City’s largest car-wash chain, the main target of a union campaign that claims workers are cheated, now faces the threat of a boycott by some of its best customers: taxi and limo drivers.

Pressure is mounting on one of the city’s biggest car-wash operators as organizers of a union drive in the niche industry receive pledges from taxi and black-car drivers to support any boycott called in connection with the campaign.

Pelham, N.Y.-based Lage Management Corp. is the top target of the effort, which is led by the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change. A potential boycott would likely focus on the more than 20 car washes Lage operates in the city. With possibly thousands of taxi and black-car drivers on board, a boycott could cost the company some of its most important repeat patrons.

The promise of support from the drivers at a press conference on Wednesday comes after several political figures have already inserted themselves into the labor campaign. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating potential wage and hour violations at Lage car washes. And Public Advocate Bill de Blasio wrote a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg urging the city to stop getting its cars cleaned at Lage washes, citing more than $170,000 spent at the venues since 2010.

Some Lage workers allege that management routinely skirts minimum wage and overtime laws, even though the company agreed in a 2009 consent judgment with the federal government to not violate the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum-wage, overtime and recordkeeping requirements. As part of the settlement, Lage agreed to fork over $3.4 million that it underpaid workers.

Jennifer Lage, a company manager and the daughter of owner John Lage, said her firm was “one of the best” in the area for workers. “Any concerns being raised about us are being driven by an outside group to manipulate our employees and to promote their own union,” she said. “Claims we don’t pay minimum wage, overtime or tips employees are entitled to are simply not true.”

Ms. Lage added that her company has created hundreds of jobs for immigrants and other New Yorkers. She would not address the attorney general’s investigation but said a recent state Department of Labor audit did not find any “significant violations.” A DOL spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The threats to boycott car washes in connection with the campaign were issued Wednesday by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a 15,000-member union that represents yellow-car drivers, and District 15 International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which is organizing black-car drivers.

“Low wages, long hours, difficult labor, unsafe conditions— if you line these up on a sheet of paper they could apply to taxi drivers as easily as they apply to car-wash workers,” said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the 15,000-member New York Taxi Workers Alliance. “We can really viscerally relate to the conditions they’re facing.”

Jim Conigliaro Sr., directing business representative of District 15, vowed that black-car drivers “would stand with” the car-wash workers in the event of a boycott. “If we put a call out not to patronize a car wash because they’re abusing their workers, believe me, these guys understand what that’s about,” he said.

Organizers of the campaign would not say when they might call for a boycott, but they clearly hope the threat of losing some of their best customers convinces Lage and other car-wash operators to come to the table and negotiate.

“Combine all money going to Lage from city government with all the taxi drivers, and it starts to send a clear message that this isn’t your standard campaign,” said Jon Kest, executive director of New York Communities for Change. “This is a big deal.”

Pro-labor coalition calls out employers who discourage organizing among workers
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Sutphin Blvd. Car Wash in Jamaica, the tour’s third stop, was called out for alleged mistreatment of workers in March in a report commissioned by WASH New York, a coalition of labor and community groups.

Sutphin is part of a chain of car washes operated by Fernando Magalhaes, who was subpoenaed earlier this month by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for wage and hour violations, and unsafe working conditions. Read more.

Immigrant rights, community and labor groups announced on March 6 that they are starting a campaign to organize the 5,000 mostly immigrant car washers at about 200 sites in New York City. The industry’s violations of workers’ rights include lower-than-minimum wages, no paid overtime and failing to supply protective equipment to those working with caustic cleaners that burn their eyes and noses. A coalition of Make the Road New York, New York Communities for Change and the Department Store Union (RWDSU) plans to push for annual city and state inspections to make sure carwash companies follow labor laws, to set up a code of conduct for the industry and to hold government hearings to determine if legislation is need to safeguard workers. When the industry was last surveyed in 2008, 78 percent of carwashes in the five boroughs were in violation of minimum wage and overtime laws. (Crain’s, March 5) The NYC campaign follows the successful one in Los Angeles led by the Steelworkers union. Workers at two carwashes in South LA celebrated their first USW Local 675 contracts on Feb. 21. They are getting pay increases, safety equipment and on-the-job training to prevent injury and illness. (afl-cio.now.blog, Feb. 21)

At a carwash in an industrial patch of Astoria, Queens, Adan Nicolas, a Mexican immigrant, is preparing to open the newest front in New York City’s labor battles. Read this week’s New York Times exclusive.