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Read the press release here.

Brooklyn's First Unionized Car Wash Up for Sale

 Workers at Vegas Auto Spa during a 2015 protest at the car wash. The owner has put the business up for sale for $499,999.
Workers at Vegas Auto Spa during a 2015 protest at the car wash. The owner has put the business up for sale for $499,999.
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DNAinfo/Leslie Albrecht

PARK SLOPE — The Brooklyn car wash where workers waged a long battle to unionize is up for sale and the new owner will have to honor the employees' collective bargaining rights, a union spokesman said.

Vegas Auto Spa on Seventh Avenue and 19th Street in Park Slope is on the market for $500,000, the broker handling the listing confirmed.

The car wash became the first in the borough to unionize in the spring of 2015 after workers went on strike and spent months picketing their employer in frigid winter temperatures.

"Regardless of who owns this car wash, the union contract requires a new owner to assume the obligations of the collective bargaining agreement," said Joseph Dorismond, organizing coordinator of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

"We look forward to continuing to represent these workers to ensure that they are treated fairly on the job."

Real estate broker Andrey Yanoff said the sale of the business isn't related to the workers' organizing.

"The business brings in, after all the expenses, including union pay, more than $250,000 a year,” Yanoff said. In addition to the car wash, the business includes an adjacent beer store that was added to the property about a year ago, Yanoff said.

The workers' campaign won support from labor leaders and local politicians such as City Councilmen Brad Lander and Carlos Menchaca, who got themselves arrested during a March 2015 protest.

Later that month, the Vegas workers signed a two-year union contract that included two pay raises and paid time off.

The workers also filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Vegas Auto Spa owner Marat Leshehinsky owed them $600,000 in back pay.

The lawsuit was settled in May 2015, with Leshehinsky agreeing to recognize the workers' union contract and pay $100,000 to the eight employees who went on strike and their lawyers, according to court records.

The eight workers split $65,444 and agreed not to sue Leshehinsky.

Leshehinsky was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.

The first car wash in the city to unionize was Astoria Car Wash & Hi-Tek 10 Minute Lube in Queens in 2013.

Since the successful campaign at Vegas Auto Spa, the RWDSU helped organize SLS/Atlantis Wash & Lube in Cypress Hills. With more than 50 workers, it's the largest car wash in the country to date to unionize, an RWDSU spokeswoman said.

Vegas Auto Spa's sale listing was first reported by the neighborhood blog One More Folded Sunset.