Amy Masciola from the AFL-CIO Organizing Department joined in one of many events that took place around the country on International Labor Day—May Day, when she joined car wash workers march in Los Angeles.

Si, se puede! Yes, we can! The chant echoed over and over again in the streets of downtown Los Angeles on May Day, as more than 10,000 people marched to City Hall from three different staging areas around the city. Up north, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) staged a virtual strike on May Day, effectively shutting down all U.S. and Canadian West Coast ports. ILWU leaders say workers staged the one-day work-stoppage to protest the war in Iraq, and the work-stoppage comes at a time when the union is in the middle of contract talks with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA). Among the many events on the East Coast, the North Central Florida Central Labor Council coordinated a rally in Gainesville, where University of Florida professor Robert Zieger cited the relevance of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s calls for civil rights. 

As we mark May Day and celebrate the rich diversity of our country, it is important to acknowledge the full range of Dr. King’s legacy. His was a spiritual mission—but a spiritual quest rooted in a commitment to social justice here on earth. It is a time to rededicate ourselves to his unfinished agenda. We must raise the minimum wage. We must establish universal health care. We must address the crisis of the inner cities. We must extend the right of workers to organize. We must end this grotesque war. And as we struggle for these goals, it may be well to keep in mind Dr. King’s inspiring words: “The arc of the Universe bends slow,” he said, “but it bends towards justice.” 

In Los Angeles, I marched with the delegation organized by the Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Worker Organizing Network (MIWON). Musicians and speakers entertained the crowd from the back of a flatbed truck at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Downtown Labor Center before we set off for a two-mile march to City Hall. The Labor Center sits directly across the street from MacArthur Park, the scene of last year’s violent attacks by police on demonstrators and journalists after some demonstrators threw bottles and other objects at police. But this year, there was a peaceful and festive atmosphere. Many people waved American flags and the flags of other Central and South American countries. There were also delegations of Filipino, Korean and other ethnic groups represented at the event.

Members of many of Los Angeles’ unions were marching to celebrate International Workers Day, including United Teachers of Los Angeles/AFT, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), AFSCME, UNITE-HERE, SEIU, United Steelworkers and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Marching with the MIWON contingent included several workers from the Car Wash Workers Organizing Committee and members of the CLEAN Car Wash Campaign. CLEAN, or the Community-Labor-Environmental Action Network, announced in March its intention to clean up the car wash industry by raising labor standards. A study released in March showed that car wash owners throughout Los Angeles routinely violate labor, health and safety and environmental laws in their drive for profits. Many workers are not paid the minimum wage and some are forced to work for tips only. Most carwasheros, as the car wash workers are known, are immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

According to carwashero Jose Torres:

We work in difficult conditions for very little money. The bosses think they can exploit us because we are immigrants and they think we will not stand up for our rights. But my compañeros and I are standing up. We are demanding our rights to work with dignity and respect and without fear of retaliation.

Torres was recently fired from his job at the Vermont Hand Wash after he spoke publicly about the bad working conditions, the illegally low pay at the car wash, and the workers’ efforts to form a union.

Workers from Los Angeles’ vast low-wage workforce, including garment workers and janitors, spoke at the rally about the continuing prevalence of sweatshop conditions in their industries. According to CLEAN spokesperson Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), carwasheros have long worked in similarly dire conditions. 

The conditions that carwash workers are subjected to are deplorable. They are exposed to toxic chemicals, deprived of meal and rest breaks, and are often not even paid the minimum wage. These carwashes are nothing more than sweatshops, but with the difference that they sit on the street corner in plain view. We cannot continue to patronize these carwashes and ignore the plight of these workers.

Torres and carwasheros from all over Los Angeles have joined together to form the Car Wash Workers Organizing Committee of the United Steelworkers in order to raise their standard of living, to secure basic workplace protections and to address the serious environmental and safety hazards that exist in their industry.

For more information on the CLEAN Car Wash Campaign, see www.cleancarwashLA.org. 

To address the exploitation of immigrant workers in this country, organizers of the march urged the federal government to pass fair and humane immigration reform that respects workers’ rights. One demand was simple: Stop unconstitutional raids! Recent raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles County have done nothing to address labor standards, but only led to indiscriminate detention of immigrant workers, many in the United States legally. Frequently, families are split up when workers are detained after indiscriminate raids on businesses. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, as well as the marchers, called on the government to stop the raids that are breaking up families, terrorizing communities and chilling workers’ rights.

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