Dark side of car wash business is coming to light

It’s hard to believe that sweat shops still exist in the 21st century. Yet they do, and in the case of several car washes in Los Angeles, they operate in open view, flagrantly violating wage, hour, health and safety laws.

The Community-Labor-Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) Car Wash Campaign has led the charge to force the industry to clean up its act. The abuses the campaign has uncovered has led to criminal charges being filed against car wash owners, changes in state law and, last week, litigation being filed by Attorney General Jerry Brown to recover lost wages for workers. The news media have also begun investigating the darker side of the car wash business, and recently KCET aired a lengthy, in-depth report:

http://kcet.org/socal/2009/12/car-washes-dirty-business.html

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Advocates push to make wage theft what it is: a crime

Stealing from a convenience store is a crime, and rightly so. But if a convenience store owner steals from his workers by not paying them, local authorities cannot charge the owner with any crime.

According to a Los Angeles Times story, advocate for day laborers and low-wage workers want to change that. Currently wage theft is covered by state and federal laws on the civil level. But a new ordinance proposed by City Councilman Richard Alarcon would give the authorities the power to charge employers with a misdemeanor for not paying wages.

Read the story at the L.A. Times.

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Carwash Workers Rally Media Coverage

KABC (Video)

KPCC: News Story (Audio)

Read the transcript at kpcc.org.

LA Times Blog - AFL-CIO Cheif comes to Hollywood to Support Car Wash Workers

LA Weekly - Los Feliz Carwash Targeted at Labor.

Please read and comment on the blogs.

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Rite Aid Facility Symbolic of Unions' Legislation Push

Courtesy of Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

Labor movement sees the Lancaster site as a symbol of why Congress should pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The firm agreed last month to rehire dozens of workers let go after a unionizing drive.

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KABC: Military Veterans call on Feinstein to support the Employee Free Choice Act

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Recession No Time to Retreat, Says L.A. Labor Leader

Maria Elena Durazo makes no apologies for continuing to push her cause: fighting for union workers.
By Patrick J. McDonnell of the Los Angeles Times

The state may be going broke, jobs may be vanishing like the morning mist, and the nation may be enduring its worst economic stretch in decades. But Southern California's top labor leader says this is not the time for unions to beat a retreat. On the contrary.

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Feinstein, Employee Free Choice Act, Dodgers and the Phillies

Tonight, the Dodgers play the Philadelphia Phillies, but more importantly, tonight is the debut of our latest Employee Free Choice Act commercial on Dodgers radio.

If you can’t wait to tune into KABC 790 tonight, you can take a listen to our latest commercial here.

Listen to the Commerical.

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