Domestic workers organizing march to end abuse

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Beatriz Herrera, a member of an employment rights association, prepares posters for the march. Mission Local.

Matilda Vasquez’s mother worked more than 10 years for a family that provided her no insurance or vacation time and “no rest,” she said.

“That kind of abuse has to stop. We pay taxes like everybody else,” said Vasquez at a meeting at the Women’s Building in San Francisco to organize for a Jan. 24 march on Sacramento in support of the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, AB889.

The bill, authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, seeks to give domestic workers the same rights as other California workers, including overtime pay and a 30-minute break after five hours of work.

Vasquez said that domestic workers who care for households work long hours, even overnight, but sometimes an employer “won’t let you take a shower.”

A 2007 study by Mujeres Unidas, a Bay Area advocacy group, found that 93 percent of all domestic workers were unable to pay basic living expenses such as rent and groceries. The study also showed that 16 percent of domestic workers were not paid for their work at all or were paid with a bad check.

Read the complete story at Mission Local. 

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