Women Worker's Project

Every worker should earn a wage that allows her and her family to thrive, and should receive protections against abuse, humiliation or dangerous conditions in her workplace and community. Everyone has these rights, regardless of their gender, national origin or industry.

As a center of technology, research and finance, San Francisco is the economic center of one of the most professional and innovative regions in the world. People flock to the City by the Bay from every corner of the globe to participate in this hi-tech and professional economy. It doesn't hurt that San Francisco has so many treasures, like restaurants and cultural events.

But a dirty little secret lies at the center of San Francisco's economic prosperity…

Did you know?

• Domestic workers- women who clean the homes and who raise the children of other people- make it possible for San Francisco's professionals to go off to their jobs.

• The domestic work industry has always relied on the labor of low-income women of color. First it was African American women during and after the days of slavery, and today it is overwhelmingly immigrant Latinas who make up the domestic work workforce.

• Domestic workers often face not being paid for their work and vicious abuse on the job and have little recourse because state law specifically excludes domestic workers and farm-workers from major labor protections, like overtime and protections from exposure to toxic chemicals.

• There are no standards in the domestic work industry, so there are often radically different conditions from one work assignment to another, from decent employers to hostile and exploitative ones.

• Raids and harassment on immigrant communities by government agencies- which have been happening with more and more frequency- puts an intense pressure on immigrant women who are often the keystone of their families and their communities.

POWERful Domestic Workers
POWER's Women Workers' Project (WWP) organizes domestic workers to create positive change in the domestic work industry and in immigrant communities in San Francisco and across the country.

POWERful Solutions
POWER members are to:

• Build broad coalitions of other grassroots organizations, labor unions, religious leaders and community activists to fight for economic, environmental, racial and gender justice across the City and the country.

• Promote policies and practices to establish workplace standards where all domestic workers in San Francisco and across the country receive a living wage, enjoy full labor protections and all human rights.

• Oppose discriminatory policies and projects that threaten the livelihoods and safety of the domestic workers and of our communities in San Francisco.

POWERful Campaigns
POWER members are engaged in several exciting and important campaigns, including:

• Police Chief who Doesn't Discriminate: Although San Francisco declared itself a sanctuary city in 1984, the San Francisco Police Department has stepped up its harassment of the immigrant community, leaving many women terrified that their families will be torn apart. In 2009, San Francisco will be selecting a new police chief. The members of the Women Workers Project are developing a campaign to ensure that the new chief respects the immigrant community and the work that we do to make San Francisco a prosperous global city.

• Protecting the Rights of Workers: Because current labor law does not provide protections for domestic workers, it is often up to the domestic worker to negotiate decent working conditions with her employer. To develop domestic workers' skills, POWER offers a negotiation training so that she can establish a work contract with her employer. Not only does this specify the working conditions, it will also help to establish a minimum standard as we create policy to protect workers in the domestic work industry.

• Rights for Immigrants Now: In coalition with other grassroots organizations, youth groups, labor unions, religious leaders and community activists, the members of POWER are fighting to win the rights for the more than 12 million people in the United States who are forced to live in terror because the government refuses to create a path to living and working in this country legally.

• National Domestic Workers Alliance: POWER participated in the founding of a national alliance of domestic worker organizations in the summer of 2007 at the U.S. Social Forum. Along with organizations across the country, POWER members are bringing their voices to the halls of power to establish their rights as workers and human beings.

Whether you work as a domestic worker or if you employ a domestic workers, everyone can play a role to ensure that immigrant women working in the domestic work industry are treated and respected as valuable worker who make important contributions the local and global economy.