Justice for Car Wash Workers!

Shur Brite Car Wash Campaign Update:

By Garrett Stark

Before the Nashville Homeless Power Project began investigating work conditions for homeless people, Shur Brite Car Wash workers in downtown Nashville made as little as $2 an hour. The car washers now stand poised to sign an agreement with their employer securing up to thousands of dollars in unpaid wages for each worker—and marking a turning point in the Southern city's struggle to organize poor workers in territory hostile to unions. "We wanted to have a work schedule, we wanted to stop management from clocking us in and out—we wanted to be able to do it ourselves—and we wanted a break room where we can sit down off the concrete," said Walter Jasper, who has worked at the car wash off and on for 12 years. "Recovering the minimum wages that they owed us was important, but respect and changes on the job were always more important."

BACK WAGES WITH YOUR LEMONADE?

Shur Brite is one of the few Nashville employers that don't discriminate in hiring based on felony convictions. While much of the low wage car wash industry with similar work conditions, is worked by immigrant workers, Shur Brite workers are overwhelmingly Afircan American. The company has taken advantage of workers with next to no options for alternative employment, clocking them in and out depending on whether cars were present.

Several homeless leader-activists salted Shur Brite. They mapped the worksite, identifying and drawing in four key car wash workers. Quickly it became apparent that changes were needed on the job. The Shur Brite "breakroom" at the time, was a microwave sitting on chemical barrels.

An organizing committee formed, and the four workers decided to focus on wages first, filing a collective-action lawsuit with the NHPP's help.

The owners responded by forcing waiting workers to leave the grounds of the car wash. Workers found a tree across the street and waited there.

One June morning, NHPP leaders joined them, and set up a "Shur Brite Break Room" with tables, chairs, and lemonade. The event lasted only a few hours, until eight police officers shut it down for blocking the sidewalk, and leafleting in traffic—but not before many more workers joined the lawsuit and organizing committee.

"There was more police response to that lemonade stand than any lemonade stand I'd ever seen," said William Miles, a homeless leader with NHPP.

With pay so low, workers churned through Shur Brite. The car wash organizing group had to find and involve ex-workers—and using traditional paid advertising and mail to reach homeless workers would be a nightmare. The campaign spread by word-of-mouth in shelters and feeding places, and through flyering telephone polls. As the number of Shur Brite workers involved grew to 120, they began to feel their own power and wanted more than just back wages. The workers met at a nearby fast-food restaurant and Catholic church to prioritize their goals.

MAKING IT STICK

Although workers knew they should be paid for their time on the job, they agreed that there were limitations to a private legal strategy. Lawsuits can recover unpaid wages, but cannot make an employer stop breaking the law, or make any meaningful changes to work conditions in the future.

They made a list of what they needed: a schedule, vacation days, a break room with air conditioning, heating, and a place to sit.

To enact those demands, the car-wash campaign drew from a core of students, congregations, and unions brought together around fights over the 2006 Vanderbilt University living wage and a subsequent Laborers contract.

"We realized concretely how important intentional solidarity was to winning improvements for the poorest workers in the South," said Megan Macareg, of Mid Tennessee Jobs With Justice.

Together with the car wash workers, they took the campaign into houses of faith, soliciting letters of support from congregants across the city. They drafted a letter requesting a meeting with the owners to address worker demands, and 50 congregation members, students, and former workers delivered it June 26th, with much fanfare with local television stations broadcasting the event.

In mid-October the meeting took place, and elected workers and representatives from NHPP and the Nashville Movement, a citywide coalition for economic and racial justice, expect to work out the back-pay settlement and finalize a new employee handbook detailing on-the-job changes by late October to mid November.

The Nashville Movement is cementing its role as the staging ground for coordinated campaigns. It's looking for a breakthrough in its drive among immigrant taxi drivers, who over the summer staged a mass turn-in of their electronic schedulers, had leaders fired, and shopped for a union local. The coalition is also planning a municipal living wage campaign for later this year.

HOMELESS SUE CAR WASH FOR MINIMUM WAGES

Friday May 30th

Today, The Nashville Homeless Power Project (NHPP) assisted three workers file a collective action law suit against their employer, Shur Brite Hi Speed Car Wash on 1713 West End Avenue. The suit names William and Glenn Smith owners of the car wash. Minimum wage workers named in the suit claim the are forced to work unpaid hours while waiting for customers, and often do not know if they are being paid for their time working. If true, this would put their wages far below the federal minimum wage in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. If the workers win the suit, Shur Brite could be forced to pay double the minimum wage for every hour they have kept workers off the clock several years back, as well as attorney’s fees. The Homeless Power Project estimates that Shur Brite’s revenues average between $150,000-200,000 per month but still routinely exploit their workers by denying their lawful wages.  

Charles Yezbak attorney representing the workers explains the law, “The Fair Labor Standards says, if a break time is to the benefit of the employer, the worker must be paid for that time.  Unfortunately, some employers seek to illegally shift their business risks to low wage workers. Shur Brite wanted to have plenty of workers available for its peak hours but did not want to pay the workers for slow periods throughout the day.  Repeatedly clocking workers out during slow period is illegal.”  

Simon Campbell and Joy Jordon are two of the first workers named in the suit.  “I work two jobs to support my daughter.  I’ve accumulated a $900 light bill and no ability to pay it, I’ve been homeless, and now I’m at risk again of loosing my housing. I’m not in trouble because I don’t work, I’m in trouble because my work doesn’t pay. ” Says Jordon. Simon continues "It’s horrible waiting there. You’re kind of boxed in. I can’t leave and do what you want because you never know if a customer will come. You just want to work and get time on the clock. There are banks all around the car wash. I hate watching other people go into banks and put money in. I want to be able to save money, but I can’t get a head at Shur Brite.”

Garrett Stark Organizer with NHPP himself worked at Shur Brite one day to investigate the situation.  He is not named in the case, but points to his pay stubs and clock in/out records to show how he received only around $2.80 cents per hour for his more than 7 hours working.  “We’re hoping to not only file a law suit, but organize and build a movement so that no American who is working will be homeless. We hope to add many more workers to this suit as it progresses, and educate car wash customers about the root causes of homelessness.  Shur Brite is one of the few places in town that a worker with a conviction on their record can get work, and many are homeless or one paycheck away as a result of its wages. But the real criminals here are the employers who are violating federal law. Workers have paid their dept to society; it’s time Shur Brite pay its debt to the workers.”

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