On April 13th, over 200 domestic workers and their supporters from throughout California converged in Sacramento to call for adoption of the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Following a rally outside the State Capitol, domestic workers and their supporters packed the hearing room, lobby and staircase for the Assembly Labor committee hearing where the bill was passed 5-1.
Based on New York’s landmark law, the California legislation would create guidelines for employers of housekeepers, nannies and other workers in an industry that is unregulated and without clearly defined work benefits. Authored by Assemblymembers Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) and V.Manuel Perez (D-Coachella), the bill now moves on to be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
“This victory signifies that we’re moving step by step on the path to victory to win rights that have never been recognized in this dignified work.” said Maria Reyes of Mujeres Unidas y Activas, a Bay Area Latina workers organization that is spearheading the campaign along with other domestic worker-led groups who make up the
Report Introduced on International Human Rights Day
At a time when Republicans in several states are threatening to eliminate the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain, representatives from 9 different sectors release “Unity for Dignity: Expanding the Right to Organize to Win Human Rights at Work,” a report highlighting ongoing efforts to dramatically expand workers’ human right to organize and collectively bargain. The report is being launched around the country, including in San Francisco, New York and Birmingham, Alabama symbolically on December 10th, International Human Rights Day, in order to re-frame the struggle to expand the right-to-organize as a human right.
The Excluded Workers Congress and the report highlight workers who have historically been excluded from labor protections, the right to organize, and underrepresented in the labor movement – domestic workers, farmworkers, taxi drivers, restaurant workers, day laborers, guestworkers, workers from Southern “right to work” states, workfare workers and formerly incarcerated workers.
Jobs with Justice has played an active role both nationally and within coalitions from Florida, DC and Tennessee—helping to connect the creation of the Excluded Workers Congress to the necessity of building and strengthening the labor
As the creation of good jobs continues to lag behind the growing need and extension of unemployment insurance and the TANF emergency fund are more uncertain than ever, Congressman Brad Sherman of California boldly introduced legislation (H.R. 6384) on October 1st that would overturn right-to-work-for-less laws in the 22 states that have them.
Originating from the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 which heavily restricted the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) and labor union activities, “right-to-work” laws have crippled many unions’ ability to collect the membership dues and negotiate a contract with an employer. They seek to undermine the effectiveness of a workers’ right to organize and collectively bargain by mandating that a union represent all eligible employees even if they do not pay dues. This forces workers who do form a union and pay dues to also pay for union benefits for those that decide not to pay their fair share in dues. Allowing non-union workers to receive union benefits for free creates a disincentive for workers to join the union while draining a union of its resources and ability to negotiate fair wages and benefits for everyone. By
After launching the Excluded Workers Congress at the US Social Forum in Detroit earlier this summer (see video footage below), representatives from 9 different sectors gathered in Washington, DC last week to lay plans to dramatically expand workers’ rights to organize. Workers in these sectors are fighting exclusions from the National Labor Relations Act, minimum wage laws and the labor market in general among other barriers to the right to organize.
Led by the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the National Day Laborers’ Organizing Network, Jobs with Justice and the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity, the Congress discussed upcoming efforts ranging from the creation of an inter-agency taskforce at the Department of Labor to address the issues of excluded workers to the passage of the POWER Act which would protect guest workers from employer retaliation if they file a labor complaint.
“Workers in Florida do not have the right to organize. We are a right-to-work-for-less state,” said Denise Diaz of Central Florida Jobs with Justice. “It’s important to be here to identify strategies that will help us roll back the backwards policies that prevent southern workers from having the right to organize a union.”
Congressman Stephen Lynch, Fall River Mayor William Flanagan and community leaders representing the Massachusetts Workers’ Rights Board reviewed a list of employees at Comcast’s Fall River and Fairhaven locations and then checked it against union authorization cards voluntarily signed by employees at the same locations requesting IBEW Local 2322 to represent them.
Based on their card count, an overwhelming majority of Comcast employees in the above named locations desire to unite in IBEW Local 2322.
Rep. Lynch and Mayor Flanagan sent a letter immediately afterwards, “urging Comcast management to respect the employee majority and voluntarily recognize IBEW Local 2322 as their representative and begin collective bargaining for an agreement covering their wages, benefits and working conditions.”
