Speaker 1: Hey, I'm barratone day Thurston and this is how to
Speaker 1: citizen with Barratton. When I was about seven years old,
Speaker 1: I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.
Speaker 1: My classmates were like astronaut, doctor, Not this guy. This
Speaker 1: guy was like garbage man. Yes, because, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: all the reasons that truck. I would hear the truck
Speaker 1: coming up the block and race to the front porch
Speaker 1: to see the coolest dudes that ever lived hanging off
Speaker 1: the back of the truck as it rolled up the street.
Speaker 1: A street it shouldn't have been able to fit up,
Speaker 1: but because the driver was so good skills, I'm talking skills,
Speaker 1: they could navigate any urban environment. And you're looking so
Speaker 1: cool hanging off the back of that truck. And they
Speaker 1: leap off the truck and they pick up the trash,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, this is a when when I don't
Speaker 1: even I can't even count the amount of winds there
Speaker 1: are in that job. You're gonna pay me money to
Speaker 1: let me look cool, pick up trash and get free stuff. Yes.
Speaker 1: And if the garbage man life wasn't for me, my
Speaker 1: fall back dream job was gardener. Yeah, little garden Bartun Day.
Speaker 1: I was a member of a community garden. I grew
Speaker 1: food for my family. I'm trying to provide for my family.
Speaker 1: It was so much fun. And I guess the threat
Speaker 1: is I like getting my hands dirty. I just I
Speaker 1: wanted money for dirty. That was the calculus of young
Speaker 1: Baritone Day. And there are millions of Americans who have
Speaker 1: worked getting their hands dirty for all of us, in
Speaker 1: jobs that many of us can't or don't want to do.
Speaker 1: But the difference between the early nineteen eighties when I
Speaker 1: had these dreams and now is that so many of
Speaker 1: these people don't make nearly enough, don't have the protections
Speaker 1: they need to take care of themselves and their families.
Speaker 1: You've heard me say this before, but it's hard to
Speaker 1: citizen when you can't pay the bills and wealth inequality
Speaker 1: in this country is making it hard for increasing numbers
Speaker 1: of people to do just that. Now that inequality was
Speaker 1: baked in from the start through racism and exclusion. Then
Speaker 1: you add unchecked corporate growth on top of that, concentrating
Speaker 1: economic power in the hands of the few and not
Speaker 1: the many. As a result, we've got a whole class
Speaker 1: of people who are trapped in poverty, perpetual insecurity, no
Speaker 1: matter how much or how hard they work. We call
Speaker 1: them the working poor. The system is designed to keep
Speaker 1: them poor. And that same system encourages us to always
Speaker 1: think of ourselves as individuals, which is convenient for the
Speaker 1: status quo because it's overwhelming to think of yourself as
Speaker 1: a worker versus an entire corporation, or as a citizen
Speaker 1: versus the whole system. But when we think together, when
Speaker 1: we come together, we can change these outcomes. There is
Speaker 1: a better way. This is how to citizen y'all. And
Speaker 1: we're not gonna leave you hanging on the problem and
Speaker 1: wallowing that note. We're gonna point toward those solutions. Now
Speaker 1: I knew who we had to talk to on this topic.
Speaker 1: I sat down with someone who's organizing with one of
Speaker 1: the most historically discriminated groups of workers in our nation's history.
Speaker 1: Today's guest is I Gen Poop. She's been helping domestic
Speaker 1: workers lead a charge for fairness, the fairness all workers needs,
Speaker 1: so they can live with security, live with dignity, so
Speaker 1: they can show up for themselves, for their families, their communities,
Speaker 1: and all of us. We have to take every bit
Speaker 1: of power, every relationship, every ounce of hope and determination
Speaker 1: that we have of to win big for our communities
Speaker 1: right now, and I think domestic workers are ready. We
Speaker 1: meet Eigen after the brain Let's start with you introducing yourself.
Speaker 1: Say your name and what you do. My name is
Speaker 1: I Gen Poo, and I work for the National Domestic
Speaker 1: Workers Alliance, which is an organization that works with nanny's
Speaker 1: housekeepers and home care workers to build our power and
Speaker 1: to win dignity, respect, and fairness. Mm hmm, dignity, respect,
Speaker 1: those are all great things. I co signed. Where do
Speaker 1: I sign up? When you were growing going up, what
Speaker 1: did you want to be? I actually wanted to be
Speaker 1: a writer, um, because I'm actually kind of an introvert.
