Domestic workers demanding labor rights

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) | She says she crossed the border from Mexico and found work as a live-in housekeeper for a family that never let her out of their sight.

At first, her employers paid her $200 a month for cooking, cleaning and care-taking from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. Then they stopped paying the woman, who did not want her name used because she is in the country illegally.

Still, she stayed. She had nowhere else to go. She said her bosses told her that if she left, she could be arrested and sent back to Mexico, where her family had no means of support.

“What did I know?” she said at a domestic workers’ support group at La Raza Centro Legal, an immigrants’ rights center in San Francisco. The organization also has a labor center that the woman used to find new employment.

Domestic workers have no right to overtime, sick time, vacation, health care or workers’ compensation in most states, and the immigrants among them often have it even worse.

But many domestic workers are finding their voices. They are suing employers who abuse them, organizing cooperatives to demand fair wages and lobbying politicians to change laws that exclude household workers from labor protections most employees take for granted.

Last June, immigrant household workers at the United States Social Forum in Atlanta - a gathering of social activists - formed the National Domestic Worker Alliance to campaign for state and federal laws guaranteeing basic labor rights.

The alliance, composed of 20 organizations from across the country, is holding the first-ever national convention for domestic workers from Thursday through Sunday in New York City, where the host organization, Domestic Workers United, is pushing state lawmakers to sign a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights.

That legislation, which would be the first of its kind in the country, would require that domestic workers receive such rights as one day of rest per week and advance notice of termination - standard practice for most other workers.

“The law has always treated this sector differently and less than equal to others,” said Ai-Jen Poo, an organizer for Domestic Workers United, which describes itself as an organization of Caribbean, Latin American and African workers.

“What this bill of rights does is put into place a few basic things,” Ms. Poo added. “The way we talk about it, this is really about respect.”

The Census Bureau estimates that there are 1.5 million domestic workers across the country. A definitive count is nearly impossible since many of the workers are in the country illegally, and many collect income that goes unreported on taxes.

By far, the most exploited are the most hidden: the live-in housekeepers/nannies who may be new to this country, probably alone and thus most easily abused, said Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, a sociologist at the University of Southern California who has written a book about domestic workers.

“The employers may take away her passport,” Ms. Hondagneu-Sotelo said. “And she may not know anyone else in this country. She is not familiar with labor laws here, and even her employer may not be familiar with them. So it creates a very ripe situation for abuse.”

Organizers of the national domestic workers conference hope it will generate greater awareness of the workers’ plight and support for their cause.

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