DataCenter » Domestic Workers United

DataCenter trains Domestic Workers to conduct their own national survey!

DataCenter — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 17:41:57 +0000

by Christina Fletes, Research Fellow and Anne Ryan, Communications Associate

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When you hear survey statistics in the news do you ever wonder: who’s out in the field asking people questions and collecting this data?

Perhaps you imagine someone in a cubicle making cold-calls or maybe a college student going door-to-door carrying a clipboard.

This may be a method for some agencies, but when you hear survey results from DataCenter this is what you can imagine: someone from a community, talking to people they know, and asking questions they’ve helped develop. As DataCenter’s National Domestic Workers Survey project continues to move forward, you can imagine a Latina, Cambodian or Trinidadian woman, who, after learning how training to conduct a survey, will be out collecting real stories so that women from this largely isolated and misunderstood workforce can use their experiences to acquire the basic labor rights they deserve. Thank you for joining with DataCenter as we gather community-based research, and currently embark on one of the key steps in any research project: training our domestic worker surveyors.

As of this post, we have conducted a Training for Trainers in New York, and are currently leading one in Los Angeles.

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Now you’re wondering, what is a “Training for Trainers”?
We have gathered together domestic workers who speak Spanish, Tagalog, Haitian Creole and 6 other languages that domestic workers speak. After a four day training, these women will then go back to their home communities, and train others to conduct the survey as well. In this way, we can efficiently train surveyors in 13 cities across the United States.

Now you’re wondering, what will they need to learn? First, the participants will learn about who they will be surveying. DataCenter is using census data to inform the demographics of those we seek to survey. Surveys will be collected according to occupation and race/ethnicity. For example, if in San Francisco 60% of the workers are housekeepers then 60% of the 150 surveys will come from housekeepers.

How will they find people to survey? DataCenter will also provide the participants with the space and the tools to create specialized outreach strategies. They will be learning tips and methods from each other as well.

In addition to generating powerful, national data about the working and living conditions of domestic workers across the country, this survey will help local organizations that support domestic workers increase their base. This is key: as domestic workers meet each other and learn each others’ stories, they can find comfort in their shared experiences, build relationships and build a groundswell of support for the rights of domestic workers from state to state and across the country. We look forward to bringing their stories to you as well, so we can work in solidarity with them for lasting social change.

Read stories of Household workers in California (2007).
Read stories of Domestic Workers in New York state (2006).

Home Is Where the Work Is

Allen — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 21:27:28 +0000

Home Is Where the Work Is: Inside New York’s Domestic Work Industry
Domestic Workers United and DataCenter
July 2006
As immigrant workers nationwide battle for basic respect, a leading domestic workers’ organization released a full, unprecedented report detailing exploitative conditions and demographics of the nation’s most hidden low-wage industry. The report combines statistical analysis of data from over 500 mostly immigrant workers with personal stories of workers and employers, in a joint effort between DataCenter and Domestic Workers United. Dr. Robin D. G. Kelley’s introduction explains how the nation’s troubled history of race, gender and class inequality come shamefully together in its domestic work industry. New York University’s Immigrant Rights Clinic delivers a historical look at why the law continues to ignore household labor, perpetuating ancient views that domestic labor is not “real” work.

full report 46 pages, PDF, requires free Adobe Acrobat®Reader.

Download Executive Summary

Download Full Report

Supporting Community Documentation Projects

DataCenter — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 20:06:39 +0000

Two years ago, Domestic Workers United (DWU) asked if we’d support them to analyse the domestic worker industry in New York. As we talked through how to approach the project, it became clear that reliable information could not be gathered from existing labor market research sources—DWU would need to collect it. And so DWU embarked on a community-based project conducting surveys amongst their membership and community of domestic workers. The project was designed, carried out, and led by domestic workers. Although DataCenter has long integrated popular education methods into our trainings, this project opened up for us an additional approach to flatten inequities that exist between researchers and communities that are researched.

We see it as “de-colonizing” research—creating a synergy between research and organizing, challenging the power dynamics occurring between research organization, organizing group and membership base, valuing community-driven research as opposed to solely placing value on “top-level” information sources such as census data, news media, and academia, and leaving research outcomes (report, campaign, etc.) in the hands of grassroots membership.

One particular area where we’ve seen the “de-colonizing” research play out is in community-based participatory documentation projects. DataCenter has been building up its infrastructure to support grassroots organizations that are choosing to design, conduct, and lead their own survey projects. Our Economic Justice program is currently supporting seven organizations with their survey projects: the New York Taxi Workers Alliance and South Asian Network that are surveying taxi drivers’ working conditions in New York and Los Angeles; Desis Rising Up and Moving and CAAAV’s Women Workers Project that are surveying immigrant, undocumented communities in Queens, NY; two domestic worker projects (in the Bay Area and NY) with Domestic Workers United and the Bay Area Coalition for Domestic Workers Rights (Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Day Labor Program Women’s Collective of La Raza Centro Legal, and People Organized to Win Employment Rights); and the National South Asian Advisory Committee that consists of grassroots groups and technical assistance providers from around the country and is conducting a needs assessment of South Asian organizations.

Toward A Domestic Workers Bill of Rights

DataCenter — Sun, 19 Sep 2004 15:45:42 +0000

Since the abolition of institutionalized slavery, domestic workers have been invisible, exploited and left out of labor protections and the labor movement. Their labor has rarely been recognized by lawmakers or society at large as “real work.” However, in global cities like New York, the domestic work industry is expanding, providing childcare and home care while their employers go to work. Today, the New York City economy is supported by one of the largest domestic worker labor forces in the country. Still, working conditions have improved little since the 1860s. Once a field for predominantly African American women, the domestic work industry is now dominated by immigrant women fleeing the widespread destruction and devastation left by the globalization process in the Third World. Domestic workers, especially live-in workers, work long hours, have little job security, and no control over living or working conditions. Domestic workers are isolated in their workplace, forced to negotiate conditions one-on-one with employers. There are no clear standards for domestic employment and the few protections that exist are rarely enforced.

Domestic Workers United is an alliance of domestic workers and domestic worker organizations working to build power among domestic workers, raise the level of respect for domestic work and establish fair labor standards in the domestic work industry of New York City. DWU has initiated a campaign to amend New York State Labor Law to ensure domestic workers receive living wages and fair benefits, are protected from trafficking, recognized as employees and entitled to protections under state labor law and human rights law.

Because the domestic work industry is fragmented, informal and underground, it is impossible to rely on Census or labor data to analyse industry-wide trends. DWU and DataCenter are collaborating on a community documentation project to gather data on practices and issues within the industry. Using a participatory, community-based research model, the project engages domestic workers in all aspects of the research and analysis. The documentation project will be used in organizing, policy and media work to improve conditions for domestic workers.

For further information contact Domestic Workers United.