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NEWS & LETTERS, June - July 2008
Domestic workers rally for protection
New York--On June 7 at least 200 domestic workers from the Domestic Workers' Alliance (DWA) rallied at City Hall in downtown Manhattan. Concluding a three-day National Domestic Workers' Congress in New York City, the participants (about 90% of whom were women) identified themselves as from various countries in the Caribbean, South and Southeast Asia, and Central and South America. The DWA, founded at last year's Social Forum in Atlanta, includes the very active New York City chapter, Domestic Workers United (DWU), which represents nannies, housekeepers and elderly caregivers, who often work in the private residences of wealthy families.
As one of the few participants who was not a member of DWA, I thought I would get the "real" stories by talking to the "rank and file" in the crowd. But it turned out there really were no distinctions between those who took turns at the microphone and those who stood and cheered on every woman who spoke about her oppressive conditions in her home country, at work in the U.S., and ongoing activities with DWA.
Patricia, who was making a living as a babysitter, said, "I got involved [with DWU] when someone passed out a flier in Central Park. I was fed up with things like having no sick pay, but hearing my friend's story about working as a live-in on Long Island was the last straw. Her employer would punish her by putting her out of the house at 9 pm with nowhere for her to go. But desperate for money, she actually returned to that same employer!"
In the several days prior to the rally, the workers, who traveled to the Congress from Los Angeles, Houston, Boston, Chicago, Washington, and San Francisco, attended an organizing conference at Barnard College. An activist, who traveled up to Albany to lobby the legislature for a domestic workers' bill of rights, said that they are getting close to getting a bill passed.
--Participant
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