Speaker 1: And then as I got older, I started working with Clay,
Speaker 1: and my pottery teacher became one of my best friends
Speaker 1: and mentors, and the ceramics studio became kind of a
Speaker 1: refuge for me. So then I thought maybe I should
Speaker 1: be a potter until I ended up in New York
Speaker 1: City and in the world of organizing and activism. So
Speaker 1: you're shaping Clay. Take the leap with me from shaping
Speaker 1: Clay to shaping the world. What's the jump into activism?
Speaker 1: Where did that first show up in your life? Well,
Speaker 1: I think it was because I was raised by my
Speaker 1: mom and my grandma and um, and they're just such strong,
Speaker 1: powerful women who did so much, like really moved of
Speaker 1: mountains every day, and I just thought they walked on
Speaker 1: water and could do anything. And you know, I saw
Speaker 1: women doing that in the community, and I think I
Speaker 1: just assumed that if they were powering everything, that they
Speaker 1: would be in charge of everything, actually in power, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, very quickly you realize that that's not the case.
Speaker 1: And in fact, so much of what women do to
Speaker 1: power our world is not visible or certainly not valued,
Speaker 1: often not protected. And so I think I just was
Speaker 1: always drawn towards women's issues, women's organizations. I became a
Speaker 1: women's studies major in college and got involved in the
Speaker 1: New York Asian Women's Center when I moved to New York,
Speaker 1: and I was kind of a journey from there. Do
Speaker 1: you remember a formative experience that first got you interested
Speaker 1: in workers rights? Yes, I think it happened in stages. Um.
Speaker 1: I would is volunteering for the hotline at the New
Speaker 1: York Asian Women's Center, and it's a domestic violence shelter
Speaker 1: for Asian immigrant women, and because my grandparents played such
Speaker 1: a role in raising me, I spoke Mandarin, albeit twelve
Speaker 1: year old Mandarin, but I did, and so I volunteered
Speaker 1: on the bilingual hotline and survivors UM would call and
Speaker 1: they would talk about their experiences of violence and abuse,
Speaker 1: but they would also talk about just how hard it
Speaker 1: was to survive doing the work that they did, and
Speaker 1: feeling like they just didn't have real choices to take
Speaker 1: care of themselves and keep themselves and their families safe
Speaker 1: because they worked in jobs that didn't pay the bills,
Speaker 1: where they couldn't put food on the table and keep
Speaker 1: a roof over their heads and the lights on for
Speaker 1: their families. And I also was volunteering at an organization
Speaker 1: called the Committee Against Anti Asian Violence, which is also
Speaker 1: now called CALV organizing Asian Communities. And at the time
Speaker 1: there were a group of us who We're seeing the
Speaker 1: women in the Asian immigrant community working in these low
Speaker 1: wage jobs, restaurant work, um nail salon work, domestic work,
Speaker 1: and seeing just how impossible it was to make a
Speaker 1: living doing these jobs. So we started organizing healthfares and
Speaker 1: know your rights events just to see if there was
Speaker 1: interest on the part of women um in these jobs
Speaker 1: to organize to come together. And it was always the
Speaker 1: domestic workers who would come to the meetings and really
Speaker 1: understood how valuable and powerful it is to break out
Speaker 1: of the isolation of your day to day life and
Speaker 1: joined together with others. And they really seem like they
Speaker 1: understood the potential of organizing, and so we just really
Speaker 1: continued to work with At the time, it was Filipina
Speaker 1: domestic workers organizing bringing people together, and a number of them,
Speaker 1: before they had come to New York, had worked in
Speaker 1: Hong Kong, where there's really like a powerful domestic workers
Speaker 1: movement that has been built there over many many years,
Speaker 1: and they had a standard contract and clear rights and protections.
Speaker 1: And so the Filipinas who worked in Hong Kong before
Speaker 1: coming to New York were shocked when they came to
Speaker 1: New York to find that in the United States, which
Speaker 1: is supposed to be kind of a bastion of freedom globally,
Speaker 1: that they had less rights and less protections and less standards.
Speaker 1: And they immediately said, you know, we need to organize
Speaker 1: with our sisters from all different communities, especially Caribbean women
Speaker 1: who were the majority of domestic workers in New York
Speaker 1: UM at the time, and and every an he needs
Speaker 1: to come together so that we can have standards and
Speaker 1: protections and rights. And that in many ways was the
Speaker 1: beginnings of the domestic workers movement generation that I was
Speaker 1: a part of a New York city and our national
Speaker 1: movement which has now grown. We're in all fifty states now.
