The CLEAN (Community Labor Environmental Action Network) Carwash Workers Center is a Los Angeles-area labor advocacy group founded to organize low-wage carwash employees. According to its website, CLEAN was “founded in 2007” as the nation’s first worker center for hand-car-wash workers. The group grew out of an AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers (USW) effort begun around 2007 to unionize Los Angeles carwash labor and presents itself as a grassroots worker center that engages immigrants and low-income workers and encourages union organizing. Since 2025, the group has been particularly active in protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration-enforcement agenda, with CLEAN’s executive director calling immigration enforcement activities at carwash facilities “kidnappings.” ^{1 2 3 4}

Background

The CLEAN Carwash Worker Center was founded in 2007 as a joint campaign with United Steelworkers Local 675 (USW 675) and for the first six years of the organization, the group supported USW 675’s efforts to unionize carwash employees in the Los Angeles area. The effort was the first unionization campaign at carwash facilities in the United States and led to USW 675 unionizing 50 carwash sites at its organizing peak. ³

In 2013, CLEAN became independent from USW 675 and has since lobbied for the passage of a Carwash Worker Law; founded a for-profit subsidiary, CleanWash Mobile LLC as a carwash cooperative; and established an auto detailing training program. ³

In 2014, CLEAN supported the passage of the Car Wash Worker Law (AB 1387), which created a restitution fund for carwash employees. The program allows employees to file claims for underpayment payable out of the restitution fund. Restitution funds in California only exist for the carwash, garment, and agricultural industries. ³

CLEAN also reported allegations of underpayment and wage theft at a Culver City carwash that led to a multi-year state investigation that resulted in an over $2.4 million fine. ¹

The group has organized several protests against carwashes that it says underpay or withhold pay from employees, including a December 2024 protest against carwashes in Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach following a California Labor Commissioner ruling that ordered the owners to pay about $800,000 in withheld wages and penalties. ⁵

CLEAN is fiscally sponsored by the Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates of Southern California, a left-of-center organizing group. ⁶

Activities

Particularly since 2025, CLEAN has been active in immigration-related protests. In June 2025, CLEAN organized a news conference in Culver City for the families of 22 carwash workers detained in a series of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. News outlets quoted CLEAN’s executive director Flor Melendrez repeatedly. The Los Angeles Times reported CLEAN’s allegations of at least nine carwash raids and 26 arrests, quoting Melendrez saying ICE agents’ sweeps were tantamount to “kidnappings” of workers. ⁴

Melendrez said CLEAN had been “scrambling to identify people detained and keep up with new carwash raids in real time” and stated that “The agents are armed. They are grabbing people and putting them in vehicles, which is why we are calling them ‘kidnappings’ — because they are not identifying themselves.” ⁴

Funding

Listed funders of the CLEAN Carwash Workers Center include the National Employment Law Project, the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, The Liberty Hill Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, Tides Foundation, the Prevention Institute, the CA Community Foundation, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Community Partners, the Omidyar Network, the Employment Training Panel, and the Latino Community Foundation. ³

1. “Wage Theft: Car Wash Workers in $2.3 Million Case Still Await Pay 3 Years Later.” LAist, June 14, 2024. Accessed June 24, 2025. https://laist.com/news/wage-theft-car-wash-workers-in-2-3-million-case-await-pay-3-years-later
2. “Home.” CLEAN Carwash Worker Center. Accessed June 24, 2025. https://www.cleancarwash.org/
3. “Mission.” CLEAN Carwash Worker Center. Accessed June 24, 2025. https://www.cleancarwash.org/mission
4. Hussain, Suhauna. “‘They are grabbing people.’ L.A. and Orange County car wash workers targeted by federal immigration raids.” Los Angeles Times, June 11, 2025. Accessed June 24, 2025. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-06-11/l-a-orange-county-car-washes-hit-by-ice-raids
5. “Workers Protest Unfair Labor Practices at Redondo Rock & Roll Car Wash.” ABC7 Los Angeles, June 16, 2025. Accessed June 24, 2025. https://abc7.com/post/workers-protest-unfair-labor-practices-redondo-rock-roll-car-wash/15638114/
6. Weingart Foundation. “Return of Private Foundation (Form 990-PF).” 2019. Accessed June 24, 2025. https://weingartfnd.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2019-Weingart-Foundation-Form-990-PF-Public-Disclosure.pdf