The following is an article I wrote on domestic worker organizing for Labor Notes, based on my interviews over the Summer with organizers in this emerging social movement. An edited version of this piece will appear in next months Labor Notes... http://labornotes.org/magazine Domestic Worker Organizing: New Front in the emerging “Non-Traditional” Labor Movement by Jerry Mead-Lucero For over two years, Marian, a Colombian immigrant and a housekeeper in Roslyn, New York, worked 18 hours a day, six days a week for about two dollars an hour. The family that employed her fired her without notice, kicking her out of the home and leaving her with nowhere to turn for support. After enduring months of verbal and physical abuse by her employer, “Vivian”, an Indian immigrant and nanny in Manhattan, refused the orders of her boss. Her boss’s response was to strike her with a sandal and kick her out the house without her pay or her passport. “Judy” a Malaysian immigrant and housekeeper on one occa...

Hi All, Updates on my visits with workers in Mexico should be coming in a week or so. I the mean time I wanted to sum up my experience at the USSF. I will try to post some more audio and info from some of the sessions I attended at the forum, particular those organized by the UE, AFSCME and Domestic Workers United at a later time. The following is a short summation piece I wrote for the Industrial Worker, newspaper of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). An edited version will be published in next months Industrial Worker, which you can find at... www.iww.org/projects/iw/ Labor Participates in a Big Way at the First United States Social Forum: “What is happening in America to workers today is the result of a thirty year sustained, intentional, strategic, assault on workers, unions, our quality of life and our standard of living. It has been a class war against workers and it is time we engage that class war and fought back… (a standing ovation from the crowd and loud applause).” ...