DWU Implements a Multi-Media Know Your Rights Campaign

In January, we launched a Know Your Rights campaign to educate domestic workers about their rights under the newly passed Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. In addition to doing Know Your Rights outreach and education in the parks and on the streets of NYC, DWU has launched a new multi-media Know Your Rights website. The website features extensive resources for domestic workers as well as employers, with thanks to the National Employment Law Project and the Urban Justice Center. DWU also partnered with People’s Production House to develop an interactive Frequently Asked Questions component to the website. Through audio clips and comic book style illustrations, the program outlines answers to some of domestic workers’ most common concerns. The audio clips were recorded by DWU members in English and in Spanish and are also accessible through a telephone hotline. The recordings are designed to sound like a call-in talk show to provide a fun and engaging way of disseminating information that will be invaluable toward standard setting in the domestic work industry. You can check out the new Domestic Workers Bill of Rights website at http://www.knowyourrightsny.org.

DWU Launches Mass Organizing Campaign with Innovative Ambassador Program

Since the passage of the NY State Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, DWU has been hard at work to expand our capacity to organize more workers and build greater power. This spring, we launched our Ambassadors Program – an innovative strategy to organize workers on their “shop floor”, in the neighborhoods where they live and work. The Ambassadors serve as the primary contacts for domestic workers in their respective neighborhoods, and are equipped to provide them with information, report abuses, and lay the groundwork for collective standard setting with area employers. During the pilot period, DWU successfully trained over 20 DWU member leaders as Ambassadors who have since been based in four key areas of NYC: Tribeca, Upper West Side, and the Upper East Side in Manhattan as well as Park Slope, Brooklyn. Ambassadors are actively organizing domestic workers in these neighborhoods by providing a consistent presence and conducting frequent Know Your Rights outreach. To date, our membership increased by 1,500, bringing us to 6,500 strong. We will be expanding the program over the next year to provide for domestic workers what shop stewards have historically done for trade union members. For more information about DWU’s Ambassador program. CLICK HERE to watch a short video made for the International Labor Organization's proceedings in June 2011 before adopting the first-ever Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, setting global standards for the domestic work industry around the world.

We need Interpreters & Equipment for Domestic Workers NY Convention

Seeking Experienced Volunteer Interpreters

We are checking in with you if you know folks who have experience doing simultaneous interpreting e.g. familiarity with equipment and have an understanding of supporting multilingual space. We are seeking 25 onsite volunteer interpreters and mostly Spanish and English for the weekend of December 2-December 5th, 2011 for Domestic Workers United. We plan to bring together approximately 300 domestic workers to the following 2 events: “A New Day, A New Standard/ New York Domestic Workers Convention” and "Domestic Workers United General Membership Assembly”. For more information about these events and our organization please visit our website, http://domesticworkersunited.org/shownews/98.

We are requesting that all volunteer interpreters attend an orientation on Tuesday November 29th from 6:30pm-8:30pm.

To volunteer please contact Sam Schoer at sam@domesticworkersunited.org or at 212-481-5747

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Borrowing Equipment
We are looking to borrow interpreting equipment from ally organization. We need a total of 300 sets so please let me know if we can borrow all or a portion of your equipment for the weekend of December 2-December 5th, 2011 for Domestic Workers United. We plan to bring together approximately 300 domestic workers to the following 2 events: “A New Day, A New Standard/ New York Domestic Workers Convention” and "Domestic Workers United General Membership Assembly”. For more information about these events and our organization please visit our website, http://domesticworkersunited.org/shownews/98.

We will pick up and drop off equipment in a timely manner. If your equipment is not available and you know of other groups who have equipment please send me their information or forward our request. Please contact me if you have any questions at tplservices@yahoo.com or at 917-325-4696.

A New Day, A New Standard

Open to ALL domestic workers

Join hundreds of nannies, housekeepers & elderly caregivers to build our power for greater rights & respect!

