Guest Blog: And the Award Goes to…The ‘Help’ Today

By Meches Rosales

Today, I join thousands of domestic workers, children and parents in congratulating actresses Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer for their Golden Globe and SAG nominations. I hope these talented women understand the powerful impact their creative work is having on domestic workers across the nation and the families who employ us.

I am a proud domestic worker, originally from Guatemala. In my seven years as a nanny, and even before then in my home country, I have witnessed and experienced for myself the harsh treatment and exploitation that domestic workers often endure. We are isolated, mostly working by ourselves behind closed doors. We are the invisible ones who make it possible for our employers to go to work and enjoy leisure time. We care for the most important elements of our employers’ lives.

Most of the time when we see ourselves on the big screen or on TV, domestic workers are just as invisible and one-dimensional as society believes us to be. “The Help” offered a surprisingly different take.

The move is based on Kathryn Stockett’s book about African American domestic workers and the white homes of 1960s Mississippi in which they toil. We meet Aibileen Clark, a domestic worker, who mourns the death of her son every day and pours her love into the white child she takes care of, as she’s done with 16 other children. We meet Minny, Aibileen’s friend, known for her outspokenness, who often faces the wrath of the white ladies for telling it like it is. We meet Skeeter, a young white woman pursuing a writing career, who befriends Aibileen and Minny. Together, the three set out to document the oral histories and some of the indignities that African American domestic workers suffered in places like Jackson, Mississippi.

Much of “The Help” resonated with my own experience as a nanny in the U.S. I deeply felt the pain of many of the domestic worker characters, from the loss and suffering that comes from not being able to be with their own loved ones while they care for someone else’s loved ones, to feeling powerless.

I’ve listened to my sisters with an open heart, feeling impotent, frustrated, and angry that we are often forced to stay in bad jobs and face racism and discrimination and mistreatment. The same fear that the characters experience is not unlike what many of us feel today. The experience of African American women in the Jim Crow South repeats itself for many immigrant women of color in today’s right-wing, anti-immigrant climate.

Their organizing and activism also resonated with me, the drive to want to do something to change our conditions—not just for ourselves as individuals but for the whole group. When the African American workers in the film had the courage to share and document their life stories, it was as much an act of resistance and breaking the silence as it is today when domestic workers from New York to California organize for power, respect, and the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Our stories need to be told. We are the only ones who can make change happen. This is why we organize.

Long History of Our Struggle

For me, as a member of Domestic Workers United, showing the long history of struggle was also critical. Aibileen and her sisters were contemporaries of Rosa Parks and Medger Evers. In our political education classes at DWU, we discuss the important role that domestic workers played in the civil rights movement. Everyone needs to know that history. We must hold our heads up high because the work we do is dignified and because we are standing on the shoulders of the freedom fighters who came before us and paved the way.

Last year DWU saw the fulfillment of our historic six-year campaign to pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York state. The only law of its kind in the U.S., it brought domestic workers out of the shadows by guaranteeing us the rights and protections we have long been denied, like overtime pay after 40 hours, workers’ compensation, and a guaranteed day off each week.

The history portrayed in “The Help” might seem like a long time ago, but we have only just started to reverse the legacy of exclusion and discrimination. New York was the first step. Next is California. Before long, we will be in more states, and then in the nation’s capital.

Entire families should see this movie and discuss it, especially those who employ domestic workers. It’s important for them to understand some of what we experience and what we feel, so that they can begin to recognize the invaluable contributions we make and the great care we bring to the work.

Like the partnership between Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter, and the diverse coalition that made the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights a reality, it’s going to take all of us to change the way that domestic work and the people who perform it are treated in our society.

I walked away from “The Help” feeling seen and proud and more committed than ever not to stay silent and to keep working to build the power of domestic workers and all workers.

Last week we launched the #BeTheHelp campaign to help other viewers of “The Help” learn how they can help create respect for domestic workers. Join us and #bethehelp we need at www.domesticworkers.org.

