A New York City law that pressured car washes to allow unions has been struck down by a federal judge who found that it cut against the “free play of economic forces.”

Southern District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled that Local Law 62, an ordinance that required car washes to post surety bonds, but at different amounts depending on whether they unionize, is federally pre-empted by the National Labor Relations Act.

Rick Kopstein/NYLJ

“Pressuring businesses to unionize is impermissible under the NLRA, as it inserts the city directly into labor-management bargaining,” Hellerstein wrote in a summary judgment decision in Association of Car Wash Owners v. City of New York, 15 Civ. 8157.