A Movement Within

Over the past few years I have had the chance to work on a few very exciting campaigns - most related to the struggles faced by working women of color - particularly domestic workers and caregivers. I am fortunate that at this point in the movement the silos of immigrant justice, worker justice, human rights, gender inequality, economic inequality are really coming together in the public consciousness thanks to one common thread: the value of care.

One campaign that is emerging with a broad coalition of supporting organizations is "Caring Across Generations" which is building a movement to transform the direct care industry in the US. These are the workers who provide some of the most important, essential care to our seniors and people with disabilities- care that allows our family members and friends to remain independent and stay in their own homes. Yet direct care workers have some of the worst jobs in America. In addition to difficult work, long hours, hazardous conditions, lack of respect, and low wages, a significant portion of this workforce is actually excluded from the most basic workplace protections we have in this country: the right to minimum wage and overtime protection. Under the so-called "companionship exemption," these workers are specifically carved out from protections that are afforded to nearly every other worker in the country.

Yet, the villain of this story is not as straightforward as it is in other worker rights narratives. Unlike workers fighting for union rights at Wal Mart, or miners striking against exploitative trade deals, the interests of the workers in this industry are not neatly
aligned against the interests of their employers. In this case, the workers and employers have much in common, and much to gain by allying with each other. Through Caring Across Generations campaign, we're helping dismantle this false antagonism, and helping workers and employers turn their frustrations toward politicians who would rather cut already-strapped social safety net programs like Medicaid and Medicare than tax the wealthy (and toward corporations that are benefitting from our country's healthcare crisis) rather than turning against each other.

Today in Washington, organizers and allies of Caring Across Generations (including myself), joined up with the movement to "Take Back the Capitol" organized by unions as part of their contribution to the Occupy movement. It was pouring rain on the National Mall (and the ground was 3 inches of mud!), but the people were out in force! We met under a huge tent and I had the opportunity to facilitate a small group of folks from all around the country (New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Missouri) all doing different jobs and with different healthcare crisis experiences- some were doctors, some were direct care workers, others were patients and parents of patients. My role was to help them reflect on how telling their personal stories and experiences could be extremely powerful tools for mobilizing and inspiring others. So we practiced telling our stories, got feedback, and then taped each other. It was amazing! I look forward to sharing the video and audio that came from the workshop.



I hope over the coming weeks I can share more of the work of each of the campaigns I am working on, but here are a few of the links for those who want to know where my brain spends its time:

www.breakthechaincampaigndc.org
www.ips-dc.org
www.domesticworkers.org
www.caringacrossgenerations.org
www.webelongtogether.org
www.excludedworkers.org