Nannies & house cleaners to share their stories at City Council hearing and call for change
Nannies & house cleaners with the Seattle Domestic Workers Alliance will assemble a large-scale display of thousands of diapers and gloves Thursday morning outside Seattle City Hall, each representing one of the thousands of domestic workers in the Seattle area. Then they’ll attend a meeting of the City Council's Housing, Health, Energy & Workers' Rights committee to share their experiences and call for change through a citywide Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
Who: Nannies, house cleaners, and other supporters of the Seattle Domestic Workers Alliance.
What: Assemble a display of thousands of diapers and gloves, one for each of the thousands of domestic workers in the Seattle area, then attend a city council hearing to call for change. (The diapers will be kept in plastic sleeves and will be donated to a charity supporting families in need.)
When: Thursday, March 15th
- 8:30 am: Nannies & house cleaners assemble diaper & glove display
- 9:00 am: Brief program where domestic workers rally & call for change
- 9:30 am: Nannies & house cleaners share their stories at meeting of City Council Housing, Health, Energy & Workers' Rights committee
Where: Seattle City Hall. Diaper/glove display will be assembled on the plaza on the 4th Ave side of City Hall. Committee meeting will take place in City Council chambers.
Currently, thousands of nannies, house cleaners, cash paid home care aides, and other domestic workers in Seattle don’t get the full protections of our workers’ rights laws. Some types of domestic workers are specifically excluded from the laws that provide these rights and benefits, and for many others the rights spelled out in the law simply aren’t realities on the job. Few have access to basic benefits like healthcare and retirement. Seattle domestic workers are calling for a Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights that will raise standards and address the inequities faced by a workforce that’s mostly women and disproportionately people of color.
Workers are organizing for a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights which provides that:
- Domestic workers deserve the same rights as all workers including minimum wage, overtime, sick days, and protection from discrimination and sexual harassment.
- All employers must provide written contracts so that workers know what to expect and can hold their employers accountable.
- Training must be accessible and workers paid appropriately to reflect their skills and experience.
- Health care and retirement benefits must be made available to all domestic workers.
- Domestic workers shall have the power to help set legally-binding industry standards which achieve a living wage, protect health and safety, and contribute to workplace equity
Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, Councilmember Lorena González, Councilmember Lisa Herbold, and Deputy Mayor Shefali Ranganathan signed their names in to our domestic workers bill of rights at a kick-off event in December of last year. Now the workers' campaign takes the next step with a first committee meeting at City Hall.
The Seattle Domestic Workers Alliance (SDWA) unites nannies, house cleaners, and other domestic workers across Seattle. Workers have established SDWA a project of Working Washington, with support from Casa Latina, SEIU 775, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
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Contact: Sage Wilson, Working Washington: sage@workingwa.org
Working Washington is the voice for workers in our state. Working Washington fast food strikers sparked the fight that won Seattle’s first-in-the-nation $15 minimum wage. Working Washington baristas and fast food workers led the successful campaign for secure scheduling in Seattle, and our members across the state helped drive forward Initiative 1433 to raise the minimum wage and provide paid sick days. We successfully drove Amazon to sever ties with the right-wing lobby group ALEC and improve conditions in their sweatshop warehouses, and got Starbucks to address inequities in their corporate parental leave policy. And we made history once again with the landmark statewide paid family leave law passed last year.