Leah Obias,
"Organizing Domestic Workers: The National Domestic Workers Alliance"
(page 2 of 2)
Launching, sustaining, and strengthening campaigns that improve the
working conditions of domestic workers has been an important component
of uniting the NDWA's member organizations. During the East Coast
Regional Congress, campaign planning focused on the
New York State
Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, which would address the exclusion
of domestic workers from basic labor protections, provide recognition
for the workforce as a real workforce, and establish specific
protections to address isolation, along with the vulnerability of
domestic workers to abuse and mistreatment. The bill has national
implications and is widely supported by the NDWA. Through the NDWA,
organizations from all over the country are able to rally together and
leverage collective power by supporting efforts to create New York State
legislation.
Drawing inspiration and learning lessons from the NY State Domestic
Workers Bill of Rights Campaign, member organizations in California are
planning for a similar bill. At the Western Regional Congress, 200
workers, organizers, and advocates from 20 worker organizations and
about 10 key ally organizations gathered for training, exchange,
strategizing, relationship building, and visioning a national and
international movement of domestic workers to obtain workplace and
social justice. One of the highlights was the participation of many
young domestic worker organizations and others just recently connected
to the NDWA.
The NDWA workplan for 2010 is ambitious, including support for local
efforts of member organizations, continuing to build the national
infrastructure, and networking with other national grassroots alliances
organizing in immigrant and working class communities, including the
National Day Laborers Organizing Network, Grassroots Global Justice,
Jobs with Justice, Right to the City Alliance, and Pushback Network, in
order to have greater voice and influence with the current
administration.
To expand its knowledge of the industry and the conditions of
domestic workers nationally, the NDWA is launching a national
participatory research project using member organizational surveys and a
review of laws related to domestic work in each state with a member
organization. The results may lead to longer-term campaign
opportunities on the national level.
Also among its priorities in this period, the NDWA is organizing with
domestic workers around the world to win a strong International Labor
Organization (ILO) convention on domestic work, for standards and
protections this workforce so desperately needs. The ILO is the
organization that sets standards on international labor rights, and
monitors how they are implemented. In June 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland,
the ILO will debate and adopt an international standard setting of the
rights of domestic workers, and the NDWA will attend in partnership with
AFL-CIO. The NDWA's participation represents an opportunity to take
part in building an international movement of domestic workers.
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