L.A. City Council Approves Carwash Resolution

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously yesterday in favor of a resolution urging carwash worker representatives and local carwash owners to reach an agreement in an ongoing labor dispute over wages and working conditions. The resolution also offers City Hall or another city-owned property as a neutral location for negotiations.

“We want to get results. We have human beings being treated as pieces of furniture; that should not be allowed,” said Councilmember Ed Reyes, a co-sponsor of the resolution, in a Los Angeles Times report.

The resolution also raises concern over the city’s carwash fleet contracts. The city will investigate any contracted carwash relationships it has to clean city vehicles, Reyes said in a story published by the California Chronicle.

The AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers formally launched a campaign in March targeting Southern California carwashes in violation of labor and safety laws. The movement was applauded by the Community-Labor-Environmental Action Network (CLEAN), a coalition comprised of labor, community, religious and immigrant rights organizations, along with union-organizing efforts by the Car Wash Workers Organizing Committee (CWWOC) of the United Steelworkers.

The CWWOC released a report earlier this year that alleges labor, health, safety and environmental violations by numerous carwash operators from accounts given by carwash workers and from citation reports from various California agencies. The report paints a grim picture of Southern California carwash working conditions, recounting workers’ stories of pay below minimum wage or non-payment for hours worked, denial of breaks and of employees being forced to work in hazardous conditions without safety equipment or proper training.

The International Carwash Association and Western Carwash Association both sharply criticized the CWWOC report for being misleading and stereotyping the carwash industry, and disputed the necessity for a carwash union in Southern California. Both associations support the prosecution of carwash operators who fail to meet regulations and abuse workers.

The CLEAN coalition has explicitly targeted carwash owner Bennie Pirian, whose family owns eight carwashes in Los Angeles County, according to the Times.