Speaker 1: We have seventy five local affiliates and chapters all over
Speaker 1: the country and a community of about two hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty thousand domestic workers and UM and we're building every day.
Speaker 1: Two hundred eighty thousand. That's an army right there. So
Speaker 1: you speak of standards, rights privileges for domestic workers, what
Speaker 1: are those like? What does the domestic worker need or
Speaker 1: what was missing that other workers have that you noticed
Speaker 1: domestic workers didn't have. There's a really deep history here
Speaker 1: the not a lot of people know, which is that. Well,
Speaker 1: if we think about it, it kind of makes sense
Speaker 1: because the work that domestic workers do has always been
Speaker 1: associated with work that women do, write, caregiving, cleaning, and
Speaker 1: it's been really kind of taken for granted in our
Speaker 1: culture that women will just do that work on top
Speaker 1: of everything else. As a profession, it's always been associated
Speaker 1: with women of color. Many of our first domestic workers
Speaker 1: were enslaved African women, and then ever since then, it's
Speaker 1: always been black, brown Asian Native women doing this work.
Speaker 1: Immigrant women. It's the part of our workforce with the
Speaker 1: largest concentration of undocumented immigrants of any industry. UM. But
Speaker 1: that history of racism, UM, and the legacy of slavery
Speaker 1: has so profoundly shaped our workforce from day one, UM.
Speaker 1: And the kind of signature moment of this was in
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties when Congress was discussing the New Deal
Speaker 1: labor laws, the labor laws that would be the foundation
Speaker 1: of our countries rights for workers. Southern di secrats refused
Speaker 1: to support those bills if they included farm workers and
Speaker 1: domestic workers. Southern member of Congress essentially UM. And that exclusion,
Speaker 1: explicit exclusion of domestic workers from those labor laws really
Speaker 1: set the tone for how this workforce would be treated
Speaker 1: and how it would always be treated as less than
Speaker 1: real work. UM. And so so many laws exclude domestic
Speaker 1: workers at the federal level. And what we've tried to
Speaker 1: do is state by state, city by city, organized and
Speaker 1: established rights. We call them domestic workers Bill of Rights.
Speaker 1: The first one passed in New York in and now
Speaker 1: we have eleven statewide bills of rights for domestic workers
Speaker 1: and two in the cities of Seattle and Philadelphia. And
Speaker 1: one thing that's really powerful about this story is that
Speaker 1: Virginia just became the most recent state this year, just
Speaker 1: a month ago, to pass a domestic worker bill of rights,
Speaker 1: and it's the first state in the South to pass
Speaker 1: a bill. And it was championed by two amazing black women,
Speaker 1: including one Senator McClellan, whose grandmother was a domestic worker
Speaker 1: and was probably working at the time when the New
Speaker 1: Deal excluded her. So it's just a kind of incredible
Speaker 1: full circle of what we can do when we build movements,
Speaker 1: when we organize, when we fall the leadership of black women,
Speaker 1: UH to really change the course of history. Can you
Speaker 1: give me some examples of what is in a domestic
Speaker 1: workers bill of rights? What are domestic workers historically excluded from?
Speaker 1: What are they fighting for and winning today? Domestic workers
Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties were excluded from the right to
Speaker 1: collectively bargain and form a union. Um So the National
Speaker 1: Labor Relations Act, which gives workers the right to join
Speaker 1: a union and bargain collectively. UM Also, the Fair Labor
Speaker 1: Standards Act, which established the right to minimum wage and
Speaker 1: over time, excluded domestic workers initially, and many generations of
Speaker 1: incredible women before US organized to try to win inclusion,
Speaker 1: and in the nineteen seventies, thanks to the efforts of
Speaker 1: a woman named Dorothy Bolden from George who led the
Speaker 1: National Domestic Workers Union in the sixties, she was really
Speaker 1: successful in gaining inclusion for most domestic workers in minimum
Speaker 1: wage and overtime protections. And we've tried to build off
Speaker 1: of that to win more and more. The state bills
Speaker 1: make sure that they're they're all different, because every state's
Speaker 1: labor laws are a little bit different. But in New
Speaker 1: York we won protection from discrimination and harassment minimum of
Speaker 1: three days paid leave three days per what period of
Speaker 1: time over a year. Minimum of three days paid leave
Speaker 1: for a three hundred sixty five day year. That seems
Speaker 1: like a very modest ask. I mean, it wasn't what
Speaker 1: we went in with, I'll tell you that much. But
Speaker 1: you know, in Massachusetts we were able to win parental leave,
Speaker 1: maternity leave for domestic workers. So every state is a
Speaker 1: little different and um, And I would say that it's
Speaker 1: all a work in progress, uh, and that organizing is
Speaker 1: essential because even when there are rights on the books,
Speaker 1: it really requires that we assert those rights and enforce them.
