Domestic Workers Organize!

Migrant domestic workers and shifting strategies in organizing

“…In their historical analysis of domestic worker organizing in the United States, Boris and Nadasen () highlight the informal networks, mutual aid associations, cooperatives, and unions that were constructed using organizing strategies specific to identities based on race, ethnicity, gender, and family (415). They have used social movement strategies such as lobbying and legislation to gain support and allies necessary to hold the state accountable to labor laws.…”

“…They have used social movement strategies such as lobbying and legislation to gain support and allies necessary to hold the state accountable to labor laws. Their analysis shows that while they created strong ties within their communities and similar sectors of labor, traditional models of union organizing proved to be problematic—they created barriers that limited organizing due to domestic work being deskilled and reorganized as emasculating and taking place in the home, a place not conventionally recognized as a workplace (Boris & Nadasen, ; Boris & Nadasen, :8). Contributing to these barriers was the exclusion of domestic workers in the FLSA of 1938 that excluded domestic workers (and farmworkers) from the right to a minimum wage and overtime pay, and continued to exclude them when the act was extended in 1974.…”

Challenging infrastructures of domestic labor: Implications for labor organizing in Lebanon and Belgium

“…Domestic workers have long been considered difficult to organize and therefore have not been granted much attention by labor unions. This has been challenged by a range of self‐organized initiatives and movements which have been broadly studied (Boris & Nadasen, , 413). In the context of a multiplication of labor associated with the growing intensification, diversification, and heterogenization of labor, the female migrant domestic worker occupies a central position (Mezzadra & Neilson, , 103).…”

Todos Sacrifican: Immigrant Organizing and the Meanings of (Domestic) Work

“…These complications often produce the assumption that domestic workers cannot be organized. Still, there is a rich legacy of attempts to organize domestic workers, both historically and across national contexts (e.g., Boris and Nadasen ; Elvir ; Gill ; Goldsmith ; Hondagneu‐Sotelo and Riegos ; Mose Brown ; Prates ; Schellekens and Schoot ; Van Raaphorst ; Velasco ). Their accomplishments and failures and even the shape of these efforts have much to do with specific historical circumstances.…”

“…Their accomplishments and failures and even the shape of these efforts have much to do with specific historical circumstances. Within the U.S., domestic workers have successfully mounted multiple organizing campaigns (e.g., Boris and Nadasen ; Das Gupta ; Nadasen ). Further, since 2007, a collection of groups around the country have participated in the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) (Poo et al ); this coalition has effectively lobbied a number of states, including California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, and Oregon, to institute a version of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (cf., Goldberg ).…”