Car Wash King Pin - The Report
The Car Wash King Pin
John Lage and the Poor Conditions in New York City's Car Wash Industry
Beginning in 2012, car wash workers across New York City are rising up and demanding...
Beginning in 2012, car wash workers across New York City are rising up and demanding living wages, predictable schedules, and protective gear against harmful chemicals from their employers and from industry giant John Lage. Based on first-hand observations by workers themselves, this report details workers voting to unionize, win decent wages, and live with dignity on the job. Follow the continued struggles of the Wash New York campaign, led by workers and their allies, as they illustrate the policies that New York City can adopt to improve the quality of jobs in the car wash industry so that workers who clean the cars of some of the richest people in the world don’t have to continue toiling in near poverty.
Download the report here.
Executive SummaryEvery day across New York City, thousands of vehicles roll into car washes owned by John Lage. These are the livery cars that shuttle Wall Street executives between meetings, the taxis that take West Village revelers back home after a night of drinking, and the cars and vans that transport people and goods across the city, helping our economy run. And they are being washed by workers who are living on the edges of poverty.
John Lage is New York’s Car Wash Kingpin, according to the Daily News. Together, he and his business associates own and operate eighteen of the city’s 200 or so car washes and employ about five hundred workers. We estimate these Lage car washes collectively bring in gross revenue of somewhere around $34 million every year. We believe Lage has profited enormously from his businesses, and has two waterfront homes in Eastchester and Queens that are worth millions of dollars.
In 2005, the United States Department of Labor filed a major lawsuit against him, alleging that he and 15 of his companies had “willfully and repeatedly” violated minimum wage and overtime law by failing to pay workers the money that they had earned. Through three consent judgments and a settlement, Lage eventually agreed to pay over $4.7 million in back wages, damages, and interest to more than 1,300 employees.
But even now, many of the employees working for Lage’s owned or operated car washes struggle to survive and support their families on the wages his companies pay: often only about $300-$400 a week. Their schedules are extremely erratic and unpredictable – workers can be sent home because of bad weather or slow business. These workers aren’t given health insurance or paid sick days, let alone any paid vacation every year. And workers are worried about their health and safety as they can be exposed to strong chemicals and do not always have the protective gear that they should.
Most offensive of all, New York City taxpayers are subsidizing Lage’s business model. It appears from official records that Lage’s car washes have received more than four hundred thousand dollars in contracts and sales from the New York City Police Department and other City agencies since 2007.
The terms and working conditions at car washes in the car wash industry across the city are too often deplorable. The low pay, the erratic hours, the hard work and trying working conditions combine to create a dehumanizing environment for too many carwasheros. Because Lage is the biggest car wash operator in the City, the New York Daily News branded him the Car Wash Kingpin. Because of his size in the industry, we believe his companies could set a standard for the industry to emulate.
Beginning in 2012, car wash workers across New York City are rising up and demanding better treatment from their employers and from John Lage in particular. They’re voting to unionize, so they can speak with one voice, and win decent wages and dignity on the job. It’s time for John Lage to listen.
This report describes the Wash New York campaign that workers and their allies are leading to clean up the city’s car wash industry. It tells the story of John Lage’s treatment of his companies’ workers and gives a window into their continuing struggles. Based on first-hand observations by workers themselves, it estimates the annual gross revenue of Lage’s businesses. It also shows the intricate web of companies that he and his associates have erected to operate their businesses. And it describes the policies that New York City can adopt to improve the quality of jobs in the car wash industry so that the workers who clean the cars of some of the richest people in the world don’t have to continue toiling in near poverty.
How a Grassroots Coalition Got the Elitist Federal Reserve to Sit up and Listen on Race
How a Grassroots Coalition Got the Elitist Federal Reserve to Sit up and Listen on Race
A year ago, the Federal Reserve, our nation’s most powerful economic policy maker, said that there was nothing it could do about racial disparities. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal,...
A year ago, the Federal Reserve, our nation’s most powerful economic policy maker, said that there was nothing it could do about racial disparities. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, there is "a rising recognition within the Fed that the racial gaps in the economy are becoming more pronounced and that there is a role for monetary policy to play in shrinking those gaps."
That's a major shift in how monetary policy gets made. How did it happen? A grassroots uprising from low-income people of color, the unemployed, and the underemployed pushed issues of racial justice front and center into debates about monetary policy – and they succeeded in changing the conversation at the Federal Reserve.
The Fed Up campaign is a coalition of community-based organizations from across the country, labor unions, policy think tanks, and expert economists who decided to take on the Federal Reserve, long considered immune to outside criticism.
