jobs With Justice and have a proven track record of creating opportunities to address and correct workplace abuses by involving the local community in these issues.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 15, 2010 (boomark / email).