California Carwash Workers Win Another Victory

Carwash workers in California are fighting for justice and an end to the exploitation many workers suffer at the hands of abusive carwash owners. One of the workers’ major protections—the Carwash Worker Law—was set to expire this year. But the workers and unions supporting them mobilized for its renewal. Chloe Osmer, of the Clean Carwash Campaign sent us this update.

This week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed into law AB 236, a bill to renew the state’s “Carwash Worker Law” and extend it to 2014. The California Labor Federation and the Community-Labor-Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) Carwash Campaign worked hard to win the bill’s passage.

Sponsored by Assembly member Sandre Swanson (D), the law requires all carwashes to register with the state, enabling the state to prevent employers who have violated labor laws in the past from continuing to do so. It also requires that carwash employers purchase a surety bond as wage insurance and contribute to the Carwash Worker Restitution Fund, both of which provide workers with a means to collect owed wages.

Angie Wei, California Labor Federation legislative director, says the renewed Carwash Worker Law will help improve compliance

in an industry that has been plagued with violations of basic employment laws. In addition to providing protections for workers, the law helps law-abiding carwash employers by leveling the competitive playing field and helps the state by bringing an underground industry into compliance with employment and tax law.

California leads the nation in both the number of carwashes and workers, with more than 1,600 carwashes and 22,000 workers. Many carwash employers routinely violate basic labor laws leading to unsafe and unhealthy workplaces for 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. Many workers also endure dangerous working conditions, including exposure to toxic chemicals without proper protective gear. In March 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported that two-thirds of carwashes inspected by the state’s labor department since 2003 were out of compliance with one or more labor laws.

Manuel Carino, a carwash worker in Los Angeles, was able to use the Carwash Worker Law’s protections to recover $15,000 of wages. After his employer refused to pay him the money he was owed, Carino, with the help of the community activist Bet Tzedek Legal Services, applied to the owner’s wage bond.

My employer at the carwash paid me $23 for a 10-hour day for two years. Without the Carwash Worker Law, I would never have been able to recover the money I was owed.

Carino recovered his wages even though his employer had sold the carwash. One of the key elements of the Carwash Worker Law is the successorship provision, which allows a new employer to be held liable for unpaid wages of a predecessor under certain conditions. Worker advocates pressed for this provision of the law after seeing worker claims frustrated by fraudulent sales of carwashes after wage claims were filed.

Says Swanson, the bill’s author:

The extension of this program will ensure that workers are protected. California cannot afford to let carwash owners blatantly violate the law without consequence.

More than 50 community, faith, environmental and labor organizations worked together to win support for the law’s renewal. Says Rabbi Jonathan Klein, executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE):

Our communities have borne witness to the suffering of workers who toil in our state’s carwashes. Every religious tradition holds that this exploitation must end. The Legislature, by passing the Carwash Worker Law, is recognizing the inherent worth of these workers—created in the Divine image—and their right to be paid fairly for a hard day’s work.

Henry Huerta, director of the CLEAN Carwash Campaign, praises the law’s renewal but also says “much more needs to be done.”

CLEAN will continue to support workers in their efforts to improve enforcement of the Carwash Worker Law and seek real justice for carwasheros.

For more information, visit www.cleancarwashla.org.

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