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To commemorate Latin American Mother’s Day, the California Coalition held celebratory breakfasts in Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Graton. 

In Sacramento, the Latino Caucus co-hosted a breakfast to honor the courageous mothers of the Domestic Workers campaign. A dozen domestic workers from the Bay Area, accompanied by a member of Hand-in-Hand, her daughter and nanny, were joined by domestic workers from Los Angeles in the State Capitol.  The daughter of a domestic worker presented flowers to several Senators’ offices, saying “Please support the Bill of Rights, my mom needs you support.” 

The press conference in Los Angeles, entitled "I take care of others, I take care of mine" was a huge success with dozens of domestic workers and allies.  After the press conference at the AFL-CIO building, the group divided into groups to caravan to several Senators’ District Offices.  A large group of Domestic Workers gathered at the Women’s Building in San Francisco.  They presented cards and flowers to all the mothers who came, and showed the video from Brave New Films.  Sylvia, a domestic worker in San Francisco, said “The gift we want for Mother’s Day is a Domestic Worker Bill of Rights.” 

Graton Day Labor Center had a small breakfast, a mostly internal event to celebrate moms and talk about the Bill of Rights.

 Para conmemorar el Día de la Madre en todo Latino América, la Coalición celebro con desayunos en Sacramento, Los Ángeles, San Diego, San Francisco y Graton. 

En Sacramento, el Caucus Latino y la Coalición tuvieron un desayuno para honrar las madres valiosas de la campaña de trabajadoras domesticas.  Una docena de trabajadoras de la área de la Bahía, acompañado por una miembro de Mano-en-Mano, su hija y cuidadora, juntaron con trabajadoras de Los Ángeles en el Capitolio del Estado.   La hija de una trabajadora domestica se presento flores a las oficinas de algunos Senadores, diciendo “Por favor apoye la Carta de Derechos, mi mama necesita su apoyo.”

La conferencia de prensa en Los Ángeles, con el título “Yo cuido a los demás, yo cuido a lo mío” fue un éxito con docenas de trabajadoras domesticas y aliados.  Después de la conferencia de prensa en el edificio del sindicato AFL-CIO, el grupo dividió en grupos para hacer una caravana a las Oficinas del Distrito de Senadores.

Un gran grupo de Trabajadoras Domesticas se juntaron en el Edificio de la Mujer en San Francisco.  Se presentaron tarjetas y flores a todas las madres quienes vinieron, y mostraron el video de Cuéntame. Sylvia, una trabajadora domestica in San Francisco dijo “El regalo que queremos para el Día de la Madre es la Carta de Derechos para Trabajadoras Domesticas.”

El Centro del Jornalero en Graton tenía un desayuno pequeño, un evento interna para celebrar madres y hablar de la Carta de Derechos.

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From New York City to Charlotte, NC, the National Domestic Workers’ Alliance is the 99%!  

This spring thousands of people from all over the country have come together to challenge the unchecked power of the corporations responsible for illegally foreclosing on hundreds of thousands of homes and dodging billions of dollars in taxes -- they are coming together in a national movement called the 99 Power.    

This week we went to Charlotte with the UNITY Alliance and the 99 Power to stand with the 99% against Bank of America.   We stood with families who are homeless because of Bank of America’s illegal foreclosures; we stood with the mothers whose children can’t stop coughing because of pollution from dirty coal plants financed by Bank of America, and we stood with people from across the country whose communities have been bankrupted in the name of corporate greed.  Four years ago, one of our leaders, a home care worker named Maria Reyes, lost her house to Bank of America.

In 2005 Maria’s family had finally saved enough to purchase a home -- they had finally achieved the American Dream.  But in 2008, as the recession deepened, Maria and her sons lost their jobs just as the rate on their adjustable rate mortgage tripled.  There was no way that Maria and her family could make the increased payments.  

