For Immediate Release: Thursday, June 7, 2007
Contact: Ai-jen Poo (646)529-7000 or Danielle Feris 646-202-3962
Domestic Workers United and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Push for Bill of Rights for Abused and Underpaid Workers
Host Town Hall Meeting with Employers, JFREJ Rabbinical Council, NYS Commissioner of Labor, Union Leaders, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Elected Officials
Domestic workers often denied minimum wage, sick time, and healthcare
despite working 7 days a week
New York- Today Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) along with a coalition of 55 immigrant groups, labor unions, and domestic worker advocacy organizations led by Domestic Workers United will come together at a town hall meeting with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, the New York State Commissioner of Labor Patricia Smith, author Barbara Ehrenreich, and Chief Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty William E. Rapfogel as part of their intensive two-week lobbying campaign to press Albany lawmakers to pass the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights (S.5235/A.628A) before the close of session.
Rabbi Ellen Lippmann of the JFREJ Rabbinical Council and congregation Kolot Chayeinu notes that "the commandment to be kind to and respect the stranger is repeated over and over in the Torah. When we as Jews join in the struggle by mostly immigrant domestic workers to make 'home' a just workplace, we respond to this urgent call of our tradition. That - and responding to the Torah instruction to pay workers justly and in a timley fashion - is why we at Kolot Chayeinu are organizing in support of the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights. It's time for legislators to stand with us for justice for domestic workers and pass S.5235/A.628A.”
If enacted, The Bill of Rights would offer the 200,000 domestic workers across New York City basic labor protections like a living wage, healthcare, overtime pay, and protection under family and medical leave laws. Currently, many domestic workers toil for poverty-level wages, receive no days off, sick time or overtime, and face termination without notice or severance. In severe cases, workers are physically isolated and abused.
“Today’s s labor laws are woefully inadequate. Domestic Workers have less protection than other workers- or no protection at all. Nannies and caregivers aren’t guaranteed overtime, safe working conditions, a living wage, or even protection against discrimination. That’s why we need a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights,” stated Allison Julien, a nanny and member of Domestic Workers United.
“For many of us in JFREJ” said JFREJ board member Dana Schneider, “this contemporary struggle for labor rights draws on our collective memory of early 20th century Jewish activism to establish some of the first trade unions on behalf of Jewish laborers and other exploited immigrant communities of the time”.
Under the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights legislation, the minimum wage for caregivers would be set at $12 an hour, and employers would be required to provide health insurance or pay an additional $2 an hour. Additionally, workers would be guaranteed one day off per week, advance notice before termination, nine paid holidays, five paid sick days, five paid personal days, and two weeks vacation after six months on the job.
Employers also lined up in support for the legislation: “Domestic workers make it possible for their employers to go to work and trust that our children and elders are well cared for. The Domestic Workers Bill of Rights provides much needed guidelines for us to know that these care-givers will be appropriately supported to do the important work that they do,” stated Caroline Batzdorf, a JFREJ member and employer of a nanny who will be speaking at the Town Hall.
The Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights legislation S.5235/A.628A is sponsored by Assemblyman Keith Wright (D-Harlem), Chairman of Assembly’s Social Services Committee, and State Senator George Maziarz (R- Greater Niagara), Chairman of the Senate’s Labor Committee.
Among the legislation’s supporters: NYS AFL-CIO, Jobs with Justice, National Employment Law Project, NYS Labor-Religion Coalition, New York Immigration Coalition, Justice for Farm workers Coalition, League of Young Voters, AFSCME DC 37, Transport Workers Union Local 100, SEIU Local 32BJ
About Jews for Racial and Economic Justice: JFREJ is a membership-based organization founded in 1990. JFREJ engages Jews to pursue and win racial and economic justice in partnership with Jewish and allied people of color, low-income and immigrant communities in New York City.
# # #