The Great Recession of 2008 brought things to a head. With Congress failing to pass an adequate stimulus in the wake of the crash and authorizing almost nothing since, it’s become clear that the Federal Reserve is the country’s only institution acting to stimulate the economy.
Progressives are concerned about raising wages, getting good jobs for more people, and building the bargaining power of workers to win victories like paid sick days and fair scheduling.
But they didn’t think to target the Federal Reserve, an institution designed to remain as insulated from the public as possible. The Fed system comprises a Board of Governors, whose members are appointed to 14-year terms by the President and approved by the Senate, as well as boards of directors for each of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks. These regional boards are overwhelming white and male and draw their membership largely from the corporate and financial sectors, which makes sense as two thirds of them are appointed by commercial banks.
Given the Federal Reserve’s opaque, insular structure designed to keep the influence of regular people at bay, it’s nothing short of remarkable that the Fed Up campaign has altered the conversation as much as it has in two short years.
Since its launch in the summer of 2014 the Fed Up Campaign has released reports on racial disparities in the economy andthe unrepresentative composition of the Fed, met with Fed Chair Janet Yellenface to face as well as 11 out of the 12 regional Bank presidents, conducted protests, and lobbied members of Congressto question Yellen on racial disparities during her semi-annual Humphrey Hawkins testimony before Congress.
Under questioning from Congress in February 2016, Janet Yellen insisted to Congress that she could not do anything about racial disparities. Yet, not even four months later, when Janet Yellen testified at the Humphrey Hawkins hearing in June, something was different.
Yellen began her testimonywith statistics on racial disparities in income and employment among Blacks and Latin@s. This is something the Fed has never done before. By including data on racial disparities, Yellen signaled that the status of communities of color is relevant to the Fed's decisions on the economy and she said that broad-based inclusion in the recovery is a priority..
Yellen made this historic move on racial justice because of the pressure the Fed Up coalition put both on the Fed and on Congress. In May, Fed Up worked with Congress members to send a letter to Yellen urging better public representation and diversity on the 12 regional Banks' boards of directors, which was ultimately signed by 127 senators and representatives.
Then Fed Up released aslate of candidatesfrom more diverse backgrounds who could be appointed to the leadership of the Federal Reserve Regional and a new reportabout potential conflicts of interest among current directors, which received coverage in the Wall Street Journal.
The advocacy with Congress worked. After meeting with Fed Up coalition member Common Good Ohio, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) urged Yellen at her Congressional hearing to appoint people from more diverse backgrounds to the regional Banks. Sen. Robert Menendez(D-NJ) urged Yellen to improve on diversity, citing the fact that 83% of regional board directors are white – a figure from our February report.
And Sen.Elizabeth Warren(D-MA) echoed Fed Up's callfor reforming the process for selection regional Bank presidents, calling the process "broken" and saying, "I think Congress should take a hard look at reforming the regional Fed's selection process so that we can all benefit from a Fed leadership that reflects a broader array of both backgrounds and interests."
The next day Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) echoed Warren's call, asking Yellen whether she'd considered our recommendation to appoint three Class C directors at each regional Bank from backgrounds in academia, labor groups, and community-based organizations.
We still have a long way to go before one of the most powerful, secretive, least democratically accountable, and thoroughly corporate dominated institutions truly represents the public and serves all of the public -- including low-income people and communities of color.
But Janet Yellen’s most recent Humphrey Hawkins testimony does show that the Federal Reserve is not completely insulated from public opinion, and that regular people standing up and demanding to be heard can push even the Federal Reserve to listen.
By Shawn Sebastian
Source
News Highlights: Top Financial Services News of the Day
Activists in Jackson Hole Pressure Fed on Inflation, Endorse Yellen
The Fed Up campaign is holding events to show support for raising the Fed's 2% inflation target as well as allowing Janet...
Activists in Jackson Hole Pressure Fed on Inflation, Endorse Yellen
The Fed Up campaign is holding events to show support for raising the Fed's 2% inflation target as well as allowing Janet Yellen to serve a second term as the central bank's chairwoman.
Read the full article here.
Capital Pressroom - April 24, 2014: Scaffold Law
WCNY - April 24, 2014, by Alyssa Plock - AUDIO CLIP. We discuss the Scaffold Law with two people who hold opposing views on the issue: Dr. Michael...
WCNY - April 24, 2014, by Alyssa Plock - AUDIO CLIP. We discuss the Scaffold Law with two people who hold opposing views on the issue: Dr. Michael Hattery, director of local government studies at the Rockefeller Institute, and Connie M. Razza, director of strategic research at the Center for Popular Democracy.
Listen to the discussion here.