Over and over again, Maria asked the bank to adjust that payments so that they could afford them -- but their response was always “no”.  

Soon after, Bank of America foreclosed on Maria’s home.  She and her family lost everything -- all of their savings and five years of investment in the home -- gone.  

That’s why on May 9th, we went to Charlotte to stand with nearly 3,000 other representatives from the 99% to speak out against illegal foreclosures, dirty coal, and unchecked corporate greed.  It was a day full of hope and love.   

Watch Maria speaking on the streets of Charlotte here.  

Check out some of the great press coverage of Maria’s speak out in Charlotte below: 

•  Chicago Tribune  
•  Winston-Salem Journal 
•  Charlotte Observer 

And that’s why on May 8th we joined with hundreds of other New Yorkers at Bank of America Tower in New York City where NDWA director Ai-jen Poo was arrested for peacefully protesting the Bank’s illegal and immoral foreclosures.  Watch a beautiful and short video here.  

The past few days are just the beginning of an effort to unite domestic workers, immigrants, parents, children -- all of us in a movement to reclaim our democracy, save our communities and protect our environment.  

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On May 3rd, hundreds of women from across the country took a virtual trip to Tennessee for the We Belong Together Delegation.  We Belong Together is an initiative of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, and others, to bring attention to the ways in which unjust immigration laws affect women, children and families.

We Belong Together was invited to Knox County, Tennessee by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, and by the group Knoxville United against Racism: Alto 287g.  These two groups and others are engaged in high,stakes organizing to block a proposed partnership between the Knox County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) and federal officials on immigration enforcement.

This was our first “virtual delegation” and it allowed us to share stories from Tennessee with people from all over the country. NDWA member organizations organized listening parties across the country, from Boston to San Antonio and Los Angeles.

The delegation featured a listening session with women directly impacted by unjust immigration practices from across Tennessee.  During the listening session, the women told heartbreaking stories of separation, loss, and fear.  Many of these women are domestic workers, mothers, and caregivers.  They work long hours for low pay, often spending long days away from their children so that they can provide them with a better life.  

We heard the stories of mothers, daughters and sisters: Cynthia and two of her sisters are US citizens, her parents and older sister are undocumented.  The family is divided in two, and Cynthia feels the impacts of this division on a daily basis. In 2009, when she was about to graduate from high school, Cynthia’s father was detained by ICE.  When he was in the ICE van, he called Cynthia from his cell phone because he didn’t want to worry her mother, and because he knew that Cynthia, a US citizen, was the one who could speak out about his case.  Cynthia has always been close to her father, and his detention was a huge blow.  

Like many of our members across the country, Cynthia and other the women who spoke as part of the listening session bear the brunt of the anti-immigrant policies that destroy our families and attack our dignity.  

The stories they told were heartbreaking, but they were also stories of strength, courage, perseverance, and resistance.

For more information about the listening session and to read the stories, click here.  

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May 1, 2012 – United Workers Congress

The National Domestic Workers' Alliance is a founding member of the United Workers Congress, we're proud to work with an inspiring group of organizations from across the country to shine a light on the issues facing vulnerable workers in the United States and the world.  

The 99% Spring has arrived. We have seen 100,000 people trained in the last month and dozens of Power Spring actions are planned across the country. The Excluded Workers Congress is excited to be a part of history as more and more people are taking action against the global economic crisis.

High unemployment, millions of bank foreclosures on homes and evictions, and growing wealth and income disparities, disproportionately severe for African Americans, Latinos and other communities of color, are depressing the standard of living for all working people. Indefinitely long detentions and deportations of immigrant workers are increasing, while private prison corporations are making enormous profits from massive detentions of immigrants and people of color. Electronic verification and inspection of employment documents has led to mass terminations of immigrant workers. Working for a living should be a right and not treated like a criminal activity. There is enough work that needs to be done for everyone to have a job.

