Ai-jen Poo: Organizing Labor—with Love

Talk to Ai-jen Poo about her work and it won’t be long before you hear language you don’t often hear in the midst of intense social movement campaigning. For one, she does not shy away from talking about “organizing with love.” A 37-year-old organizer based in New York City, Poo is founder of Domestic Workers [...]

Struggle Hasn’t Changed for ‘The Help’ of Today

When The Help opened this week, hundreds of thousands of theatergoers were swept up by the story of domestic workers struggling for dignity and respect in Civil Rights-era Mississippi. Those viewers might be surprised to learn that across Chicago and America, modern domestic workers are living out that struggle today. The Help tells the story [...]

Newsflash: Domestic Workers Bill Delivered to N.Y. Governor

Last Thursday, August 19, the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights was delivered to New York Governor David A. Paterson‘s office in Albany for his signature. This landmark legislation will provide overtime pay, paid vacation days, one day off each week and security against sexual harassment to the more than 200,000 domestic workers in New York state. Of these thousands [...]

Newsflash: New York Passes Nation’s First Domestic Workers Bill of Rights

On Thursday, the New York State Senate passed a landmark bill granting overtime pay, paid vacation days, a day off each week, and protections against sexual harassment to domestic workers. David Paterson has promised he will sign it into law, giving thanks to the many workers who lobbied for its passage: They provide all of [...]

From the Stacks: Our Maids Are Just Like Slaves!

This gem was reprinted in the No Comment section of the June 1978 issue of Ms. Seriously?! Oh, for those good ol’ days of the Depression, when maids were humble, washed windows, scrubbed floors, wore such cute outfits and loved their jobs! And this particular maid service was licensed by New York City–which makes us [...]