The Invisible Workers

[marmar]

from The American Prospect:



The Invisible Workers
The women who clean and care for children in private homes lack basic protections we extend to other American workers.

Elissa Strauss | June 10, 2009



From our pink-collar jobs package, Women's Work:

Most labor organizers camp outside of factories and businesses, waiting to catch workers in between shifts. When Jocelyn Gill-Campbell recruits workers, she hits up parks, playgrounds, and libraries, looking for the 200,000 women who tend to New York's children and homes. Campbell is an organizer for Domestic Workers United, one of a handful of growing groups across the country attempting to bring fair labor standards to housekeepers and nannies--virtually unregulated professions. These organizations have taken up the battle to get the home to be considered a workplace and are trying to bring some dignity to what is truly women's oldest profession.

"You've heard about the American dream and when you come you have this dream for your own life," says Gill-Campbell, originally from Barbados, who was a nanny before becoming a full-time organizer for Domestic Workers United. "At the beginning you don't expect the bad; they tell you that you're like family. But for most people, it ends up turning out differently."

Unlike nursing, teaching, or almost all other jobs that have traditionally been held by women, domestic workers are still not legally considered employees in this country. They are not protected by overtime laws, safety and health regulations, or against discrimination. This is often coupled with an informal approach to the employer-employee relationship--usually due to the "she's part of the family" mentality--that results in irregular paychecks and inconsistent wages. Nonetheless, the industry, like all other service jobs in this country, has grown over the last 20 years, as more immigrant women became available to do the jobs that upper-class working mothers and U.S.-born working-class women could not or would not do.

About 10 years ago, the majority of home-care workers were in the same position. Home-care workers--predominantly women of color who tend to the elderly, sick, and disabled--were subject to long hours and one-on-one relationships with their dependent clients. The parameters of their employment were vague and rife with abuse. Then in the 1990s, a number of states restructured how public funds are distributed for this type of work, meaning that many home-care workers were paid with public funds. That meant that state governments were, technically, employers of all of the home-care workers paid with these funds. Once unions were able to identify a common employer with whom to bargain, they were able to organize in large numbers. When 74,000 employees in California voted to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 1999, it was the largest successful union drive since the Great Depression. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_invisible_workers

[Demeter]

1. And What Are Full-Time Mothers, Chopped Liver?

Man, what an un-nimble movement.