Workers at Queens car wash form the city's first car washers union
Workers at a Queens car wash became the first in the city
to unionize this weekend, hoping to combat what they say are low pay and poor
working conditions.
Immigrant “carwasheros” at Hi-Tek Car Wash & Lube
Inc. in Elmhurst voted 21 to 5 Saturday to join the Retail, Wholesale and
Department Store Union.
“This is a huge victory for us,” said Tara Martin, a
spokesperson for the labor group.
Workers who voted for the union said they want better
wages and steady hours in an industry where car wash managers often send them
home without pay on slow days.
“The treatment from the bosses isn’t what we deserve,”
said Antonio Flores, 43, a Salvadoran immigrant who has worked at Hi-Tek for
more than 10 years.
“They don’t pay us what they should. ... We want to have
something better, more benefits. We’re hoping that this will now change,”
Flores said.
Fellow worker Juan Antonio, 29, said he’s hoping to make
more than the $5.65 an hour he now earns shampooing interiors and drying cars.
He makes below the minimum wage because he earns tips —
but such gratuities are unsteady, he said.
“I hope that all of this is for the best,” he said. “(The
vote) was a triumph for us. ... The boss didn’t want to give us anything. He
needs to pay what we are legally owed - and treat us well.”
Fifteen of the workers had sued their boss in federal
court this summer, saying they are owed unpaid wages. The suit is pending.
Hi-Tek owner Gary Pinkus did not return calls for comment
Sunday.
Earlier this summer, he assured the News he paid workers
properly at his Queens and Brooklyn Hi-Tek washes and said union organizers
were “brainwashing employees.”
The Queens wash is now the fourth in the nation to
unionize — and the first east of Los Angeles.
The union victory comes after months of rallies and
lawsuits by car wash employees across the city — many of them undocumented
immigrants from Mexico and Central America.
“I think we’re seeing low wage workers throughout the
city organizing,” said Jon Kest of New York Communities for Change.
His group, along with nonprofit Make the Road New York,
is running a campaign to boost workers’ rights called WASH New York.
Earlier this summer, WASH New York surveyed workers at
nearly 200 car washes across the city and found two-thirds reported being paid
less than minimum wage at times. Some earned just $125 a week.
“It really does speak to a different day starting to
emerge in New York where low wage immigrant workers are standing up and
fighting back,” Kest said.
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