Sweatshop Labor and Shiny Windshields: Protect Carwash Worker's Rights!

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Cuentamé has released a new video documenting the labor abuses and exploitative conditions faced by workers in the $23 billion carwash industry, many of whom the group says are Latino and immigrant workers. The video accompanies a campaign by the Community-Labor-Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) to improve working standards for carwash workers in Los Angeles.

"Carwash workers are the face of the new American sweatshop," says Cuentamé co-founder and director Axel Caballero. (Cuentamé also did the "Immigrants for Sale" video documenting the connection between Corrections Corporation of America, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and Arizona's anti-immigrant SB1070 law). Caballero writes:

Carwash operators routinely violate basic employment laws like those requiring workers be permitted to take rest breaks or have access to shade and clean drinking water. Workers frequently work more than 10 hours a day, more than 6 days a week, without even the slightest thought of overtime. In fact, car wash workers are often paid much less than the legal minimum wage, sometimes earning less than $3 an hour or working for cash tips alone. Employees who complain about the exploitative conditions at the workplace are often intimidated and threatened by car wash operators.

Learn more about the campaign and share your story of carwash labor abuses here.