Domestic Workers

How Domestic Workers Built Power In Philadelphia

August 9, 2026 Nicole Kligerman, The Forge. Organize! Domestic Workers, Pennsylvania, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

A few years ago, one of our members — a Black Caribbean immigrant nanny working in one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest neighborhoods — asked her employer for a written contract. She had that right under the city’s Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, which domestic workers won in 2019. Instead, she was fired on the spot. After that, she was quietly blacklisted in the neighborhood’s parent Facebook groups, a form of retaliation that could itself be deemed illegal in many labor violation cases. I’ve spent years working as an organizer alongside Philadelphia nannies, caregivers, and housecleaners to win critical labor protections and the dignity and respect all workers deserve.

‘I Did Not Know I Had A Voice’

December 21, 2022 Sara Herschander, Capital and Main. Organize! Congress, Domestic Workers, Worker Rights and Jobs

After nearly a decade working as a live-in nanny in New York City, Ludie Delva knew she was being underpaid, but didn’t know there was a minimum wage. And though she worked upwards of 60 hours per week, she wasn’t aware that she also qualified for overtime that might’ve helped with the bills she struggled to pay on her $500 weekly paycheck. Nor did she know about New York state’s Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, legislation that would ultimately allow Delva to reclaim over $25,000 in stolen wages from two former employers. The final amounts paled in comparison to what they owed her, but the money still allowed Delva to purchase a home for her family in Haiti, and survive a pandemic that thrust domestic workers around the country into prolonged economic uncertainty.

Congress Considers A National Domestic Workers Bill Of Rights

August 26, 2022 Bella DeVaan, Inequality.org. Create! Bill of rights, Congress, Domestic Workers, Worker Rights and Jobs

$71,610.03: the back wages, interest, and civil penalties paid to a live-in domestic worker by their negligent employer in Seattle. In July, King5 News reported, the city’s Office of Labor Standards orchestrated the employer’s settlement – redress for their failure to pay minimum wage, provide overtime pay, and track payment. “I would encourage other domestic workers to come forward and not to be afraid if they believe that the contracts and the form of payment are not being fulfilled according to the work that is done,” the anonymous domestic worker shared in the wake of her repayment. In 2018, exactly three years prior, Seattle was the first city in the nation to pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

Philadelphia Domestic Workers Win A New Bill Of Rights

November 16, 2019 By Cynthia Drayton, Inequality.org Create! Domestic Workers, New Economy, Philadelphia, Reform

I’ve been a domestic worker my whole life. I work in other people’s homes, mostly as a nanny, but I’ve also been a homecare worker, taking care of people who are elderly and need assistance, and have chosen to stay in their homes as they age. I’m a cook, preparing meals. I’m a teacher, reading stories to their children. I’m a nurse, monitoring medication. And I’m a companion, keeping someone company when it is too difficult for them to leave their home.

How Domestic Workers Built America’s First Co-Op Franchise

September 13, 2019 By Aaron Fernando, Shareable.net Create! Cooperatives, Domestic Workers, New Economy

The United States currently has an infinitesimally small sector of worker-owned cooperative businesses, accounting for only 6,800 workers out of a labor force of over 160 million. Although US data on worker-owned co-ops is scarce, evidence from other countries indicates that worker-owned co-ops are more resilient than other businesses and lead to far smaller wage disparities in the same organization. Recently, an organization in New York, working with domestic workers who face poor working conditions...

Black Domestic Workers Call For Pay, Professionalism, And Respect

October 16, 2018 By Negin Owliaei, Inequality.org Resist! Class Struggle, Domestic Workers, Workers Rights and Jobs

“The thing I hate about the job is the wear and tear on your body,” caregiver Allena Pass says. “It breaks you down: the aches and pains and soreness. The frustration you have when you have people in the home that can’t help and won’t help. When you have people in the home that are never satisfied no matter what you do or how you do it. I know what I’m doing, and I know I’m doing right.” “I want the public to appreciate me and treat me with respect because I treat my job with respect,” Pass says. She’s one of the many caregivers profiled in a new report, Pay, Professionalism, and Respect: Black Domestic Workers Continue the Call for Standards in the Care Industry, a collaboration between the Institute for Policy Studies and We Dream in Black, a project of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

Domestic Workers In Seattle Win Most Comprehensive Bill Of Rights In The US

July 30, 2018 Sheila Bapat, Truthout.org Create! Domestic Workers, New Economy, Rights, Seattle

On July 27, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan signed into law the city’s domestic workers’ bill of rights. The ordinance, which passed the Seattle City Council unanimously on Monday, establishes protections for the city’s more than 30,000 nannies, caregivers and housekeepers, who have historically been excluded from labor laws. Seattle is now the only city in the United States with a comprehensive domestic workers’ bill of rights. The city joins eight states that have adopted a domestic workers’ bill of rights. Against a grim national backdrop in which traditional labor unions are being drained of any remaining power, the persistence of the domestic workers’ movement throughout the country is indicative of how labor organizing may continue to evolve, incorporating workers’ efforts to exert pressure directly on local policymaking bodies.

The Creative Resistance Of Domestic Workers

September 3, 2017 Rose Mahi, www.opendemocracy.net Organize! Domestic Workers, Refugees, Women's Rights, Worker Rights

By Rose Mahi for Open Democracy. Many conditions play into the exploitation of migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Lebanon. Most of the time, MDWs are women, and some of us are illiterate. And at times, this illiteracy furthers existing exploitation, which is already embedded in sexism, classism, and racism. These factors are present in our home countries, and migration renders us even more vulnerable to them. Our employers often believe that people migrate because they had nothing to do, were not qualified, or lacked opportunity in their home countries, and that we therefore owe them for saving us.

Domestic Workers Movement Is Growing

August 14, 2017 Myrtle Witbooi, www.opendemocracy.net Organize! Class Struggle, Domestic Workers, South Africa, Workers

By Myrtle Witbooi for Open Democracy - So the question is, how did I come from my humble beginnings to where I am now? My life in this field started in 1966, when I became a domestic worker. I was working for a family, in 1967, and I remember I was pregnant and had a baby that same year. I also remember that, during the apartheid times, there was an article in the newspaper about how some employers didn't allow the friends of domestic workers to visit the property. The question that a came to my mind was what are we? And why are there no rights for us? So I questioned the situation. I wrote a letter and I sent it to the newspaper without thinking. I just wrote my frustration: why are we different? Why are there no laws to protect us? Why are we not seen as people? And then, three days later, a reporter from the newspaper came to the door and was looking for the maid, the servant. This reporter decided that I educated and asked me why I kept my ideas to myself, instead of speaking out. I became a spokesperson for both sides, and that is where I discovered a certain talent I have: I have the ability to speak. So we called a meeting in 1968, here in Salt River (Capetown, South Africa), in a big hall for garment workers.

Victory For Domestic Workers In Illinois

August 19, 2016 Terrance Heath, www.ourfuture.org Create! Domestic Workers, Illinois, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Terrance Heath for Campaign for America's Future - The law, which is the result of a five-year campaign by the Illinois Domestic Workers’ Coalition, guarantees nannies, housecleaners, homecare workers and other domestic workers a minimum wage, protection from discrimination and sexual harassment, and one day of rest for every seven days for workers employed by one employer for at least 20 hours a week. New York became the first state to pass such a bill in 2010.

Women-Led Movements Redefine Power, From California To Nepal

March 20, 2016 Rucha Chitnis, www.yesmagazine.org Resist! Domestic Workers, Environement, Human Rights, Indigenous People, Racism, Women

By Rucha Chitnis for YES! Magazine. In the face of growing corporate power, land grabs, economic injustice, and climate change, women’s movements offer a paradigm shift. They have redefined leadership and development models, connected the dots between issues and oppression, prioritized collective power and movement-building, and critically examined how issues of gender, race, caste, class, sexuality, and ability disproportionately exclude and marginalize. Women of color have unleashed powerful media campaigns and actions by connecting identity and its relationship with structural racism and institutional power. Whether it is indigenous women in the Amazon fighting corporate polluters and climate change or undocumented Latina domestic workers advocating for worker rights and dignity in California, women’s groups and networks are making links between unbridled capitalism, violence, and the erosion of human rights and destruction of the Earth.

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