TY - BOOK T1 - Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement Y1 - 2015 A1 - Nadasen, Premilla KW - domestic workers KW - domestic-worker organizing KW - feminism KW - gender KW - organizing KW - race AB -

In this groundbreaking history of African American domestic-worker organizing, scholar and activist Premilla Nadasen shatters countless myths and misconceptions about an historically misunderstood workforce. Resurrecting a little-known history of domestic-worker activism from the 1950s to the 1970s, Nadasen shows how these women were a far cry from the stereotyped passive and powerless victims; they were innovative labor organizers who tirelessly organized on buses and streets across the United States to bring dignity and legal recognition to their occupation. Dismissed by mainstream labor as “unorganizable,” African American household workers developed unique strategies for social change and formed unprecedented alliances with activists in both the women’s rights and the black freedom movements. Using storytelling as a form of activism and as means of establishing a collective identity as workers, these women proudly declared, “We refuse to be your mammies, nannies, aunties, uncles, girls, handmaidens any longer.” With compelling personal stories of the leaders and participants on the front lines, Household Workers Unite gives voice to the poor women of color whose dedicated struggle for higher wages, better working conditions, and respect on the job created a sustained political movement that endures today.

PB - Beacon Press CY - Boston L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Migrant Encounters: Intimate Labor, the State, and Mobility Across Asia Y1 - 2015 A1 - Friedman, Sara Lizbeth A1 - Pardis Mahdavi KW - Asia KW - cross-border mobility KW - domestic workers KW - health care workers KW - intimate care KW - migrant workers AB -

Migrant Encounters examines what happens when migrants across Asia encounter both the restrictions and opportunities presented by state actors and policies, some that leave deep marks on migrants' own life trajectories and others that produce fragmentary, uneven traces. With a focus on those who migrate to perform intimate labor—domestic, care, and sex work—or whose own intimate and familial lives are redefined through migration, marriage, and sometimes parenthood, this volume argues that such encounters transform both migrants and the states between which they move.Written by an international group of anthropologists, sociologists, and geographers, these essays offer richly detailed and insightful accounts of the intimate consequences of migration and the transformative effects of migrant-state encounters across Asia. Addressing a range of topics from the fate of children born to unmarried migrant mothers to the everyday negotiations of cross-border couples and migrant domestic workers, the contributors situate themselves at various points along the extensive migration routes that extend from northeast Asia all the way to the Gulf region. The authors draw on ethnographic research and policy analysis to illustrate the texture of migrants' interactions with state actors and forces. From a range of perspectives, they explore what these encounters teach us about migrant agency and the workings of state power in a region now rife with diverse forms of cross-border mobility.

PB - University of Pennsylvania Press CY - Philadelphia L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Invisible No More: Domestic Workers Organizing in Massachusetts and Beyond JF - University of Massachusetts Boston Scholar Works Y1 - 2014 A1 - Tracy, Natalicia A1 - Sieber, Tim A1 - Moir, Susan KW - domestic workers KW - Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights KW - low-wage workers KW - Massachusetts Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights AB -

Domestic workers across the country are making it clear that, even in a difficult political environment, it is possible to make gains for low-wage workers. For the first time in many, many decades, domestic workers are finding ways to win. They are creating policy change that will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers in tangible and substantial ways. The 2014 Massachusetts Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights is the most expansive codification of rights for this long-overlooked part of the labor force ever to be enacted. In one sense, there is nothing new about domestic workers organizing for better wages and working conditions. From the days of the Atlanta washer- women’s strike at the end of the 19th century through the household employee organizing of the 1960s and 70s, women have joined together to challenge an industry in which, traditionally, they have been poorly compensated and routinely over- worked. But today’s domestic worker movement, while building on the past, is also breaking new ground. It has generated new political protagonists – the immigrant nannies, housecleaners and elder care- givers who now make up a substantial segment of the work force and whose commitment to organizing is the foundation of today’s victories. It has been strategically innovative, winning campaigns for domestic worker bills of rights in four states, with more to come. It has welcomed and built upon the support of allies from organized labor, immigrant and workers’ rights groups, leaders from a range of faith communities, and ethically oriented employers. And it has networked and organized with women from around the world to win the very first international convention for domestic workers’ rights. Today’s domestic workers’ movement is a sustained and growing effort that draws upon and fertilizes the transformative vision and innovative organizing of communities of color, immigrant communities, low-wage workers and women of color. Domestic workers have stepped into their power. Their victories are expanding the realm of the possible, not only for themselves, but also for all who are committed to worker justice and dignity.

L2 - eng UR - http://scholarworks.umb.edu/laborstudies_faculty_pubs/1/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Immigrant Women Workers in the Neoliberal Age Y1 - 2013 A1 - Flores-Gonzalez, Nilda A1 - Anna Romina Guevarra A1 - Maura Toro-Morn A1 - Grace Chang KW - domestic workers KW - gender KW - immigrant women KW - immigrants KW - informal laboar markets KW - informal work KW - labor conditions KW - street vendors KW - working conditions AB - To date, most research on immigrant women and labor forces has focused on the participation of immigrant women in formal labor markets. In this study, contributors focus on informal economies such as health care, domestic work, street vending, and the garment industry, where displaced and undocumented women are more likely to work. Because such informal labor markets are unregulated, many of these workers face abusive working conditions that are not reported for fear of job loss or deportation. In examining the complex dynamics of how immigrant women navigate political and economic uncertainties, this collection highlights the important role of citizenship status in defining immigrant women's opportunities, wages, and labor conditions.(publisher's statement) PB - University of Illinois Press CY - Champaign, IL L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - The China Watch (Book Review of 'New Masters, New Servants: Migration, Development, and Women Workers in China,' By Yan Hairong) JF - New Labor Forum Y1 - 2010 A1 - Quan, K. KW - China KW - domestic workers KW - gender KW - labor policy KW - labor relations AB -

[Excerpt] Yan Hairong's New Masters, New Servants is an important contribution to academic literature on labor in China. As its provocative title suggests, the book describes a new kind of labor relations—between domestic workers and their household employers—in contemporary China. Though domestic work was practically eliminated after the 1949 revolution as a bitter symbol of feudal exploitation, it re-emerged after 1978 as the country turned toward a market economy, primarily as a support for professional women who work outside the home. Professor Yan brings together history, politics, economics, gender, and China studies—as well as cultural/anthropology studies—into a fascinating book, using domestic workers as a "trope" for critiquing "postsocialist" labor policies in today's China.

VL - 19 L2 - eng CP - 3 ER -