Speaker 1: And it's hard to do that in an industry where
Speaker 1: everyone is so spread out. I mean, you could go
Speaker 1: into any neighborhood and not know which homes are also workplaces.
Speaker 1: There's no list, there's no registry, there's no sign um.
Speaker 1: And so how do you enforce rights and improve conditions
Speaker 1: in that context? It takes really well educated, organized workers
Speaker 1: who understand what their rights are and have the ability
Speaker 1: to assert them. You describe a bit of your upbringing.
Speaker 1: I got glimpses, and you're spending your life organizing with
Speaker 1: domestic workers. How do you reconcile or address the fact
Speaker 1: that you're not a domestic worker. I believe that domestic
Speaker 1: workers deserve a powerful, excellent, impactful organization, and I want
Speaker 1: to be a part of building that because I believe
Speaker 1: that if we are to have a country that is equitable,
Speaker 1: that puts the well being of women and people of
Speaker 1: color at the center, UM, that we're going to need
Speaker 1: domestic workers to have a really strong and powerful organization.
Speaker 1: To get there. Um. In some ways, this idea that
Speaker 1: the people that our systems have failed the longest are
Speaker 1: in the best position to lead the way forward is
Speaker 1: one that I just really we believe and has been
Speaker 1: reinforced for me time and time again. So if I
Speaker 1: can be a part of building the platform and the
Speaker 1: vehicles for that to happen, I can't think of anywhere
Speaker 1: I'd rather be. As you try to recruit more domestic
Speaker 1: workers to these efforts, what are some of the great challenges.
Speaker 1: I mean, most domestic workers are really just struggling to survive,
Speaker 1: and especially now, it is a full blown depression for
Speaker 1: this workforce. Um. People keep using the word recession, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, what, it's a full blown depression. I mean
Speaker 1: of our workforce is unemployed, a huge number undocumented, living
Speaker 1: in fear of being separated from their families, and those
Speaker 1: who are working are working for less money than they
Speaker 1: were before the pandemic, and it was already poverty wages
Speaker 1: coming in the average income of a home care worker
Speaker 1: in America's seventeen thousand dollars per year. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know a single town or a city in this
Speaker 1: country where you can survive off of seventeen thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a year, let alone raise your family. I remember one
Speaker 1: early meeting in the pandemic where we had a zoom
Speaker 1: call with domestic workers and one of our members held
Speaker 1: up her phone to the zoom camera to show us
Speaker 1: that there was literally one cent left in her bank account.
Speaker 1: So just the day to day struggle to survive is
Speaker 1: both the challenge and also the opportunity, because I do
Speaker 1: think that for domestic workers, when we start to talk
Speaker 1: to them and engage and listen, I think it's it's
Speaker 1: becomes very clear, very quickly why we need to come
Speaker 1: together and and what is there to lose really in
Speaker 1: the end, So there are many challenges, but there are
Speaker 1: also many many openings, and um right now in particular,
Speaker 1: I think we are in this a new new Deal
Speaker 1: moment honestly where more deeper, impactful change is possible than
Speaker 1: my entire twenty five years of organizing. Literally it's stuff
Speaker 1: that we've been chipping away at for decades. I feel
Speaker 1: like it is really like just right there, right right there,
Speaker 1: And so I'm of the mind that we have to
Speaker 1: take every bit of power, every relationship, every ounce of
Speaker 1: hope and determination that we have to win big for
Speaker 1: our communities right now and um and I think domestic
Speaker 1: workers are ready. I mean, we have more participation on
Speaker 1: our membership call than ever before in a pandemic. So
Speaker 1: I feel I feel excited and I feel hopeful we'll
Speaker 1: be right back. M m mm hmmm mmmmm. I want
Speaker 1: you to define some things for me and certainly for
Speaker 1: our listeners. Can you define what the new Deal was
Speaker 1: in terms of US history and then describe this new
Speaker 1: new deal that you see the potential for in what's
Speaker 1: new about it? I think that every few generations there
Speaker 1: are these moments where social movements in our country, like
Speaker 1: the labor movement of the nineteen thirties, the Seven Rights
Speaker 1: movement of the sixties and seventies, catalyze a big opening
Speaker 1: for structural change, meaning changes in our systems and our
Speaker 1: policies that shape our lives and their moments where we
Speaker 1: update our democracy for the next several generations to make
Speaker 1: it better. And what the labor movement of the nineteen
Speaker 1: thirties did was catalyzed this moment. It was also a
Speaker 1: time when we were coming out of a depression an
Speaker 1: economic crisis, and there needed to be a massive reset
Speaker 1: and the New Deal was a moment where we put
Speaker 1: these foundational, sweeping policies in place to try to reset
Speaker 1: and adjust our economy and our democracy for the next phase.
