National Congress update: NYTimes editorial: Women's Work

Dear friends and allies,

I'm writing from the National Domestic Worker Congress. It has been an
incredible few days of learning and sharing and breaking it down and we
are all super pumped! There are over 100 women (and a couple men) here
from 10 cities and 16 organizations. Today we marched through the city
demanding and end to domestic worker exploitation and the passage of the
NY State domestic worker bill of rights.

You can go to the link or read below to see an editorial about us that
came out in the NY Times today.

Thanks again for everyone's support,
Jill

OPINION | June 8, 2008
Editorial: Women's Work

A bill of rights for domestic workers would bring the profession
long-overdue affirmation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/opinion/08sun2.html?ex=1213502400&en=68aa7dc1b8ce77bb&ei=5070&emc=eta1

June 8, 2008
Editorial
Women’s Work

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. She relates the indignity of being
dressed in white uniform and shoes, “like Florence Nightingale,” to push a
lame dog in a baby carriage down the sidewalks of Manhattan.

New York City, where entire industries and neighborhoods would collapse
without paid domestic help, was the site last week of the first national
meeting of domestic workers. Women from worker organizations in 10 cities
gathered to assert their rights and dignity, to press for better pay and
working conditions, and to build a national movement for their cause.

It is rare but welcome news that members of one of the most overlooked and
unexalted sectors of the work force are raising their voices together. New
York and the country would do well to pay attention.

Theirs is an unusual labor struggle. Domestic workers enjoy few if any
protections. They have no right to unionize under federal or state law.
Laws on job discrimination and occupational safety do not apply to them,
and they cannot take time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act. They
work out of sight in private homes, leaving them greatly vulnerable to
exploitation and hindering their ability to find strength in numbers.

But instead of waiting, Cinderellalike, for supernatural aid, they are
standing up for themselves and rescuing one another. One goal has been to
push for passage in Albany of the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, which
would guarantee health benefits, paid time off, overtime and
cost-of-living raises, among other things.

The bill has not gone far; some lawmakers are dubious because the
estimated 200,000 domestic workers in the state generally earn several
dollars an hour more than the minimum wage, which they say undercuts the
argument for special help. But labor and immigrant groups are right to
support the bill, as a check against the myriad ways employers exploit the
dedication of these invisible workers, and as an industry benchmark for
well-meaning employers to follow.

Perhaps most important, the bill would be a long-overdue affirmation of
the fundamental value of a belittled profession. Things will get better,
the workers say, only when more people recognize their essential dignity
and appreciate their skills at keeping a home and caring for children and
the elderly.