At a Squeaky Clean Car Wash in Santa Fe, NM, employees who were not unionized decided to form a workers committee in order to gain more bargaining power. At this car wash, employees were frequently not allowed to clock-in until there were a lot of customers and employees who were injured on the job were given no compensation for the time they had to take off to recover. The workers committee began to write letters to the car wash manager, and ultimately the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the company was required to pay the employees owed wages. A new trend has begun where workers are able to gain more bargaining power and protection without having to become union members.
See "Workers Organize, but Don’t Unionize, to Get Protection Under Labor Law", Steven Greenhouse, September 8, 2015