Speaker 1: And it was social movements that created the context for that, workers,
Speaker 1: everyday people organizing, and it's always been the case. This
Speaker 1: is our moment where the movement for Black Lives, the
Speaker 1: re energized intersectional women's movement, all of our social movements
Speaker 1: that have converged in really powerful ways that mobilized unprecedented
Speaker 1: numbers of voters to turn out to the polls last year.
Speaker 1: We have created the context, in addition to a pandemic
Speaker 1: and the economic fallout of it, for another reset. And
Speaker 1: so that's what I mean by new new deals like
Speaker 1: this is our moment to reset our frameworks to better
Speaker 1: match our values and our vision for the future. And
Speaker 1: um movements created this moment of opportunity, and movements have
Speaker 1: to kind of seal the deal and get us across
Speaker 1: the finish line too, and if not the finish line,
Speaker 1: at least another significant mile marker another not the finish
Speaker 1: line by any stretch, that is correct. I stand corrected.
Speaker 1: I love the image. I'm such a technical, technological person
Speaker 1: and the idea of updating our democracy. I was like,
Speaker 1: that's like an iOS firmware update, a new version of Android,
Speaker 1: update the democracy firmware. Let's go, let's go. You use
Speaker 1: the terms economy and democracy often impairs what is your
Speaker 1: view of the connection between the economy and democracy. These
Speaker 1: two things really do go hand in hand, because whoever
Speaker 1: has power in our democracy is going to design policies
Speaker 1: in the interests of those people, right, And the more
Speaker 1: of us engage in our democracy, the more of us
Speaker 1: can have a say over the kind of economic policy
Speaker 1: see that shapes our lives and our work and our
Speaker 1: wages and our ability to take care of our families.
Speaker 1: It's uh, it's all connected, and the flywheel has been
Speaker 1: going in the wrong direction, and we have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to to flip it and have it be more of
Speaker 1: a virtuous cycle where we the people, we engage, we vote,
Speaker 1: we organize, we elect, and we move the elected to
Speaker 1: pass the policies that we need in order to live well.
Speaker 1: Then we go back again and we continue to organize
Speaker 1: and build our power and vote more. And that is
Speaker 1: how we make sure that our policies, including our economic policies,
Speaker 1: work for all of us. What are some of the
Speaker 1: national Domestic Worker Alliances accomplishments that you're most proud of.
Speaker 1: I'm proud of this Virginia Bill because it is the
Speaker 1: first bill of rights in the South, and it just
Speaker 1: feels so important and symbolic. Um. I'm really proud of
Speaker 1: the work we did last year to provide emergency cash
Speaker 1: assistance to domestic workers who were impacted by the COVID crisis.
Speaker 1: We distributed more than thirty million dollars to over fifty
Speaker 1: thousand domestic workers who were impacted by the crisis. And
Speaker 1: I am incredibly proud of this portable benefits platform. So
Speaker 1: in the weeds, but we built a benefits platform called
Speaker 1: Aaliyah that helps domestic workers get access to benefits for
Speaker 1: the first time. And that feels really exciting. What makes
Speaker 1: it portable? What does that mean? Oh, portable benefits just
Speaker 1: mean that they follow you, so they're not attached to
Speaker 1: one job, They're attached to you. So if you clean
Speaker 1: ten houses, you can have all ton of your clients
Speaker 1: contribute to your benefits fund and then you get to
Speaker 1: pick what benefit you want to apply the money and
Speaker 1: your fund towards. A lot of people pick paid time off.
