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Los Angeles_CLEAN Carwash Campaign_OHIP2014
- 1. Working to Organize, Educate, and Empower Los Angeles County Carwasheros OHIP Interns: Paul Camarena, MPH & Claudia Pacheco, B.A. (pending) CLEAN Carwash Campaign
- 2. Supports carwasheros’ efforts to: ● stand up for their rights ● improve health & safety protections ● take legal action when necessary The Campaign
- 3. Manuel Martinez, Carwashero (20 years experience) CLEAN Campaign Brigadista “El industria del carwashero…..es una industria que da dinero para los dueños y hay mucha injusticia…….A ellos [carwash owners] no les importa si uno esta enfermo o esté alentado, a ellos lo que les interesa es solo el trabajo.”
- 4. The Car Wash Industry LA County Car Washes Unionized Carwashes 10,000+ The Workforce
- 5. The Issue ● Main areas of concern: ■ lack of training related to workplace hazards ● chemical safety ■ provision of clean drinking water, rest breaks, and a shaded rest area ● mandated by California Heat Illness Standard ■ provision of PPE
- 6. Our Role as Interns A committee of carwasheros within CCC decided to create a worker development program GOAL: Provide workers accredited auto-detailing and polishing training that can lead to better paid positions. Recognize the need to include H&S component in program curriculum
- 7. Methods
- 8. Health & Safety Questionnaire Topics assess: 1. Basic workplace health & safety conditions. 2. Employer provision of H&S training or PPE. 3. Knowledge of worker rights and resources. 4. Health and safety topics of interest.
- 9. Preliminary Results Reasons for no PPE use: ● Lack of Employer provision of PPE ● Social Stigma ● Lack of Health and Safety knowledge
- 13. Worker Development Program: Curriculum After survey data evaluation & feedback...
- 14. Personal Reflection ● Integrating popular education model and addressing literacy issues in curriculum ● Alarming stories of injustice ● Opportunity to co-facilitate a heat safety workshop
- 15. The Road Ahead ❖ Carwashes located in underground parking structures present new challenges ❖ Continued efforts to organize workers and ensure inclusion of H&S language in contracts ❖ Proper evaluation of worker development program is necessary
- 16. Acknowledgements ● CLEAN Carwash Campaign ○ Rosemarie Molina, our project coordinator ● UCLA/LOSH ● NIOSH ● California Wellness Foundation ● UCLA COEH ● AOEC and OHIP
Editor's Notes
- Paul: Introduce ourselves and our project the CLEAN Carwash Campaign.
- CLEAN carwash campaign is a joint effort between CLEAN and the Carwash Workers Organizing Committee (CWOC) of United Steel Workers Community Labor Environmental Action Network
- [CLAUDIA] This is Manuel, he is part of the CLEAN campaign brigade and also someone we had the privilege to interview. He has worked in the industry for about 20 years and has seen a wide range of injustice. One things Manuel shared with us that we feel encompassed much of the worker experiences in the industry today is in the following quote, "The Car Wash industry… is an industry that makes money for the owners yet there is much injustice ....... The [carwash owners] do not care if one is sick or [feels] encouraged, to them what interests them is only the work. "
- [CLAUDIA] To get a clearer picture of the industry we will be talking about, LA county alone has more than 400 car wash establishments, and since the CLEAN Carwash campaign's inception, there has been a successfully unionization of 22 car washes, under the United Steelworkers Local 675. The industry employs approximately 10,000 workers who are predominantly monolingual Spanish-speaking, male latino immigrants.
- [Paul] Carwasheros face a host of problems related to the conditions in their workplace but the following areas have consistently identified these main areas of concern *Carwasheros also face wage theft as well as intimidation and retaliation for exercising rights; this type of exploitation is facilitated by language barriers and immigration status **Numerous Cal/OSHA citations have been issued to LA County car wash locations for violations related to : failure to provide heat illness prevention training and failure to provide written hazard communication plans.
- [Paul] Despite legal precedents against certain carwash employers, the industry remains largely unregulated throughout the county and state. There is a clear need to provide workers with the tools to become health & safety advocates in their workplaces, but how?
- [Paul]
- [CLAUDIA] As Paul mentioned, one of our tools used was a H&S questionnaire. We were limited to yes and no questions to make it as simple as possible for workers and also conducted them on a one-on-one basis to account for literacy constraints. A sample of it is on the right. In the questionnaire we assess workplace health and safety conditions, employer provision of health and safety training or personal protective equipment, and worker knowledge and topics of interest in relation to health and safety.
- [CLAUDIA] Preliminary survey results have so far reiterated the need for vast improvement of health and safety conditions in the carwash industry. From the graph we can see that almost 60% of workers do not use any type of PPE while they work. One of the main reasons is that employers do not provide any equipment, but from conversation with workers it is also due to a social stigma around using it. So even if they are given equipment they do not wear it because they will seem “weak” and get made fun of by other workers. Or even as women in the industry who already feel they have a disadvantage can feel less inclined to complain or use protective equipment. All of that can be rooted in the lack of health and safety knowledge and training.
- [CLAUDIA] Car wash workers handle chemicals on a daily basis ranging from soaps, polishes, waxes and other toxic cleaners. Another significant finding was that 71% of workers identified no safety or warning tags on the chemicals they use, and in conjunction with the lack of personal protective equipment and health and safety training, many workers we spoke to have actually developed chronic health effects such as respiratory issues and acute health effects such as skin lesions, one type pictured on the slide.
- [CLAUDIA] In terms of workplace conditions only about 60% of workers have access to clean drinking water, shade and breaks. And only 35% of workers have access to a clean restroom and 20% to a clean area to eat lunch. Again, these results echo the urgent for the improvement of the car wash industry.
- [CLAUDIA] We identify on a more positive note that about 75% of workers saying they were aware of laws that protect them but unfortunately only 37% are aware of where to actually report workplace health and safety violations. $20
- [CLAUDIA] After assessing needs from the questionnaire and meeting with the worker committee to get feedback on issues they felt needed to be addressed, the curriculum topics were developed. The 3 main topics we chose to address were workplace hazards, injury and illness and worker rights along with corresponding subtopics.
- [PAUL] In our conversations with the workers they offered some eye-opening stories of the injustices that go on in the workplace, in particular harassment, intimidation and wage theft by employers who use undocumented status as leverage.
- [Paul] Point 1: one of the challenges that campaign efforts will need to confront is the change in carwash structure Point 3: to that end, we plan on creating an evaluation for workers to complete after completion of the H&S sections of the program
- [Paul]