Thousands of diapers, thousands of workers

On Thursday, March 15, domestic workers and supporters will gather at Seattle City Hall to assemble a village of thousands of diapers and gloves to represent the thousands of nannies and house cleaners who work in homes across the city.

Why? Nannies, house cleaners, cooks, & gardeners in Seattle are leading the way for the rest of the state by organizing for a citywide Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights. This will ensure domestic workers get the basic rights and benefits every worker needs — like healthcare and retirement, protection from harassment and discrimination, workers’ comp and unemployment, and a voice in the issues that affect their jobs.

Domestic workers have been an invisible part of our workforce for too long — and we need to make sure they’re seen & heard. So workers will be creating a massive display of their tools of the trade outside of City Hall to make sure they’re seen by as many people as possible! Then, they'll be heading inside to share their stories directly with City Council members.

Want to support these workers and help make sure their voices are heard? Click here!

Domestic workers in Seattle are leading the way for Washington. We need to make sure they have a seat at the table when it comes to creating legislation that will improve their working conditions. If you want to show your support for their work and the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, click here!

All kinds of workers are coming together to support the nannies, house cleaners, cooks, and gardeners who have worked in the shadows of our labor laws for far too long. We can’t do it without your support!

extra extra

It's finally here: the very first edition of our bimonthly (that's the every-two-months bimonthly, not the twice-a-month bimonthly) Member Memo! Get caught up on the new paid sick days law, Starbucks' paid family leave policy, our petition to L&I to stop minimum wage surcharges at businesses, and more!

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Alaska Airlines and their friends aren’t happy about workers getting to take sick time when they’re sick. On Tuesday, the Air Transport Association of America, the lobby group for Alaska & other major airlines, filed a lawsuit against Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries to try to get out of giving flight attendants and pilots six and a half sick days per year

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We're calling on L&I to exercise its authority to clarify and enforce rules that ensure 1) Service charges can never pose as taxes or government-mandated fees; 2) Any surcharges that include the word "wage" or similar language are forbidden, because they will invariably be interpreted as intended to count towards employees’ wages, and that would be illegal under state law, and 3) Workers must be made whole for service charges which inappropriately were counted towards wage obligations, as this is effectively wage theft. 

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How baristas organized, spoke out, and won a more equitable corporate paid family leave policy at Starbucks

After months of organizing by baristas and overwhelming support from customers, Starbucks announced this morning that they are once again improving their corporate paid family leave policy. While the company’s policy still includes significant inequities between store employees and corporate employees, the company has finally established a policy that provides paid leave to all employees who become new parents. Here’s how it happened.

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