Speaker 1: But there's also other kinds of products that you can pick.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Um. There, I had a thought about a
Speaker 1: portable benefits package everybody should have that. Why do we
Speaker 1: lash our benefits, our health insurance to one particular job
Speaker 1: that that's never quite made sense to me just as
Speaker 1: a human being. So if you can bring that innovation,
Speaker 1: we'll apply that update, hopefully across the whole economy and
Speaker 1: update our economy operating system as well. I would love that.
Speaker 1: It's so funny because we were contacted by blues musicians
Speaker 1: in Chicago who basically were like, Hey, could this work
Speaker 1: for us? Because we really need this too. And I
Speaker 1: just think more and more of us all the time
Speaker 1: fall through the cracks of an outdated safety net, which
Speaker 1: is why we need to update system. And this is
Speaker 1: a model for a model, right, um, for how we
Speaker 1: might think about that. So we have this term in
Speaker 1: the United States, uh, the working poor. You've been working
Speaker 1: with people who are excluded historically, who are denied access
Speaker 1: to standards, to rights, to the ability to organize. What
Speaker 1: are your thoughts about the term and also about the
Speaker 1: people who are in part at least defined by it.
Speaker 1: It breaks my heart that we need to have that term,
Speaker 1: that that term is even a thing, but it is
Speaker 1: a thing. I mean, there are millions upon millions of
Speaker 1: people who work incredibly hard every single day and still
Speaker 1: can't pay the bills. And there was that incredible study
Speaker 1: that happened way before the pandemic that showed that more
Speaker 1: than half of all Americans didn't have the ability to
Speaker 1: survive a four dollar unexpected crisis US. And that to me,
Speaker 1: in a country like ours, with so many resources, so
Speaker 1: much talent, so much abundance in every way, the fact
Speaker 1: that that is the reality of work in America is
Speaker 1: just it's crazy to me. It is crazy to me.
Speaker 1: And until we fix that, I don't know that we
Speaker 1: can get to the future that we want in this country.
Speaker 1: So I guess what I think about that term is
Speaker 1: that we need to work really hard to no longer
Speaker 1: have that term and are vernacular. Mhm. This idea that
Speaker 1: we have a group of people called the working poor
Speaker 1: suggest that folks can work maybe two full time jobs
Speaker 1: and still not have enough money to survive. Has that
Speaker 1: always been the case? Is it has it gotten worse?
Speaker 1: I wonder if it was always a thing for some
Speaker 1: communities in Black communities, in immigrant communities, there was a
Speaker 1: way in which parts of the economy were created where
Speaker 1: it was acceptable to pay people a lot less to
Speaker 1: work very hard UM, and the narrative was associated with
Speaker 1: race and gender because we are somehow less, we are
Speaker 1: somehow less than fully human, less than skilled, less than right.
Speaker 1: That there was a narrative that was very much racialized
Speaker 1: and gendered UM that enabled um the creation of jobs
Speaker 1: in our labor market that were essentially poverty wage jobs,
Speaker 1: jobs that you can survive on. And I think it
Speaker 1: has gotten worse. It has to do with the concentration
Speaker 1: of power in the hands and in the interests of
Speaker 1: a tiny wealthy elite and corporations. And the reality is
Speaker 1: that working people have generated a ton of wealth. Productivity
Speaker 1: is off the charts. People are working and they are
Speaker 1: not benefiting. And every year they benefit less from the
Speaker 1: productivity and the profits that they generate. And we have
Speaker 1: over time worn away at our safety net. I mean,
Speaker 1: in the nineties, when I first started doing this work,
Speaker 1: it was seen as marginal, you know, just kind of
Speaker 1: on the edges and the shadows of our economy. Today,
Speaker 1: when I look around, more, more and more people work
Speaker 1: under those same circumstances of unpredictable hours, you don't even
Speaker 1: know sometimes who your boss is, You work for an
Speaker 1: app um, you don't have benefits, you don't have job security,
Speaker 1: and you're piecing it together. And it's kind of like
Speaker 1: the domestic work ification of work in our country. And
Speaker 1: it's kind of like people of color, women of color
Speaker 1: saw that first. And what we've had is a gravitational
Speaker 1: pull downward for everybody else, while people who benefit from
Speaker 1: the status quo benefit more and more. Why do you
Speaker 1: think that is such a real way of life in
Speaker 1: this country right now? Because workers do not have enough
Speaker 1: power in our economy. And the way that we build
Speaker 1: power to do those things is by coming together other
Speaker 1: and organizing and building movements, and and we've done it
Speaker 1: in the past. Um. It is not an accident that
Speaker 1: manufacturing jobs went from in the nineteen twenties and thirties
Speaker 1: dangerous poverty wage sweatshop jobs that a lot of immigrants did,
Speaker 1: two jobs that so called became the pathway to the
Speaker 1: middle class. Right, They became good jobs where one generation
Speaker 1: could do better than the next and you could own
Speaker 1: a home and support a family. And that was not
Speaker 1: an accident. That was organizing. That was workers building power.
