Justin McBride is the campaign director for the CLEAN Carwash Campaign, and works for the AFL-CIO. He was first exposed to unions with the garment workers’ union, UNITE, in New York City, while he was pursuing undergraduate studies at Duke University in 1999. Upon graduating, he became a staff organizer, and has been helping workers form unions ever since in a variety of industries, including laundry, warehouse, industrial, janitorial, construction, and now carwash workers. Justin began working on the CLEAN Carwash Campaign in 2008.

The carwash industry has become part of the underground economy of Los Angeles and other cities in California, with many carwashes failing to abide by basic labor and health and safety law. Los Angeles carwashes have been equated to the modern-day sweatshop. The (CLEAN) Car Wash campaign is a joint effort between the Community Labor Environmental Action Network (CLEAN), the Carwash Workers Organizing Committee (CWOC) and the United Steelworkers (USW). Begun in 2007, the campaign has brought together a diverse group of immigrants’ rights, legal, labor, and community organizations to improve the lives of working families throughout California and across the Los Angeles area.