Fired Los Angeles carwash employee joins in calling for a boycott

"This is a fight," Jose Torres said in Spanish during a news conference outside his former workplace, Vermont Hand Wash. "It was very risky speaking publicly, but here I am."

Torres and local labor leaders said he was fired about two weeks ago for speaking out about poor working conditions at the carwash. He said he worked there for more than three years and was paid between $35 and $40 for a 10-hour workday.

But carwash manager Nissan Pirian said Torres was fired for workplace violations, not for speaking out. He said that all employees were paid minimum wage and that they were not prohibited from forming a union -- one of the claims against him.

As a picket line formed behind him, Pirian pointed to several employees still working and asked, "If the employees really wanted a union, don't you think they would be the people protesting?"

The Carwash Workers Organizing Committee, part of the United Steelworkers of America union, said they were boycotting six carwashes -- all owned by Pirian family members who they say do not provide a minimum wage and decent working conditions. They were joined by other worker advocates.

"We are here because this is one of the carwashes where workers have been retaliated against for speaking out," said Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education.

A Times investigation published in March showed that hand carwashes across the Southland often violate basic labor and immigration laws.

At a fifth of Southern California carwashes, employees in the last five years have formally accused owners of illegally underpaying them. Many workers said they received only tips for some or all of their shifts and some said they earned as little as $1.63 an hour.

Union organizers said many employees were afraid to vocalize their complaints because managers at each of the carwashes had threatened their jobs or promised benefits for renouncing union activity.

ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com