Speaker 1: You're you're putting agency back into the historical narrative there,
Speaker 1: because I think media has learned that it just got better,
Speaker 1: because America is a great place where things get better
Speaker 1: all the time. Um and and there's a missing player
Speaker 1: in that story, which is workers organizing to make it
Speaker 1: better and to clear also multi racial organizing, workers coming
Speaker 1: together across race and community and religion and culture to
Speaker 1: find power and community in each other and with each other.
Speaker 1: That is the unstoppable force. I can understand why a
Speaker 1: worker would want more money, more security, more safety, more benefits.
Speaker 1: That's good for the worker. Why is it good for
Speaker 1: the business owner, the larger society, the random politician, for
Speaker 1: the rest of us. The beautiful thing about care work
Speaker 1: is that investing in it is like such a win
Speaker 1: win win. If we make for example, home care jobs
Speaker 1: good jobs, it not only benefits those workers and their families,
Speaker 1: but it makes it possible for everybody else to get
Speaker 1: back to work because we all need care. I mean,
Speaker 1: this pandemic has pushed two million women out of the workforce,
Speaker 1: disproportionately women of color, and largely because of caregiving challenges.
Speaker 1: And it has revealed that care is essential, that we
Speaker 1: cannot work if we do not have child care, and
Speaker 1: if we do not have support for our loved ones
Speaker 1: with disabilities, if we do not have care for our elders.
Speaker 1: It is fundamental. It's like infrastructure. We think about infrastructure
Speaker 1: as bridges and tunnels and broadband, But what could be
Speaker 1: more fundamental infrastructure than the ability to make sure that
Speaker 1: our families are loved ones are cared for so that
Speaker 1: we can work. I call these jobs job enabling jobs
Speaker 1: because they make it possible for everything else to work
Speaker 1: and everyone else to work. What if we could allow
Speaker 1: for every care worker who wants to do this work
Speaker 1: to do so and feel like they are respected and
Speaker 1: sustained in this work, and also take care of their
Speaker 1: families too. Such a simple, simple idea, but so powerful.
Speaker 1: We all need care. We all need care, and the
Speaker 1: idea of care as infrastructure should trademark that. That's pretty good,
Speaker 1: it's pretty thank you. I'm really trying to get members
Speaker 1: of Congress to see it that way. So, um, what
Speaker 1: have you learned about our economy through all your years
Speaker 1: of organizing? What stands outmost to you? I am still
Speaker 1: twenty years in I first started organizing domestic workers. And
Speaker 1: I'm still shocked and appalled that this work of nurturing
Speaker 1: children and the potential of our babies, making sure that
Speaker 1: they're safe, um, the work of supporting the independence and
Speaker 1: quality of life of people with disabilities, the work of
Speaker 1: making sure our elders can age with dignity, that that
Speaker 1: work is some of the least valued, most underpaid work
Speaker 1: in our economy is still shocking to me because it
Speaker 1: is so profound and so fundamental our economy and what
Speaker 1: we value is upside down. Yeah, what would right side
Speaker 1: up look like? One that we wouldn't need this term
Speaker 1: as so to work because we would understand that everyone
Speaker 1: who's working is essential and that all work would have
Speaker 1: inherent dignity where you could hold your head up high
Speaker 1: and be proud of what you do and know that
Speaker 1: your contributions were valued and that your humanity was recognized.
Speaker 1: That's what right side up looks like. Well, thank you
Speaker 1: for your work on behalf of those workers, on behalf
Speaker 1: of us all. You've given me so much to think about. Egen,
Speaker 1: I appreciate your time, uh and your labor. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. Thank you. As I was listening to and
Speaker 1: talking with Eigen, I kept thinking, as well, I'm not
Speaker 1: a domestic worker. I'm not in the working class. I
Speaker 1: can pay my bills thankfully fingers crossedly. So why do
Speaker 1: I care about all this? Because I know we can't
Speaker 1: do this alone, Because even with my privilege, I have
Speaker 1: been at the edge. I have had to borrow money
Speaker 1: from friends to pay rent. I have been behind on
Speaker 1: debt payments on those student loans. I have felt the
Speaker 1: insecurity of exorbitant healthcare expenses that I thought would be
Speaker 1: covered by my insurance, only to find out that they weren't.
