Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Hi-Tek car wash in Queens, New York, last week where workers are represented by the RWDSU. She talked with the workers about their pioneering success the first car wash to become unionized on the East Coast. Clinton also talked about the need for better pay and job protections throughout the car wash industry, and lent her support to the Car Wash Campaign.
“I’ve campaigned at a lot of gas stations, some of which had car washes,” Mrs. Clinton said when asked if that was her first campaign stop at a car wash. “But this is special because the workers here at this car wash have been organized.”
Clinton spoke to the carwasheros at Hi-Tek Car Wash & Lube at 83-03 24th Ave., for about 30 minutes during her whirlwind final day of campaigning before the Democratic Primary in New York.
Hi-Tek was the first car wash to unionize since the Car Wash Campaign, a coalition of New York Communities for Change, Make the Road New York and the RWDSU, began advocating on behalf of workers in New York City’s largely unregulated car wash industry about four years ago.
Eleven shops have voted to unionize and nine of them — in Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx — have won contracts that improve their lives and give them basic protections every New Yorker should have.