Meches Rosales lives in New York and joined Domestic Workers United -- a Ms. Foundation for Women grantee -- in 2010. A version of this blog was originally published as “The Help Today” at www.labornotes.org on September 1, 2011. Translated from Spanish by Telesh Lopez.

Women Holding the Line

What is a woman’s life worth in today’s economy? The price of a pap smear? Savings from cuts to HIV/AIDS programs? Unfortunately, policymakers across the country seem to be bartering in just this way with women’s lives.

Over the past year government has cut essential social services at all levels, denied women access to reproductive health, and laid off huge numbers of workers in female-dominated sectors in the name of austerity and deficit reduction. The specter of debt has been used time and again to attack women’s lives. Funding cuts to programs that help families have the potential to set women’s progress back decades, and make it nearly impossible for low-income women and their children to get a leg up in our economy.

Our grantee partners tell us how deeply cuts to social services affect women on the ground who are trying to survive in these uncertain times. As Attica Scott, coordinator of Kentucky Jobs with Justice, explains “today, 814,000 Kentuckians participate in the federal food stamp program; more than 1,000 homes face foreclosure in our state every month; and 576,500 Kentuckians lack health insurance.”

Our 2011 Community Voices on the Economy poll showed that Kentucky is not alone. The economic recovery never reached these women and families in Kentucky and it completely by-passed millions of other women nationwide. Rather than experiencing a real “recovery,” our economy is now in a “womancession.” Today, this already unstable foundation is being rocked by significant cuts to programs that sustain communities through tough times, helping to ensure their ability to recover, and hopefully, one day, to thrive.

Despite this dismal picture, however, there is reason for hope. Across the country, women are standing up for themselves, their families, and their communities, demanding that their voices be heard and advancing policies that protect their most basic rights.

The National Domestic Workers Alliance and Mujeres Unidas y Activas are working together with groups throughout California to fight for labor protections for the state’s more than 200,000 domestic workers. Family Values @ Work, a coalition of organizations working to make paid sick leave a universal labor right passed the first-ever state paid sick days legislation in Connecticut earlier this summer. And most recently, groups like Raising Women’s Voices convinced the Department of Health and Human Services to mandate preventive health services for women, including contraception, be covered by insurance without co-pays or deductibles as the new health reform legislation is enacted.

So while the rights and well-being of women and families are under attack in Washington and statehouses nationwide, let's not forget that strong women are holding the line. Against all odds, women are igniting change, standing up for the values of equity and inclusion, and the urgent needs of the most marginalized. The more we can share their stories of strength and power, hope and inspiration, the better equipped we will all be to defend our rights in the years to come.

This blog is part of the #HERvotes blog carnival

See this post on the MomsRising blog and read the rest of the #HERvotes commentary.

Photo: Elizabeth Rappaport - Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance

[Video] Meet Today's Help: Domestic Workers Continue Fight for Rights

Ms. Foundation grantee the National Domestic Workers Alliance calls our attention to domestic workers today as the movie The Help opens in theaters nationwide. The movie tells a story of women organizing 50 years ago for dignity and respect in Civil Rights-era Mississippi.

Fifty years later domestic workers are still an unprotected sector of the labor force, without access to basic rights other workers take for granted. Far too few domestic workers receive overtime pay, meal and rest breaks, sick leave or paid vacation. And far too many of them work for less than minimum wage.

Join with the National Domestic Workers Alliance to support the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

Caring Across Generations: A Movement for Everyone, Especially Women

There was no doubt that a movement, not just a campaign, was launched on July 12 at the first-ever national CARE Congress, an event spearheaded by the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Jobs with Justice. [Watch the video.] Over 700 people from diverse sectors nationwide -- unions, domestic worker, disability and immigrant rights groups, faith-based and women's organizations -- gathered in Washington, DC to kick off Caring Across Generations, a movement to ensure access to quality in-home care for the elderly, people with disabilities and others in need, and to ensure dignity and well-being for workers who deliver this critical support. Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis offered resounding endorsements and shared how the need for quality care and quality care jobs had touched their lives. In fact, everyone was encouraged to share their stories, unearthing that we all have someone we love who needs or will need care, and underscoring how access to care is inherently linked to securing rights and respect for those who provide it.