Speaker 1: So wherever any of us is on that spectrum, I
Speaker 1: think we have an interest in making sure everybody's taken
Speaker 1: care of. And I know that the types of things
Speaker 1: that we need to do together are bigger than my
Speaker 1: own individual financial security. I can't build a road all
Speaker 1: by myself, and we can't take care of each other
Speaker 1: all by ourselves. As Eigen put it, care is infrastructure,
Speaker 1: and in a sign of progress, I think it's been
Speaker 1: nice to hear our own President of the United States
Speaker 1: and his infrastructure proposal use that similar language and try
Speaker 1: to fund more domestic work. In this idea of infrastructure funding,
Speaker 1: I feel good even hearing some of the challenges, because
Speaker 1: Eigen reminded me that we are a part of potential
Speaker 1: waves of historic progress, that we're in this moment, and
Speaker 1: that progress only comes because we work, we organize. I know,
Speaker 1: we hear this phrase a lot. The arc of the
Speaker 1: moral universe bends towards justice. People bend that arc, preferably
Speaker 1: large numbers of them with very strong bungee courts. And
Speaker 1: we bend it by organizing, by working hard, by coopera
Speaker 1: rating with one another to get all the things we
Speaker 1: all deserve, which includes work with dignity. Next week, coop
Speaker 1: organizer Jamila Medley shows us what an economy built on
Speaker 1: cooperation looks like. Now, our Prince Sam is going to
Speaker 1: tell you what to do, and you better do what
Speaker 1: they tell you. I'm just gonna put it like that.
Speaker 1: You know, I just don't want to be on Sam's
Speaker 1: bad side, So seriously do everything Sam says. Think about
Speaker 1: someone in your life who has cared for you. Think
Speaker 1: about the value of that relationship. It could be a
Speaker 1: family member and neighbor, a childcare provider, or some other
Speaker 1: caregiver in your life. Give them a shout out, call
Speaker 1: them and just let them know that you appreciate them.
Speaker 1: Be an ethical employer, even at home. The National Domestic
Speaker 1: Workers Alliance has a sister organization. It's called Hand in Hand,
Speaker 1: and it offers support to employers of domestic workers. Check
Speaker 1: out the resources on their website, Domestic Employers dot org
Speaker 1: to learn how you can ethically emplace someone in your home.
Speaker 1: If you're curious about the portable benefits agen mentioned, here's
Speaker 1: two platforms that we've found promising Opolis and the Portable
Speaker 1: Benefit Network. Share these options with others in your network
Speaker 1: so many more people can vote with their dollars and
Speaker 1: push for portable benefits as a part of a more
Speaker 1: equitable working feature. Lastly, support the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
Speaker 1: After winning domestic workers Bills of Rights in nine states
Speaker 1: and two cities, the National Domestic Workers Alliance is leading
Speaker 1: an effort to pass a national Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
Speaker 1: Follow the link in the show notes to add your
Speaker 1: name and support. If you're take into these actions, please
Speaker 1: brag about yourself online using the hashtag how to citizen
Speaker 1: and send us general feedback or ideas for the show.
Speaker 1: Two comments at how to citizen dot com. Speaking of
Speaker 1: that domain name, we have one and we're using it.
Speaker 1: Visit how to citizen dot com to sign up for
Speaker 1: our newsletter. Will learn about upcoming the vints or even
Speaker 1: more stuff than that. And if you like the show,
Speaker 1: spread the word, tell somebody. If you don't, definitely just
Speaker 1: keep it to yourself. Appreciate you. How does Citizen with
Speaker 1: barrettun Day is a production of I Heart Radio Podcasts
Speaker 1: and dust Like Productions. Our executive producers are Me barretton Day, Thurston,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Stewart, and Misha Yuson. Our producers are Stephanie Comb
Speaker 1: and Ali Kilts. Kelly Prime is our editor, Valentino Rivera
Speaker 1: is our engineer, and Sam Paulson is our apprentice. Original
Speaker 1: music by Andrew Eaping. This episode was produced and sound
Speaker 1: designed by Sam Paulson. Special thanks to Joel Smith from
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio.