Passing the Bill of Rights in New York

New York State Senator Diane Savino on the importance of fair labor standards for household workers and the legacy of labor organizing in New York.

The Domestic Worker Bill of Rights

The passage of the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights in New York State in 2009 is, perhaps, the biggest milestone in the movement for fair labor standards for household workers ever. It is the result of the remarkable efforts of Domestic Workers United and the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Three of our panelists worked on the campaign and I look forward to learning about what it took to make that happen.

In the mean time here is the skinny on this piece of legislation:

The bill mandates an eight hour work day and guarantees time and a half for overtime. It requires a day of rest and suggests that this coincide with the workers religious observances. After one year of employment, workers earn three paid days off. For full time employees, the bill requires employers to provide unemployment benefits and paid time off. The bill also addresses discrimination based on race, gender, and disability as well as sexual harassment.

Of course this all sounds wonderful on paper and enforcing these basic rights is another thing entirely. At the very least having some sort of recourse, however small, to be able to advocate for oneself in an abusive work environment is certainly a step forward.

A similar bill is being presented in California. To find out more about this campaign and to sign the online petition click here.

 

Meet Our Panelists!

Christine Yvette Lewis, of Domestic Workers United, has been doing domestic labor for over fifteen years. Last year she gave a memorable interview on The Colbert Report. Check it out! You won’t be sorry.

Christine Lewis on Colbert

The work that Domestic Workers United does is certainly a movement and I hope that the conference can capitalize on its momentum. And yes, fair labor standards is about power and human rights. Hello, somebody! I can’t wait to find out what she has in store for us.

If you want to see Christine Lewis in the flesh don’t forget to register for the conference here: www.maidintheusa.eventbrite.com

Good Reads

There is nothing intrinsically demeaning about domestic labor. The work is oppressive, or not, because of structural relationships of race, class, gender, and citizenship that are pervasive and predate the employer/employee exchange.

-Mary Romero, Maid in the USA

Mary Romero really is a trailblazer as it relates to scholarship on domestic labor. Romero began interviewing Chicana domestic workers in the Southwest in the early eighties. As a historian, I find her intellectual frameworks refreshing and useful for my own work on black women’s labor fifty years before Romero began doing this research.Maid in the USA is such a great combination of historical scholarship, ethnography, and a variety of theoretical frameworks. I highly recommend taking a look at the tenth anniversary edition. The introduction gives such great insight into the development of the discourse on domestic labor over time. Can’t wait to see what she has in store for the conference.

Don’t miss it! Register here: www.maidintheusa.eventbrite.com

 

Maid in the USA: A Conference on Domestic Labor and Organizing

It seems like everyone is talking about domestic workers lately, thanks, in part, to the 2011 film The Help, based on Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 bestselling novel. Everyone’s weighing in: scholars, critics, bloggers, actors, and every tv talking head from Oprah to Katie Couric.

If the current discourse is any indication, domestic work is a part of our mythological American past. And yet, at this very moment, there are at least 1.8 million domestic workers employed in American homes. Ninety-three percent of whom are women of color.

That’s over a million women with no right to organize (that’s right, its illegal), and no federally mandated minimum wage, overtime pay, or maximum hours. Employers of household workers are not required to provide a safe and healthy working environment.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the Civil Rights Act, right? Arguably the most important piece of legislation of the second half of the twentieth century. It prohibits employment discrimination based on race, religion, color, sex, or national origin. Well, it only applies to employers with 15 or more employees. In other words, it doesn’t apply to domestic workers.

So, how did we get here and where do we go?

Twenty years ago this year Mary Romero’s tackled this very question in her groundbreaking study of Chicana domestic workers in the Southwest, Maid in the USA. To commemorate Romero’s work and work of advocates and organizers around the country the Center for Migration and the Global City at Rutgers University Newark is gearing up for what proves to be a really exciting conference on the opportunities and challenges facing household workers in the United States today.

As a part of this dialogue between scholars, advocates, and organizers, we wanted to start the conversation here. Check back for regular updates about conference planning, where to register, profiles of some of our collaborators and people working on the ground to advocate for domestic workers’ rights, and more facts and figures that highlight the urgency of this significant issue.