[Watch these wonderfully moving stories about how people of all walks of life share a common vision for long-term care.]

Caring Across Generations will be successful in large part because so many Americans -- no matter their political stripe, citizenship status, race, class, age or ability -- can relate to the fundamental issues it addresses, especially as the Baby Boomer generation ages (beginning this year, someone turns 65 every eight seconds [pdf]) and the demand for in-home, long-term care exponentially grows. We all want to make sure our aging or unwell parents or grandparents are given the care they deserve, that our community members with varying ability can live productive, happy lives in their homes rather than institutions. And we want the option of being able to provide this care ourselves with the support of policies like paid family leave without destroying our finances or losing our jobs.

And while everyone can -- and should -- get on board for improved access to quality "direct care," as it is known in the industry, women have an especially critical stake, and role to play, in the movement's success. Because at the core of this and related advocacy like domestic workers' rights and affordable, quality child care campaigns, is a longstanding call to assign greater value to what's traditionally been considered "women's work." And in assigning it greater value, we can bolster support for everyone who assumes paid or unpaid caregiving roles. We can lift the burden from individuals' shoulders -- across gender -- who struggle in isolation to meet their families' needs, we can guarantee living wages and basic labor protections for the mostly women workers who deliver this indispensable care, and we can ensure collective responsibility for protecting what we have -- like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security which provide a lifeline to care for so many already -- and creating what we need, including millions of new jobs in a time of economic crisis and a path to citizenship for the immigrant women of color domestic workforce.

At the forefront of this movement are women who know just how transformative the reframing of caregiving and "women's work" could be, and understand that if you secure the rights and well-being of those most affected by injustice -- care workers, and care recipients and families among them -- we will all be better off. We, for the sake of rights and well-being of all women, all families, and our entire nation, should join them.

Watch Care Congress Live Stream Tuesday Morning

If you will not be in Washington, DC tomorrow, join Ms. Foundation grantees the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Jobs With Justice at a live stream of the first Care Congress. The program will run from 9:45am to 1:00pm EDT. Watch as more than 600 people work to transform long-term care in the United States for our loved ones, the workers who provide the care, and the families who struggle to access and afford that care.

Follow the Care Congress on Twitter. Join the National Domestic Workers Alliance at @CaringAcrossGen and use the hashtag #carexgens.

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This Just In: Domestic Workers Win Global Recognition!

The International Labor Organization today adopted the first ever global rule that recognizes domestic workers and sets international labor standards to protect their rights. Congratulations to Ms. Foundation grantee, the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), and their allies for this tremendous win!  We're so proud to have been a long-time supporter of this inspiring movement.

So how do wins like this take place and what do international human rights conventions mean for the people they're meant to protect? In an earlier post, NDWA Director Ai-Jen Poo helps explain the internal process and movement building that helped realize the vision of internationally recognized labor rights for domestic workers. The next step will be organizing to convince countries around the world to ratify this critical global agreement. For more details, see NDWA's press release below:

Victory at Last! Domestic Workers win Global Recognition with the Adoption of the ILO Convention for Domestic Workers

Geneva, June 16, 2011 - Today Governments, Employers and Workers of the world at the 100th International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland adopted the First Convention and accompanying Recommendation on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. When the vote was announced, domestic workers unfurled a banner that read “C189: Congratulations! Now for the “domestic work” of governments- RATIFY.” Support for the Convention was overwhelming, with 396 voting in favor, and only 16 voting against (all employers), with an additional 63 abstaining. The Recommendation passed with 90% approval.

