3/4/2015
By Ivan Pereira
City Councilman Brad Lander was arrested Wednesday while protesting with a group of workers at a Park Slope car wash.
Lander was one of many workers rights advocates who rallied at Vegas Car Wash on 19th Street and Seventh Avenue, which has been the scene of an ongoing strike by the “carwasheros.” The workers contend their owner Marat Leshehinsky owes them $600,000 in overtime and refused to let them unionize.
Cops were called in when the protesters blocked entry access to the business.
“It is easy to decry income inequality. But it is hard to risk your job, endure abuse, face conflict, and speak like an equal human being when working under a cruel owner,” Lander wrote on his blog after he was released from custody.
The councilman added he felt “privileged to stand on the picket lines, in handcuffs, and in their fight.”
Leshesinksy said he has been paying his employees fairly but the union and the workers haven’t been cooperative in hashing out a mutual deal.
“The union only sat down with me once to negotiate [the] union contract,” he said.