“We requested the certification because we wanted to prove beyond a doubt to management that a genuine majority of our co-workers want to form a union and begin collective bargaining,” said Brian Almeida, a Comcast technician from the Fall River office who stared with the company in 2001.
Almeida was accompanied at the certification event by about 25 other Comcast employees
This morning, New York Governor Patterson signed into law the first-ever U.S. law that upholds domestic workers’ rights. 200,000 nannies, housekeepers, and elder caregivers in New York will be covered under a law that provides guaranteed sick days, overtime pay, a day of rest, protection from discrimination, and notice before termination. This groundbreaking victory is a result of a six-year campaign led by Domestic Workers United and supported by a broad coalition of labor and community organizations, including JwJ coalitions in NY State.
“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,” Governor Paterson said. “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.”
On December 10th, the New York State Department of Labor’s (DOL) Commissioner Patricia Smith, announced in a joint press conference [video here] with the Tompkins County Workers’ Center and Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson, the findings of a targeted DOL investigation of 22 Tompkins County restaurants. In May 2009, investigators from the DOL’s Division of Labor Standards and Unemployment Insurance found that five of the restaurants – 23 percent – were in full compliance with labor laws. However, the other 17 restaurants – 77 percent of those visited – were found to have violated New York State Labor Laws. Specifically, the DOL found that $87,925 is owed to 93 employees at 6 restaurants for violations such as failure to pay minimum wage and illegal deductions from workers’ paychecks. Commissioner Smith said:
I’m encouraged by the fact that almost one-quarter of the restaurants we checked were in full compliance with labor laws. To them I say thank you – thank you for treating your workers fairly and thank you for playing by the rules. Ultimately, a level playing field helps all New Yorkers – workers and
Yesterday, hundreds of community, faith, student leaders came to Washington to tell their elected officials why they support the Employee Free Choice Act. Jobs with Justice activists from Pennsylvania, Missouri, Maine and Indiana joined others in a jam-packed 36 hours of training and lobbying.
Participants were welcomed Wednesday night by outgoing AFL-CIO president John Sweeney. On Thursday morning, Senator Harkin addressed the crowd with heart-felt remarks about his family’s life-long commitment to unions and workers’ issues. Harkin, who was just named Chairman of the House Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, brought a bittersweet message to the activists. “We will win strong labor law reform,” Harkin said, “but it may not happen this year.” Senator Harkin explained that health care would likely dominate the legislative calendar for the remainder of the year, but assured folks that the Employee Free Choice Act would immediately follow.
With the appointment of Harkin to lead the HELP Committee and President Obama’s Labor Day address reconfirming his support for the Bill, activists were energized to go out and meet with their Senators and Congressional Representatives. You
Jobs with Justice was one of 521 organizations that signed an open letter to Obama criticizing the Presidents inactivity on immigration reform. The letter demands the “immediate termination” of the 287(g) program which allows local law enforcement agencies to essentially act as proxies for federal agents who investigate, apprehend, transport, and detain people who are suspected of being undocumented.
The national debate on health care continues to be front-and-center, and JwJ coalitions remain engaged on the ground.
St. Joseph Valley Project/JwJ in South Bend, Indiana went out to show their support for health reform when the so-called “Patients First National Bus Tour” came
ONE YEAR AGO Congress & the Federal Reserve bailed-out Wall Street and the insurers, claiming they were “too big to fail.” ONE YEAR LATER…
Workers are losing their jobs, homes, healthcare, & retirement security
The Bailed-Out Banks continue to award executive bonuses while refusing to finance jobs and evicting renters and homeowners through foreclosures
Corporations still “own” Congress & are continuing with “business as usual” by blocking measures like health care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act
The G-20, an international group of powerful bankers and governments, is meeting in Pittsburgh (9/24) to push for more of the same failed policies that created the economic crisis.
JOIN US FOR A WEEK OF ACTION TO DEMAND JOBS, HOMES, HEALTH CARE, & A NEW ECONOMY THAT WORKS FOR EVERYONE!
On April 13th, over 200 domestic workers and their supporters from throughout California converged in Sacramento to call for adoption of the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Following a rally outside the State Capitol, domestic workers and their supporters packed the hearing room, lobby and staircase for the Assembly Labor committee hearing where the bill was passed 5-1.
On December 10th, the 
Security Guards at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, after 
September 24-October 1, 2009 