Juana Flores, US worker delegate to the ILC “With the passage of this International Convention and Recommendation, I am emotional thinking of all of the domestic workers- their sweat, their hard work, the abuses they’ve endured—and I myself have lived this experience. Today, at a global level, the work of cleaning houses, caring for children, the elderly, and disabled is recognized as work-- work like any other.”

This is truly a historic event and a step forward for an estimated100 million domestic workers worldwide, primarily women.

Some governments attending the ILO have already indicated their willingness to ratify the Convention. Domestic workers from around the world will continue their organizing with efforts at the national level to ensure that governments put the contents of the Convention into the law of each country.

About the Convention: The Convention starts by recognising the “significant contribution of domestic workers to the global economy” and that this work is “undervalued and invisible, and is mainly carried out by women and girls, many of whom are migrants or members of disadvantaged communities”.

It affirms that domestic workers’ have the same fundamental rights that all workers have:
•    the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining,
•    the elimination of all forms of forced labour,
•    the effective abolition of child labour, and
•    the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

With this Convention, there is global consensus that domestic workers must enjoy and governments are called on to ensure effective protection against all forms of abuse, harassment and violence.

About NDWA: The National Domestic Workers Alliance organizes domestic workers in the United States for respect, recognition, and labor standards. Through leadership development, strategic campaigns, and alliance building we seek to help build a powerful movement for social and global justice. www.domesticworkers.org

About IDWN: The International Domestic Workers Network (IDWN) is made up of domestic workers’ unions and associations around the world, including Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, North America, and Europe. Support organisations include International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) and Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). www.domesticworkerrights.org

July 12 in Washington, DC: Help Ensure Quality Care Across Generations

Every 8 seconds, an American turns 65. As more and more members of our communities age, they will need care, just as more and more workers will need quality, dignified jobs.

Please join Ms. Foundation grantees the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Jobs With Justice as they aim to transform long-term care in the United States for our loved ones, the workers who provide the care, and the families who struggle to access and afford that care.  

Join the movement at the first Care Congress and the public launch of the Caring Across Generations campaign in Washington, DC on July 12.

Register for the Care Congress before June 20 and help make sure all families have access to affordable, quality and dignified care.

What: Care Congress
When: July 12, 2011 - 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Where: The Washington Hilton - 1919 Connecticut Ave NW
Who: Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and 700 others who care

Help shape this effort! Please register for the Care Congress before June 20. Additional information is available from the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

A Personal Dispatch from Geneva: Marking a Milestone for Domestic Workers' Rights

If you have any doubt about the power of movements and movement-building then you have not met Ai-Jen Poo, the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Over the last few weeks, the fantastic advocacy of Poo and partners, across the nation and world, for the rights of domestic workers resulted in two amazing wins: the California Assembly approved the CA Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, a critical step towards making it the second state in US with such historic legislation; and the establishment of the first international convention (a United Nations human rights document) that will help hold governments accountable for ensuring the rights of domestic workers was approved at the International Labor Conference in Geneva.

As we know, workers -- a good many of them women -- in the US are under attack every day. But the national and international success of domestic worker-led organizing highlights the power and possibility of movements for change, even amidst such challenging times. Theirs is an example of a truly inclusive, strategic movement: a movement built and sustained by a solid base of grassroots and coalition support; a movement driven by the leadership of women; a movement that will not be stymied by a political and economic climate hostile to women, workers and immigrants.

Ai-Jen Poo, who stands with such insightful and instructive grace at the forefront of this inspiring change, offered her reflections on what has ignited the success in California and Geneva, just days before the international convention was officially approved.

I’m on my way home from a week of discussion and debate about the “Decent Work for Domestic Workers” convention at the International Labor Conference in Geneva. This is the first international convention on domestic work. Getting here has been a long road, more than ten years in the making. But we are now in the final hours of the journey to gain recognition in the international arena for domestic workers.

