Labor Board Charges California Carwash Owner

by Mike Hall, Jun 3, 2009

The owner and a manager of a Los Angeles carwash where workers were harassed, intimidated and fired by management more than year ago when they tried to form a union now face charges from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

In a complaint issued May 28, the NLRB charges that when workers at Vermont Hand Wash began organizing with the Carwash Workers Organizing Committee (CWOC), they were met with threats, unlawful interrogations and surveillance. CWOC joined with the United Steelworkers (USW) last March as part of the CLEAN Carwash Campaign.

CLEAN Carwash is leading a major citywide effort by unions, community and religious leaders and others seeking to eliminate abuses and uphold standards in the carwash industry. Click here to learn more about the campaign and how you can help the “carwasheros,” as the workers are known.

The NLRB complaint alleges that Vermont Hand Wash management targeted and then fired three workers because of their organizing activities. Vermont Hand Wash is one of several carwashes that Benny Pirian or members of his family operate in greater Los Angeles.

According to the complaint, among other retaliatory acts, Vermont management cut the hours of union supporters or assigned them less desirable duties and unplugged the timeclock when union supporters picketed the carwash, resulting in a loss of wages to workers on the job.

The complaint identifies one manager, Manuel Reyes, which it says threatened employees on multiple occasions with bullets, a machete and a combat knife. The NLRB also charges Reyes with similarly threatening two union organizers with a side-handle billy club in front of carwash employees.

USW President Leo Gerard points to the tactics carwash workers were forced to endure at Vermont Hand Wash, and the struggle other carwasheros face in their fight to form a union and bargain for a better life, as compelling evidence for the need to enact the Employee Free Choice Act.

People who want to join unions must be protected. In this case, management has harassed and intimidated workers for more than a year. Workers who want to form a union must be free to do so without management coercion. If the Employee Free Choice Act had been in effect, these workers would have had a contract in place by now.

In February, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo filed criminal charges against Benny Pirian, his brother Nisan Pirian and Reyes. The complaint charges them with 176 counts of criminal misconduct—including conspiracy, witness intimidation, grand theft, brandishing a deadly weapon, failure to pay wages and failure to comply with wage orders of the state’s Industrial Welfare Commission regulating workplace conditions at their facilities.

Said Delgadillo when the charges were filed:

Today, we are sending a message that, in the City of Los Angeles, we will hold to account, and prosecute, those who cheat or abuse their employees. I want to make this crystal clear: Los Angeles protects its working families.

Those charges are still pending, and a trial date has not been set.

Last month, the Pirians agreed to pay the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) a total of $20,000 in fines to settle citations against Vermont Hand Wash and another Pirian carwash for health and safety violations. As part of the agreement, they will hire a health and safety consultant to implement a training program for workers regarding exposure to hazardous chemicals.

Safety experts have warned that workers in the carwash industry are regularly exposed to toxic chemicals known to cause cancer. Says Henry Huerta, CLEAN Carwash Campaign director:

The CLEAN Carwash Campaign is making strong efforts to educate workers on how to identify and avoid exposure to dangerous chemicals.

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