Puerto Ricans protest at FEMA on six month anniversary of Hurricane Maria
Puerto Ricans protest at FEMA on six month anniversary of Hurricane Maria
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A crowd of energized Puerto Ricans rallied in the U.S. capital on Tuesday, demanding equal treatment from the Trump administration and decrying the island’s ongoing woes on the ...
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A crowd of energized Puerto Ricans rallied in the U.S. capital on Tuesday, demanding equal treatment from the Trump administration and decrying the island’s ongoing woes on the sixth month anniversary of Hurricane Maria making landfall.
“We are here today for our families in Puerto Rico,” said Julio López-Varona, an organizer with the Center for Popular Democracy. “On the six month anniversary of Hurricane Maria, things are not better.” Read more here.
Hundreds of activists crashed Senate GOP offices, yelling about Medicaid and getting arrested
Hundreds of activists crashed Senate GOP offices, yelling about Medicaid and getting arrested
Art Jackson was diagnosed with HIV in 1989 and given three years to live. Almost 30 years later, the social worker entered the offices of Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) — and began shouting that the...
Art Jackson was diagnosed with HIV in 1989 and given three years to live. Almost 30 years later, the social worker entered the offices of Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) — and began shouting that the Republicans’ Senate health care bill must be defeated.
“I’ve lived each day I’ve been given to speak for other who can’t,” said Jackson, 52, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Monday afternoon minutes before entering Burr’s office with about 10 other activists from his home state. “We have to stop this.”
Read the full article here.
Fed comes up short on diversity goal, Democrats say
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. central bank remains a bastion of white privilege and Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen should promptly take steps to “remedy” the issue, 115 Congressional Democrats...
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. central bank remains a bastion of white privilege and Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen should promptly take steps to “remedy” the issue, 115 Congressional Democrats said Thursday.
In a letter to Yellen, the House and Senate Democrats urged her to “fulfill its statutory and moral obligation to ensure that is leadership reflects the composition of our diverse nation” and include representatives outside of the banking industry. Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont and a presidential candidate, also signed the letter.
The letter noted that Congress in 1977 passed a law mandating more diversity at the Fed.
“Nearly 40 years later, the leadership across the Federal Reserve system remains overwhelmingly and disproportionately white and male, while major financial institutions and corporations are overrepresented in senior roles,” the letter said.
Leading Democrats including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. John Conyers of Michigan signed the letter. Rep. Maxine Waters, the ranking member on the House Financial Services panel, was also a signatory.
At the moment, 11 of the 12 Fed regional presidents are white and ten are men.The five members of the Fed board of governors are all white, while two are women.
“Is the Fed Board of Governors embarks on its search for regional president vacancies, we urge you to engage in an inclusive process to consider candidates from a diverse set of background, including a greater number of African-Americans, Latinos, Asian Pacific Americans, women and individuals from labor, consumer, and community organizations,” the letter said.
In response, a Fed spokesperson said the central bank has “focused considerable attention in recent years” on recruiting directors of regional Fed banks with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
As a result, minority representation at the 12 district banks and their branches has increased to 24% this year from 16% in 2010, the spokesperson said.
By Greg Robb
Source
Janet Yellen Was A Great Fed Chair. So Why Is The Economy Still Broken?
Janet Yellen Was A Great Fed Chair. So Why Is The Economy Still Broken?
When President Barack Obama reluctantly nominated Janet Yellen to the most powerful economic post on the planet in October 2013, Republican Party leaders, backed by much of the economics...
When President Barack Obama reluctantly nominated Janet Yellen to the most powerful economic post on the planet in October 2013, Republican Party leaders, backed by much of the economics establishment, warned of looming economic ruin. As Federal Reserve chair, Yellen would lead the country into a hyperinflation calamity on par with Weimar Germany or, at least, a return to the misery and malaise of the Jimmy Carter years.
Read the full article here.
Fed's Bostic to Hear Case for Excluding Housing From Inflation
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic will hear the case for excluding housing from measures of consumer prices that the U.S. central bank targets when he meets this week with...
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic will hear the case for excluding housing from measures of consumer prices that the U.S. central bank targets when he meets this week with Fed Up, an advocacy group focused on monetary policy.
Read the full article here.
Divest From Prisons, Invest in People—What Justice for Black Lives Really Looks Like
Divest From Prisons, Invest in People—What Justice for Black Lives Really Looks Like
Instead of addressing the roots of drug addiction, mental illness, and poverty, we’ve come to accept policing and incarceration as catch-all solutions. It’s time for a change.
...
Instead of addressing the roots of drug addiction, mental illness, and poverty, we’ve come to accept policing and incarceration as catch-all solutions. It’s time for a change.
Read the full article here.
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