The process [has involved] long and generally diplomatic discussion about the controversial issues that domestic workers face every day in our work: how to count hours of work for domestic workers, particularly for live-in workers; whether stand-by time (that is, when workers are expected to be immediately available in case they are needed at any moment -- whether it’s to comfort a crying child who woke up in the middle of the night or to help ease the pain of a sick family member in the early morning) should be counted as official work hours; how migrant workers should be treated by employers and by governments; what it means to treat this workforce equally or -- in the technical terminology --  “not less favorably” than other workers.  Basically, these dialogues focus on developing a basic standard for what the conditions and terms of work for domestic workers should be. 

This is a challenging process for any industry, but there are particular challenges when it comes to domestic work. For most of human history, the work of domestic workers has been invisible, hidden away in private homes. It has been considered “natural” women’s work, and it has been taken for granted. During this International Labor Organization process, governments, national trade union federations and employer groups from every nation have had to sit down and think deeply about domestic work as real work that -- like any other type of work -- deserves basic labor standards.

This process was a powerful reminder of the importance of movements: movements of workers that demand change, movements of women that promote hopeful visions for new ways in which we can relate to each other, social movements that create progressive governments that can play powerful roles in international arenas. It was the growing movement of domestic workers around the world - and our capacity to capture the imagination of trade union movements and governments internationally - that got domestic work onto the agenda at the ILO in the first place. It was also a reminder of the great acts of leadership that movements create. In particular, as I leave Geneva, I am paying tribute to the leadership of women in social movements.

Our many years of hard work organizing among domestic workers in the United States allowed us to make another significant contribution: The Domestic Workers Bill of Rights - passed by the New York State Legislature in 2010 and now being considered by the California legislature - was one of two pieces of model legislation highlighted in the process of developing the convention. The other piece of model legislation was from Uruguay, where there is also a strong and growing movement among domestic workers.

This is a moment to take in and to celebrate. Milestones like this are few and far between. Perhaps it was unusual in the history of the ILO, but my experience there is captured by the image of row after row of women worker leaders from every region of the world, following the discussion in at least eight languages, working together to champion the dignity of domestic work on an international stage. Our work is not done; we have a long road ahead. As a reminder and an inspiration, I want to share some words spoken by a worker from the Guatemalan domestic workers union after the adoption of the draft Convention, “We have broken the silence. We have yet to break our chains." As we mark our progress, we take our place in a growing global effort to transform the world of work and bring dignity to the work that makes all other work possible.

Photo: New York Times T Magazine.

Tomorrow in DC: Ending Violence Against Immigrant Women

For those anywhere near the Washington, DC area tomorrow, here's a reminder about an important event sponsored by a number of Ms. Foundation grantees:

On Thursday, February 10, 2011, an ad-hoc congressional hearing on emerging issues in the fight to end violence against immigrant women will take place on Capitol Hill. This event offers a chance to hear testimony from advocates, organizers, and survivors of violence whose experiences underscore the need for legislation that protects immigrant women from abuse. Their stories will also shine a specific light on the unintended and harmful consequences that ICE Access programs visit on immigrant women and their families.


Moderated by Congressman Raúl Grijalva (the event's honorary chair), the hearing will take place from 2:00 - 3:00 pm in Room 2456 of the Rayburn House Office Building: 45 Independence Ave, SW, Washington, DC 20515.

Ms. Foundation grantees, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Legal Momentum, MomsRising and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network have all signed on as co-sponsors of this event. We hope you'll turn up and the hearing and show them your support!



Next week, we'll be posting words and images from the hearing -- so if you can't make it in person, you'll still have an opportunity to experience the event. Stay tuned for more.

It's the Law! Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Takes Effect

It's about time! As of November 29, 2010, nannies, housekeepers and other domestic workers in the State of New York will, at long last, be afforded the employment protections they deserve under the law. There is no doubt this is long-overdue: For more than 75 years, domestic workers have been explicitly excluded from federal laws meant to protect nearly every other worker in the country.

