Edgar Rosales couldn’t believe what his family member was telling him.
Rosales, a Richmond native, had just moved back to the East Bay in 2022 after working at the U.S. House of Representatives and state Assembly. He checked in with a relative, an undocumented Richmond woman who told him she was happy just to have a job.
She was working at the 23rd Street Launderland, wearing many hats including assisting customers, cashiering, performing janitorial tasks and operating laundry and dry cleaning equipment. But when Rosales found out that she was only making $7.14 an hour — well below Richmond’s minimum wage, which was $13.41 in 2018 and $15.54 in 2022 — he couldn’t believe it. (Richmondside agreed to not publish her name due to her immigration status.)
Rosales vowed to help his relative, who doesn’t speak English and was 59 years old when she started working at the laundromat. He believes that the language barrier was partly why she hesitated to ask to be paid the legally required minimum salary.
“I think there was several times that she asked for a raise, and the manager, who was the only person who spoke Spanish and English, was kind of like, ‘This is what you’re getting, and you either like it or you can go,’ ” he said. “She told me that she felt like she couldn’t get anything else. Being undocumented and not speaking the language — these are the circumstances you have to deal with, and it seems like the manager and owner knew that.”
Because Rosales, who now is a third-year law student, had worked in government, he had contacts who could point them where to get legal help.
Launderland owner is Hillsborough resident, former San Jose State professor
The two found Berkeley-based attorney Anthony Sperber, who filed a lawsuit in Contra Costa Superior Court in 2022 against the laundromat, Washday, Inc., and its owner Hillsborough resident Nancy Lu, claiming systematic labor law violations.
In addition to owning the laundromat business, Lu is a retired San Jose State University emeritus-status professor who taught at the Department of Nutrition and Science from 1980 to 2011. She received a doctorate in philosophy from UC Berkeley in 1973, according to her online profile.
Richmondside attempted to verify whether the laundromat has a current Richmond business license, but the address and Lu’s name aren’t listed in the city’s business license database. Richmondside also attempted to verify if Lu holds a business license in San Mateo County, but her name also did not appear in that county’s business license database’s either.
The plaintiff is seeking $147,155 in unpaid wages with additional damages and penalties totaling more than $750,000, alleging she was paid roughly half the minimum wage for nearly four years while being denied meal and rest breaks.
According to Rosales and Sperber, the court has ruled that the plaintiff is owed the amount she was underpaid. What it now needs to decide is what she was owed while working shifts for a co-worker, who would pay her directly.
The complaint also alleges the plaintiff worked seven-hour shifts five days a week without receiving required meal or rest breaks and says Lu misclassified the woman as an “independent contractor” and wrote paychecks to her from personal accounts rather than a proper payroll, according to the complaint. The lawsuit also claims this is how Lu avoided paying the legally required minimum wage and providing mandated benefits.
The lawsuit also alleges retaliation, claiming Lu terminated the woman from her job shortly after being served with the lawsuit.
“Nancy told her because you conducted this lawsuit, return me the keys (to the business),” Rosales said. “So we gave her back her keys.”
Rosales said once Sperber was hired, Lu began harassing the woman through phone calls and texts.
“We told Nancy we had hired an attorney and (for her) to talk to him,” Rosales said, adding that Lu allegedly then told Sperber that she didn’t trust his relative anymore because the woman had filed a lawsuit and that is why she fired her.”
California’s labor code specifically prohibits such retaliation from employers.
In the aftermath of that conversation, Lu’s attorney has argued that Sperber coerced Lu to say that Rosales’ firing was related to the suit, although Rosales says that narrative conflicts with text messages documenting the interaction.
In addition to the calls and texts, Rosales said in mediation sessions in 2022 and 2023 that Lu offered his relative either a $20,000 payout or said she would “flee the country.” Sperber also said more recently that Lu has said she can’t afford to pay the judgement and would file for bankruptcy.
According to Rosales, the defendants argued that because typically only one employee worked at a time, taking meal or rest breaks would have required closing the business temporarily.
“For the majority of the time, if not all, she would be working by herself,” Rosales said. “What that meant was that she did not get uninterrupted breaks which is supposed to happen by law. She also didn’t get to have full lunch breaks because she would have to clean or have to do customer service.”
Rosales recalled a time, before he knew how much his relative was making, when she worked on a Christmas eve so he brought her some food.
“I thought she was getting overtime,” he said. “I asked if she would want to eat lunch in the car, but she said she couldn’t because there was no one attending the laundromat so I joined her in the little office space and sat with her while she was helping people and eating at the same time.”
In response to the lawsuit, Washday, Inc. and Lu filed an answer in April through her attorney, X Young Lai, denying all allegations. Lu’s response included claims of failure to mitigate damages, employee misconduct, and legitimate business reasons for her actions. The response also argued the case is barred by statutes of limitations and that the woman’s damages claims are speculative.
Richmondside has attempted to reach Lu and Young Lai for comment but had not received a response as of publication time.
The case is scheduled for trial on June 30, with the woman demanding damages that could exceed three-quarters of a million dollars if successful. Rosales said the trial, which was originally scheduled for April, has been pushed back multiple times and that Lu has requested mediation with her former employee.
Undocumented relative was afraid to get legal help
Rosales said that his relative was initially afraid to seek legal help because she is undocumented.
“It is similar to how a lot of people of color are afraid to navigate the justice system and that space,” he said.
It’s not lost on Rosales how his current law school training helped him provide support and said he is thankful for Sperber, who he said has “empathized with her.”
Rosales, who is currently on the board for the RYSE Center, has spent his professional career in the public sector, working at the county, state and federal levels after serving in the Army and graduating from UC Berkeley. He said upon discovering his relative’s situation he felt taken aback that something like this could happen in Richmond.
“I’ve spent my whole career in public service trying to help out the community,” Rosales said. “And then to come back and figure out that someone’s taking advantage, it just, I don’t know, it hurts.”
Although his relative has his support and legal representation, Rosales said she is not optimistic and is still very much “worried and concerned” about the whole process — especially when the Trump administration is targeting people of her residency status, with ICE raids taking place recently at the Contra Costa County immigration court in Concord.
“I know she’s concerned because of her immigration status and that she doesn’t know what Lu will do next,” he said. “We don’t see this case ending.”
In April, President Trump issued an executive order threatening to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities. The Department of Homeland Security initially posted a list of jurisdictions that was then removed due to pushback from the National Sheriffs Association, according to a Reuters report. Richmond, which recently strengthened its law protecting undocumented residents, is among cities named on the list, which is still available via the internet archive.
Because of recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations at local courts, Rosales said he is in the process of getting his relative’s power of attorney so that she doesn’t have to be at the Martinez courthouse in person when the trial starts.
Rosales said that although the case was filed before Trump’s second inauguration, community members like his relative have been afraid to stand up for themselves knowing they might put a target on their back. Even if someone is undocumented, it’s illegal to pay them below the minimum wage.
“Now that we have this administration people won’t bring anything up because they won’t want to be in the spotlight,” he said. “I think this a small anecdote that plays into this bigger phenomena that’s happening right now which is this administration is trying to make undocumented people afraid.”
This, he said, means people don’t assert their constitutional rights.
“It’s not like we’re asking for her (Lu) to pay your employees above minimum wage and give them paid vacation. We are asking for the bare minimum which is minimum wage,” he said.
