The contract came after they settled a $600,000 lawsuit against Vegas Auto Spa.
This is a victorious campaign in an industry that many progressives once thought couldn’t be organized. We heard it all when we began car wash organizing in Los Angeles at the behest and persuasion of Victor Narro. I was blessed to be there.
We heard the workers are too afraid, too vulnerable, they have no leverage, the owners too powerful, the industry too mobile. But workers won with the Steelworkers in Los Angeles, and now nine car washes have signed union contracts in New York.
The labor movement will not be rebuilt by car wash workers. But this kind of new organizing along with domestic workers and Fight for $15 campaigns is an essential effort to break ground in largely immigrant industries. Workers are creating new ways to disrupt business as usual, and force the face of America’s poverty into the mirror with which America views itself.
Don’t be mistaken, we have a long way to go till we can achieve real growth, but these workers organizing is a very critical step.
Image source: www.washnewyork.org