But there is a wave of hope sweeping across the country and the world. We have been inspired by the movements in Tunisia, Egypt and other countries in the Middle East that overthrew corrupt autocratic regimes. We witnessed the resistance and mass strikes in Greece, Spain, Italy, Chile, Nigeria and other nations against austerity measures making working people pay for the global economic crisis caused by finance capital. That global resistance came home to the United States, the epicenter of the crisis, with the occupation of the Wisconsin state house to defend collective bargaining rights and the Occupy movement. We have shifted the political debate -- from closing deficits with budget cuts and lay-offs and reduced benefits for public employees, to taxing the wealthy and corporations to decrease unemployment and reduce income inequality. A growing movement protesting the Citizens United ruling of corporate personhood is challenging the corporate takeover of democratic rights.

We have seen that different worker organizing projects have had amazing success:

- domestic workers won an international convention for Decent Work for Domestic Workers at the International Labor Organization last June

 - farmworkers organizing with CIW got Trader Joe to sign an agreement

- guest workers fought for five years for new rules in the H-2B guestworker program that would protect guestworkers from exploitation, defend the right to organize, and protect the wages and job security of U.S. workers. New provisions ensure that migrants can raise complaints and consult with unions over work conditions without retaliation from employers. The State Department also barred recruiting agency CETUSA from the J-1 summer work travel program--stopping CETUSA from turning student guestworkers into cheap, exploitable labor for the 1%.

- day laborers fought for and won legal recognition of their right to seek work in public areas, invalidating anti-day labor ordinances throughout the United States. They have also organized to fight against the criminalization of immigrants, in Arizona and across the country.

- Restaurant workers at the Restaurant Opportunities Center launched the first national Diners Guide rating the top restaurants in the U.S. based on their labor practices. Restaurant workers from the Capital Grille came together to demand dignity in their workplace through the first nationally-coordinated campaign for justice in the restaurant industry.

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This month and next, hundreds of thousands of people from across the country are participating in the 99% Spring -- a movement to rebuild our country’s democracy.  

The National Domestic Workers Alliance is participating in this movement because as domestic workers, our struggle to win recognition and basic labor protections is tied to the struggle of the 99% to transform our democracy and rebuild our economy.  

Since 2007 nearly 4 million families have lost their homes to foreclosure.  Our members are among those most deeply affected by crisis, losing their homes or facing layoffs and reductions in pay.  

At a time when the big banks are foreclosing on hundreds of thousands of homes, leaving millions of Americans without a place to raise their children or care for their aging parents, and domestic workers continue to labor without basic wage protections, it’s become clear to us that this crisis hurts all of us and that we must act together to build a better world.  

We are proud to stand with the 99% this spring.  

On tax day, NDWA members in San Antonio from the Southwest Workers’ Union participated in an action to demand that corporations and the 1% pay their fair share in taxes.  

On April 19th, our members in New York stood with the 99% to win for Justice for Pat -- domestic worker who has been abused and denied wages by her employer for years.  

On April 24th dozens of domestic workers rallied at the Wells Fargo shareholder meeting to demand an end to foreclosures and profits from private prisons.

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Yesterday, TIME Magazine announced their list of this year's 100 Most Influential People in the World and included me in the list. Perhaps this goes without saying, but this recognition is a result of the courage and dedication of our members, domestic workers whose sacrifice makes everything else possible. Day in and day out, our members are organizing to bring their work out of the shadows and into public recognition. Their tireless efforts are making a real difference across the country and around the world, from Hawaii, to Washington DC, to Geneva.

TIME chose a few of the 100 to highlight with a longer video, and we were one of those chosen.

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National Domestic Workers Alliance Director, Caring Across Generations Co-Director Makes Time’s Annual List of the 100 Most Influential People In The World

(New York, NY)—TIME named Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, to the 2012 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The full list and related tributes appear in the April 30 issue of TIME, available on newsstands on Thursday, April 19, and now at time.com/time100.