by James Parks
Hundreds of union members and community activists marched to three Hollywood car washes Saturday to let car wash owners know they will not quit until car wash employees are treated fairly. More than 200 union members, day laborers, students and union and immigrant rights leaders rallied at the Vermont Hand Wash, the flagship location of the Pirian family, which owns up to eight car washes in Los Angeles County.
Launched on Thursday, the Community-Labor-Environmental-Action Network (CLEAN) Carwash Campaign already is showing results. On Saturday, the owner of the Vermont Hand Wash invited representatives into the car wash for an inspection of the facilities. Since the announcement of the CLEAN Carwash Campaign, he has purchased some safety equipment, time clocks and a water cooler. One Vermont Car Wash worker, Pedro Guzman, told the Los Angeles Times many workers were paid $40 a day for more than 10 hours of work. Others got tips only.
We just want to be paid for the hours we work.
CLEAN, a coalition of community, religious, environmental and immigrant rights organizations, is partnering with the United Steelworkers (USW). The mostly immigrant car wash workers throughout Los Angeles have formed the Car Wash Workers Organizing Committee (CWWOC) of the United Steelworkers to raise their standard of living, secure basic workplace protections and address the serious environmental and safety hazards in their industry.
USW Local 675 Secretary-Treasurer David Campbell, who represents a unit of L.A. workers and is fully engaged in helping the car washers gain a union, says:
You don’t have to leave our country to see firsthand the race to the bottom of wages now taking place. In L.A., car washers are subjected to sub-standard wages and working conditions, while the applicable labor laws are being routinely violated.
The city of Los Angeles has more car washes—430—than any other metropolitan area in the country. The nearly 18,000 car wash employees in Southern California often are not paid at all for working long hours in 100-degree heat, with no lunch break, no fresh water to drink and they risk getting sick by being exposed constantly to harsh and dangerous chemicals.