Vol. 76/No. 41      November 12, 2012

The 28 workers at Webster—owned by Lage Management Corp., which owns several dozen car washes here—became the second outlet in the city to become unionized. On Sept. 8, workers at Astoria Car Wash and Hi-Tek 10 Minute Lube Inc. in Queens voted 21 to 5 to join the RWDSU. They are now fighting to win a contract.

Workers are demanding to be paid minimum wage and overtime, sick days, holidays and other benefits. At Webster, workers make $6.25 with no benefits.

“If we don’t organize ourselves, the abuse, unjustified firings and mistreatment will continue,” Heriberto Hernández, 34, who works at Astoria Car Wash, told the Militant. The effort includes both car wash workers and mechanics at the lube center.

The unionization effort is organized by the RWDSU and Make the Road New York, a community organization with offices in several of the city’s boroughs.

“For a long time we were getting paid $5.50 an hour, but three months ago they began to pay us $6.25 because we were talking about organizing a union,” said Francisco López, a worker at Webster, to the New York Daily News.

“This business makes enough to pay us what we are asking for,” said Hernández to the Militant. “Of course we will have to fight for it.”

Supporters of the organizing drive passed out handbills to customers who lined up to drive through the car wash and asked them to back the workers by delivering the bills at the register as they paid.

One of the customers, upset that a boss crumpled up the bill and threw it in the trash bin, told the Militant that “it made him angry” to see the boss do that. The majority of the customers listened politely to pro-union activists explaining the car wash workers’ demands and many expressed support.
 
 
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