MUA has a long history of organizing for change.  Over the past twenty years, MUA members have been at the forefront of local, state, and national campaigns for economic and social justice. From the streets to the state house, members have organized to ensure that Latina immigrant women’s voices and demands are heard.  Through these organizing campaigns, MUA has won provisions for immigrant survivors of violence in the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), defeated statewide measures that would have ended prenatal care for immigrant women, articulated the need for improved language access in Alameda County hospitals, stopped budget cuts to public health programs such as MediCal, and passed local ordinances ending the collaboration between the San Francisco police department and ICE. 

Today, MUA is at the forefront of the emerging movement for domestic worker rights. As women, we work within our homes, cooking, cleaning, washing and raising our children.  Most of us also work or have worked in private homes taking care of children, cleaning, and caring for the sick and elderly.  The work we do in our homes is not valued or recognized by society and neither is the work we do in other people’s homes.  Household workers not only lack key rights but are excluded from many labor laws in California.  Through AB 889, the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, we are fighting for respect, justice and dignity. Find out more about this exciting campaign and how you can get involved!

MUA is also a founding member and leader of the National Domestic Worker Alliance and is currently leading international efforts for a Convention for Decent Work for Domestic Workers at the International Labor Organization.

“Through my work on MUA’s Respect Women’s Work Campaign, I have learned that the work that we do as women should be recognized.  I don’t feel like my work as a mother and wife or as a domestic worker in other people’s homes is valued.  Sometimes I feel like I am seen as just another piece of furniture in the house.  But this injustice motivates me to struggle so that our voices are heard, our work is recognized, and our rights are respected.  The work has to begin with us as women.  We have to respect ourselves and our work first and then demand that respect from everyone else.” 
— Luz Sampedro, MUA’s Campaign Coordinating Committee

• History of the Campaign
• Campaign Victories
• Resources for Household Workers
• Key Coalitions
• MUA’s Theory of Change (PDF)