Carwash Workers Win Big Victory in NLRB Settlement
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Carwash workers in Los Angeles won a major victory in their struggle for
better working conditions and decent pay. Today, the workers reached a
formal settlement in their National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
complaint against Vermont Hand Wash, one of the area’s most notorious
anti-worker car washes.

As a result of the settlement, Vermont’s owners must pay more than
$50,000 in back pay to workers who were illegally fired for union activity.

The NLRB issued the complaint in late May alleging that Vermont’s
management targeted and then fired three workers because they sought to
form a union. According to the complaint, among other retaliatory acts,
Vermont management cut the hours of union supporters or assigned them
less desirable duties and unplugged the time clock when union supporters
picketed the carwash, resulting in a loss of wages to workers on the job.

******The complaint identifies one manager, Manuel Reyes, who, it says,
threatened employees on multiple occasions with bullets, a machete and a
combat knife. The NLRB also charged Reyes with similarly threatening two
union organizers with a side-handle billy club in front of carwash
employees.******

After the full NLRB’s likely approval of the settlement, the decision
will have the same effect as a board order and will be backed by an
enforcement decree from a federal appeals court. That means Vermont’s
owners, the Pirian brothers, could face jail time if they violate the
settlement.

The settlement prohibits Vermont Hand Wash from committing any of the
violations they already have committed, as well as any other violations
of the National Labor Relations Act.

Vermont Hand Wash worker Pedro Guzman, who will receive $1,650 back pay
under the deal, told a rally last week the workers suffered retaliation
and intimidation by the owner, Benny Pirian, when they tried to form a
union.

He took us into his office and interrogated us about our union
activities. And he even offered to compensate me if I would work on his
side against the union and my companeros. But I would never do that. Our
struggle continues with the incredible support from unions, students,
faith groups, old people, and young people, all of them willing to come
out and sweat under the sun to show us their solidarity.

Before the rally, Vermont’s owners pressured a billboard company to take
down a sign with the message: “Wash Away Injustice! Support Carwash
Workers.”

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