December 3, 2011

9am-6pm

New York Academy of Medicine - 2nd Floor Hall

Corner of 103rd Street and 5th Avenue (Manhattan)

Convention Highlights:

Free legal consultations (on employment, immigration, taxes)

Workers' Rights Workshops

Negotiation Tools & Techniques

Guest Speakers

Door Prizes

Then, on Sunday

DWU MEMBERSHIP ASSEMBLY

December 4, 2011

10am-4pm

DWU members gather to celebrate our 2011 achievements and decide on important organizational matters for 2012 beyond.

DOMESTIC WORKERS WIN RIGHTS AND PROTECTIONS WORLDWIDE!

Domestic workers' movement to build power, gain respect, and establish fair labor standards is gaining momentum in the US and across the world. In New York, we have won the nation's first Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. We are working with the Department of Labor and our Ambassadors are located throughout the city making sure that workers and employers know about the new law, have the tools you need to exercise your rights, and become a larger, stronger, united workforce to improve our working conditions. Our victory in New York helped to inspire domestic workers in CA, and they are now pushing a Bill of Rights in the state legislature. Last month, the CA bill passed the Assembly with a 41-19 vote and it's on its way to the Senate!

As part of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, we have also been advocating for an international law to recognize and protect domestic workers. After more than a year of organizing with domestic worker groups and unions around the world, we have won the Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers! It is the world's first set of standards for domestic work industry that workers, employers, and governments negotiated and voted to pass at the International Labor Organization, which is the United Nations agency that sets global labor standards. Domestic workers in every country can now use these international standards to push for laws in their home countries. DWU Member Brontie Scott says, “It is very exciting that we are finally moving forward. I just hope that this is going to really lead to worldwide protection for domestic workers. For too long domestic workers have been exploited and excluded. And, for too long we’ve been taken advantage of.”

Though the adoption of these articles represents a giant step forward in our struggle to win respect, recognition, and rights for the work that we do, the journey is long from over. As DWU Member Angelica Hernandez says, "It's important for us to be seen and recognized. Before, we were invisible. Now, the whole world is talking about us. We are on the right path and must keep going." It will be up to all of us to work hard to ensure that the United States adopts these new hard-won standards. A worker from the Guatemalan domestic workers union, who was present for the ILO vote, said, "We have broken the silence. We have yet to break our chains." As domestic workers celebrate this historic milestone, 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.

DWU at the White House!

On March 28, 2011, Allison Julien, a nanny who has been an active member of Domestic Workers United for nine years, spoke on a panel at the White House celebrating Women's History Month and commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. During the discussion, facilitated by Secretary of Labor, HIlda Solis, and Senior Advisor to the President, Valerie Jarrett, Allison was one of four women who shared their stories of organizing labor in their workplaces. She spoke about the role of women in labor organization, the monumental passing of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, and the future of collective bargaining for new labor laws in the United States.

Speaking on behalf of the 2.5 million domestic workers in this country, Allison said, "We're not trying to get rich doing this job. All we're asking for is basic labor protections. We're human beings and we want to be treated like human beings. We want to be recognized like real workers. we want to be protected like real workers. The work we do matters. . . . We're opening the doors, pulling back the shutters and showing you the faces behind the work. We're showing you that we're the ones who make all other work possible."

During her participation in the panel, Allison Julien addressed the American public with a message of hope and a call to action. She acknowledged that domestic work has a history of secrecy and undervaluation, noting, "We work in the shadows of slavery. If we do not tell our stories, nobody will tell our stories." And, listing the triumphs of Domestic Workers United as well as the parallel efforts to win rights for domestic workers that are currently taking place across the country, Allison left her audience with the empowering and uniting message: "We've got a whole lot of states in this country that we've got to conquer, and we've got labor laws to change!"

Get your 'Know Your Rights' Guide Today!

Come Get a ‘Know Your Rights’ Guide!

We have tons of Rights Begin at Home: Protecting Yourself as a Domestic Worker booklets for domestic workers! Come get your copy!

The guide includes info on
-domestic workers’ rights
-immigration issues related to your job
-tips for finding work
-how to negotiate with your boss
-and templates of contracts, demand letters, work hour logs, and more!

Come by the office to pick up yours today!! Don't know where to find us?
Call at 212-481-4757