washnewyork:

Coalition fighting for rights of exploited immigrant workers

It is a never ending New York story: Rich business owners shamelessly stealing wages and tips from workers who can barely scrape out a living.

Owners, of course, are counting on the silence of workers — many of them immigrants — fearful of losing their jobs.

But car wash workers, fed up with being exploited, have courageously broken the silence. Read more.

The general dogma in recent decades has been that, in order to compete on price, you need to keep labor costs down—hiring as few workers as you can get away with and paying them as little as possible. Although leanness is generally a good thing in business, too much cost-cutting turns out to be a bad strategy, not only for workers and customers but also for businesses themselves. Read the full story. 

walmartfreenyc:

There’s laundry list of meetings that Walmart and Related Companies have skipped around the city, according to the Walmart Free New York coalition:

• Walmart skipped multiple public hearings held by the New York City Council in 2011
• Related Companies agreed to discuss its Gateway II proposal with the East New York Community Board, only to cancel 20 minutes before the meeting was slated to start.
• Related Companies refused to meet with community leaders on multiple occasions – not responding to multiple requests via letter and in-person visit.
• Walmart held a secret meeting in Brooklyn and refused to allow councilmembers and members of the community board to attend.
• Walmart CEO and company board members won’t grant a meeting with their own associates, even after asked multiple times by OUR Walmart members.

New Yorkers are, once again, disappointed and angry at Walmart. Read the full story.

washnewyork:

Nicolas claims unfair wages and abuse at LMC Car Wash in Queens

For a decade, he’s toiled 12 hours a day for meager pay, polishing cars to a gleam with harsh chemicals that make his nose bleed.

Because he’s in the country illegally, like many of his co-workers, he was afraid to complain.

But no longer.

Mexican immigrant Adan Nicolas says he wants New Yorkers to know the anonymous army that keeps their SUVs shiny is being mistreated.

“We need a fair wage — and for them to pay up and stop stealing from us, and abusing us as workers,” said Nicolas, 32, who works at LMC Car Wash in Astoria, Queens. Read more.

Exclusive: Workers claim bizman pays employees $5.50 per hour - $1.75 less than legal minimum

The state is investigating whether New York City’s car-wash kingpin has financed a life of luxury by cheating workers out of wages, the Daily News has learned.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman last week slapped a subpoena on John Lage, who is linked to more than a dozen car washes and lives in a $900,000 lakefront house in Westchester.

Workers claim that the car washes pay $5.50 an hour — $1.75 less than the legal minimum — plus a pittance in tips. They don’t make overtime and complain about harsh working conditions.

Read more.

Edilberto Rojas-Rosas is a 25-year-old father of two struggling to support his family on the $378 he brings home weekly for working 72 hours at an East Harlem car wash. Paying the rent and putting food on the table is a daily struggle. For thousands of car wash workers in New York City, it is a similar story.

On March 16, Workers Aligned for a Sustainable and Healthy New York (WASH NY) gathered at LMC Car Wash on East. 109th Street in East Harlem to rally in support of workers like Rojas-Rosas. The car wash is one of many owned by mogul John Lage, who, in 2009, was ordered by the federal Department of Labor to pay more than $3 million in back wages to employees.

A new report issued by WASH NY—which is made up of community groups Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change, with the help of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union—reveals that the kind of wage and hour violations suffered by Lage’s workers is widespread throughout the car wash industry in New York City. Read more.

walmartfreenyc:

* It’s getting personal: Walmart opponents are taking their battle to keep the retail giant out of New York City to the doorstep of one of its board members. Walmart Free NYC plans to leaflet outside the Sixth Avenue office of M. Michele Burns, who works for insurance firm Marsh & McLennan, and try to deliver her a letter asking her to meet with Walmart workers. (They’ve tried twice before without success.) Even if she doesn’t respond, the anti-Walmart forces hope to draw enough attention outside her office to get the company’s attention – and put all its board members on notice that they could get the same treatment. Attempts to reach Burns for comment were unsuccessful. - from “Heard Around Town, March 22, 2012,” City and State

Assemblyman Rory Lancman grabbed the first major union endorsement in the race to replace Gary Ackerman in Congress, scoring the backing of the increasingly vocal Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union.

“Rory Lancman has been one of the most aggressive and effective advocates for working people in New York,” said Stuart Appelbaum, President of RWDSU. “Our endorsement of his candidacy sends a clear message: Rory is the candidate of working people in this Congressional race.”

The RWDSU boasts of a 40,000 strong membership, but its real strength has been in its increasing advocacy of social justice matters over the last couple of years, most recently in its concerted push for a living wage bill in New York City.

RWDSU has also led the effort to keep Walmart out of New York City, and Mr. Lancman was one of the most vocal advocates of keeping the big box retailer out of the five boroughs. Read more.