The result of years of hard work by Ms. Foundation grantee Domestic Workers United (DWU), the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights provides basic labor protections -- including overtime pay, one day of rest per week, paid leave and protection from discrimination and harassment -- to the more than 200,000 individuals who make up New York's domestic workforce. The legislation is the first of its kind in the nation, and was signed into law by outgoing Governor David Paterson on August 31, 2010.

Read more »

Grantee Groups Join to Fight for Workers' Rights

A remarkable group of Ms. Foundation grantees has come together to fight for the rights of excluded workers -- and strengthen the US labor movement in the process.

The National Domestic Workers Alliance, the National Day Laborers’ Organizing Network and Jobs with Justice -- all Ms. Foundation grantees -- together with the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity, are uniting to "dramatically expand workers' rights to organize" across the US. Last week in Washington D.C., they brought together representatives from nine different employment sectors to outline plans for collaboration, form alliances and identify concrete measures to improve the ability of workers to unionize in all 50 states.

Read more »

New York Governor Signs Domestic Workers Bill into Law

On Tuesday, August 31, 2010, Governor David Paterson made history by signing the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights into law. The first bill of its kind to be passed in this nation, the measure ensures that basic workplace protections -- paid sick and vacation days, overtime pay, and one day of rest per week -- are extended to New York's 200,000 domestic workers, who have until now labored with limited rights under the law.

“Today we correct an historic injustice by granting those who care for the elderly, raise our children and clean our homes the same essential rights to which all workers should be entitled," the Governor said at the bill's signing. "I am grateful to the sponsors for their extraordinary efforts to enact this landmark bill, and most of all to those domestic workers who dreamed, planned, organized and then fought for many years, until they were able to see an injustice undone.”

As a result of the bill's passage, New York now leads the way in a national movement to protect domestic workers' rights. Ms. Foundation grantee Domestic Workers United led a years-long effort to steer the bill through the New York State legislature, and are now partnered with the National Domestic Workers Alliance to push for passage of similar measures in states across the country (they are working to pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in California at present).

What amazing win for our grantees and for the hundreds of thousands of workers they represent! Check out the extensive news coverage the event received in the New York Daily News, from WNYC and the ACLU's Blog of Rights. And read the full press release from the event to learn what New York's leading politicos had to say in praise of this new legislation.

Photo: Governor Paterson and Domestic Workers United supporter before the signing. (For more photos, visit Governor Paterson's Flickr page.)

Victory for Domestic Workers!

Yesterday, at long last, New York took a giant step toward becoming the first state in the nation to pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights!

The bill, which would guarantee domestic workers basic workplace rights like paid vacation and sick days, overtime pay, and at least one day off per week, was passed by the New York State Senate by a vote of 33-28. Though the legislation still has to be reconciled with an earlier version that was passed by the Assembly last year, and then signed into law by Governor Paterson, yesterday's vote in the bill's favor was a historic achievement, setting the stage for the passage of similar bills in states like California and Colorado.

Ai-jen Poo, Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), described yesterday's debate at the statehouse in these terms:

On the floor, the debate was a moral one --  will we as a state take measures to end the exclusions that we know are wrong, or will we make excuses for the status quo that leaves out 200,000 working women of color? After 6 years of organizing by domestic workers together with unions, employers, clergy and community organizations, the New York State Senate stood on the right side of history.

It's an amazing achievement for Ms. Foundation grantees NDWA and Domestic Workers United, and the thousands of domestic workers they represent in New York -- and nationwide. The work's not yet over -- in the next month there will will be much to do to ensure that the bills are indeed reconciled and then set on Governor Paterson's desk -- but this is a victory worth cheering about.

As Ai-jen Poo put it: "Here's to the leadership of domestic workers and the undeniable power of organizing!" We couldn't say it any better.

Photo: by Elizabeth Rappaport. (detail) Domestic Workers United March, New York City, October 2008.