Today the RWDSU members at The Pleasure Chest New York walked out on strike during the #NYCPrideParade! They were also invited to marched in the parade with Senator Brad Hoylman, Senator Diane J. Savino and RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum. THANK YOU to everyone at #Pride who came to express their support! Workers' rights are gay rights!

As lifelong New Yorkers who have had the privilege to serve in the state Assembly and the City Council, we have observed first-hand how difficult it is to work in car washes, where employees, largely immigrants and people of color, must toil for long hours just to make ends meet.

Yesterday, in an egregious show of force by the Trump Administration, the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided three Fresh Mark meat-processing plants in Ohio, represented by the RWDSU. 2,800 people come to these three plants every day to work, but yesterday 140 were detained and separated from their scared families. Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union responded.

RWDSU members testified today at Department of Labor hearings in the Bronx, New York, as workers and activists gathered beforehand to call for an end to the so-called “tip credit.” Car wash workers are among those affected by regulations which allow employers to pay sub-minimum wages in many industries, under the supposition that tips will make up and exceed the difference. In reality, the policy can act as a vehicle for wage theft, leaving workers earning poverty wages below the minimum wage.