Transforming Lives/Transforming Communities: MUA's 20th Anniversary Celebration, October 2, 2010

Tickets are going fast so if you want to be there (and we want you there) please reserve on line or send in your check today. We anticipate selling out by the beginning of September! Tickets are$75 call 800.838.3006 or visit Transforming Lives ~ Communities. MUA is also still recruiting event sponsors, advertisers in our program book, silent auction donors, and day of volunteers. Help us ensure a strong future for MUA's programs by getting involved today. Call Andrea Lee at 415-621-8140x302 or email andrea@mujeresunidas.net to make your commitment today.

MUA Launches New Spanish Language Sexual Assault Crisis Line (415-431-ALMA)

On August 18th Mujeres Unidas y Activas launched our new ALMA hotline. This hotline is open to anyone and everyone in our community – 9am-5pm. If you are someone you know has experienced sexual assault or is in crisis, please call 415-431-2562 (ALMA). For more information contact Juana Flores al 415-621-8140 or juanita@mujeresunidas.net

Household Worker Wins $120,000 in Restitution in Walnut Creek Human Trafficking Case

From the summer of 2006 to the spring of 2008, Zoraida Peña-Canal, a Peruvian woman, was enslaved as a domestic worker by Mabelle de La Rosa Dann, a Walnut Creek real estate agent. Dann traveled to Peru to recruit Peña-Canal in 2002 and promised the prospective nanny fair wages and a decent living situation. Once in the United States, Dann took control of Peña-Canal’s passport and identification papers. Dann kept the documents in her possession and had Peña-Canal labor for Dann and her family, cooking and cleaning in Dann’s home in Walnut Creek and caring for Dann’s three children, without receiving pay, privacy or time away from the family.

Peña-Canal escaped with the courageous help of a local gardener and people affiliated with an elementary school attended by Dann’s children. The friends who helped Peña-Canal escape contacted Domestic Workers United, who in turn contacted La Raza Centro Legal (LRCL) in San Francisco. LRCL in collaboration with MUA, SAGE, and Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach have provided Peña-Canal with comprehensive legal, mental and physical health services.

After a week-long trial, a federal jury convicted Mabelle de La Rosa Dann on October 8, 2009, of five federal charges including: forced labor, unlawful use of documents in furtherance of servitude, harboring an illegal alien for private financial gain, conspiracy to commit visa fraud and visa fraud. On April 14th, 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken sentenced Dann to 60 months in state prison as well as three years of supervised release, and ordered her to pay $123,740.34 in restitution.

“There are many people who, like me, have had their hopes frustrated,” Zoraida Peña-Canal stated. “My message to them is, please know - have faith - that there are groups that will help you fight for your human rights as immigrants. Do not be afraid and do not be ashamed. Seek help and fight for the justice you deserve.”

MUA applauds Zoraida Peña-Canal for her courage and vows to fight for the rights of all household workers to live and work with dignity and respect. We applaud our allies at La Raza Centro Legal and the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights for their successful work in this case.

MUA Honored for Women's History Month

On Tuesday, March 30th, MUA was honored and recognized by San Francisco Supervisor David Campos as part of the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women's Women's History Month celebration. Earlier in the month, MUA Co-Director Andrea Lee received KQED's Unsung Local Women Heroes Award in honor of her work with MUA.

MUA Moves to New Oakland Office

MUA is excited to announce that we have moved to a new office in Oakland and we look forward to sharing our new space with our community allies and donors. Come by and see us: 2783 East 12th Street, Suite 201, Oakland, CA 94601 (cross street is 29th Avenue). We are located 3 blocks from the Fruitvale BART and parking is available in the Safe Storage parking lot. Our entrance is on 12th Street.

MUA releases "Echoes from the Silence: Raising Our Voices"

On Wednesday, October 28, 2009 Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA) will release a new bilingual report, “Echoes from the Silence: Raising Our Voices,” that shares the results from a 2008 study conducted by MUA members to understand the experiences of Latina immigrant survivors of domestic violence in the Bay Area, explore the types of domestic violence services currently offered, and evaluate the barriers that impede Latina survivors from accessing these services. The report also offers recommendations on how to improve services for Latina immigrant survivors of family violence. To RSVP, request a hard copy or to schedule a presentation by MUA members and staff of the report's findings, please call Ariana at 415-621-8140.

Domestic Workers Organize to End an ‘Atmosphere of Violence’ on the Job

The women’s stories seemed to come from a backward country, or from a shameful time in the United States that many would sooner forget.

Yana Paskova for the New York Times

One woman, too scared to give her name, told of being struck by her employer in Bethesda, Md., as she scrubbed her hands raw polishing the floor. Another woman, Violet Anthony, who is 29 and from Mumbai, said her face became marbled with bruises after her employer in Queens slammed her into a wall and slapped her. Araceli Herrera said some of her employers inspected her bags before she left their homes and refused to drive her to or from the bus stop, a half-hour’s walk away. One employer, she said, fired her after she had a gallbladder operation and needed a month’s rest.

“With each job, I was exploited more. The thing is, the more you suffer, the harder it is to defend yourself,” said Ms. Herrera, 48, who trained to be an optometrist in her native Mexico and now works as a housekeeper in San Antonio. “We come from an atmosphere of violence, of blows, and we think we have to tolerate that.”

All three women were in Manhattan over the weekend for the first National Domestic Workers Congress, four days of workshops, meetings and a rally to demand rights for a work force that organizers describe as splintered, almost invisible, and staggeringly difficult to organize.

read more

Women's Work

New York Times- June 8, 2008- Editorial

Listening to domestic workers talk about their jobs can give a rude jolt to assumptions about social progress and the civility of the rich and upper middle class.

Herminia Serrat describes the “crude reality” of life for many nannies, housekeepers and caregivers for the elderly as a stoic struggle marked by long hours, meager or stolen wages, social isolation and a full range of unchecked employer abuses, from petty verbal harassment to physical and sexual assault. Araceli Herrera holds up a thumb scarred by caustic cleaning chemicals that eat through gloves and cause wounds that do not heal. Joycelyn Gill-Campbell tells of working while sick, unable to get time off, even with a doctor’s note.

read more

Announcing New National Domestic Worker Alliance

On Labor Day, over fifty Latina household workers and their families who are members of MUA, POWER and the Women’s Collective of the Day Labor Program of La Raza Centro Legal gathered in the San Francisco Mission District to celebrate their work and launch the new National Domestic Workers’ Alliance. The goals of this newly formed alliance are to work together to give public attention to the plight of household workers and at the same time improve the workplace conditions. Member organizations of this alliance represent grassroots organizations that work towards advancing the rights of household workers. Similar actions were held by the other ten member organizations located in Maryland, Los Angeles, and New York. The event was covered by Univision, Telemundo, KPFA, the Bay Guardian, and Sing Tao newspaper. For more information on the National Domestic Worker Alliance, visit www.nationaldomesticworkeralliance.org.

 

 

Research Finds Household Workers Earn Poverty Wages, Lack Access to Basic Health Care

Household workers work in private homes performing in-home child, patient, and elder care, housework, and cooking. The release of Behind Closed Doors, a report analysing the household work industry in California, shows workers are primarily female immigrants. While supporting their employers' homes and families, findings show household workers work in substandard and often exploitative conditions, earn poverty wages too low to support their own families, and lack access to basic health care. A participatory research project conducted by members of Mujeres Unidas y Activas and Day Labor Program Women's Collective of La Raza Centro Legal, and the DataCenter.

News coverage of MUA's Household Workers' Campaign: