National Domestic Worker Alliance Congress, November 13-15, 2009. San Francisco & Oakland, California

Since its founding in 2007 the NDWA has held two Household Worker Congresses attended by over 125 workers, supported the New York Household Worker Bill of Rights’ campaign, compiled and disseminated training curriculum from member organizations, connected organizing in the United States to international organizing efforts, identified and provided technical assistance to nascent and emerging household organizing efforts throughout the United States, and built the capacity of its 18 member organizations.

From November 13-15, the Alliance will sponsor its first West Coast Domestic Workers’ Congress at Laney College in Oakland, California. The Congress will bring together 150 domestic worker leaders from throughout California and around the country. Groups will be coming together to share best practices and lessons learned and participate in our National Training Institute. The groups will also be discussing the Alliance's ambitious 2010 workplan which includes supporting strategic statewide initiatives in CA and NY, a campaign for regulatory reforms at the Department of Labor, building an International Domestic Worker Network and lobbying for an historic ILO Convention on Domestic Work, initiating nationwide participatory research on the domestic work industry, building toward an excluded workers congress at the 2010 US Social Forum, and ongoing capacity building of local worker organizations.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Demanding Justice and Human Rights for Immigrant Communities

On August 30 , dozens of MUA Oakland members gathered in Fruitvale Plaza in Oakland to participate in a vigil to mark theNational Day of Action to Stop Anti Immigrant Repression & Migrant Deaths at the U.S.-Mexico Border. Joining with allies from the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights , Lucha Unida del Jornalero, and the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition, MUA members demanded:

*A Congressional investigation into the border and immigration enforcement policies that are causing migrant deaths at the border and ICE/Migra abuses
* Socially just legalization
* Justice for Elvira Arellano and her son Saul & for all immigrant families who have lost loved ones to detention and deportation
* An end to all raids and a moratorium on all immigrant detentions and deportations
* Restoring and expanding the due process rights of all immigrants .... . . . *Protecting and expanding the labor, human and civil rights of all immigrants and
refugees
* An end to the deaths of migrants at the border
* Demilitarizing border and immigration control: Make the rights and health of our
communities a top priority!
The vigil made front page news in the Oakland Tribune on Friday, August 31.

 

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: