After a long journey toward justice, Washington DC’s domestic workers scored a major victory yesterday when the DC City Council voted unanimously to enact a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights. Until now, domestic workers – maids, nannies, au pairs, and many home health aides – were excluded from employment law protections that most workers take for granted. Now the District has joined several other cities and states in passing a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights.

The legislation, known as the DC Domestic Workers Employment Rights Amendment Act, was announced in March. The legislation extends the protection of DC’s Human Rights law (which addresses both discrimination and sexual harassment) and its Occupational Safety and Health law to cover domestic workers. It further entitles domestic workers to a written contract explaining terms and conditions of employment.

The Catholic Labor Network has accompanied the domestic workers in their campaign for more than a year. In February, CLN co-hosted a “listening session” with domestic worker Antonia Sucro for area faith leaders, including several from DC-area Parishes and the Archdiocese of Washington. Like most domestic workers today, Sucro, a parishioner at St Catherine Laboure in Maryland, is an immigrant. She told of losing her job abruptly during the early spread of covid but – lacking a written work contract – was unable to access the supplemental unemployment benefits approved by Congress.

In the months since, the workers have tirelessly rallied and lobbied DC Council members to ensure that the legislation progressed. Catholic Labor Network has joined the domestic workers for these events and organized supporters to write letters and emails in support of the legislation.

Congratulations to DC’s domestic workers on their big win!

A guest contribution from Don Villar at the Chicago Federation of Labor

I had only gotten a few hours of sleep when I was suddenly wide awake. My watch said it was 4:00 a.m. Friday, December 9. I was physically exhausted, but apparently not enough to fall back to sleep.

Since arriving in Israel as part of the Jewish United Fund of Chicago labor delegation five days ago, I logged dozens of miles (more than 125,000 steps on my Fitbit) walking around Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and near the Gaza Strip. We met with government officials, Israeli and Palestinian labor activists, workers, and struggling families. Besides visiting religious sites, we were immersed in Israeli history and geopolitics. The visit revealed the complexity, the challenges, and the promise of the region.

For another hour, I laid in bed. I tried to go back to sleep, but it didn’t work. I felt something  pulling at me, calling me to get up. I fumbled in the darkness of my hotel room to get dressed, and tried not to wake my wife Rose asleep beside me.

I walked out of the hotel to a dark and quiet Jerusalem street. Hours earlier, the streets were frenetic as people enjoyed the start of their weekend. It was a cold December morning as I made my way to the Old City. It was about a 15 minute walk, up winding streets, to get to the Damascus Gates, one of the entrances to the Old City. I had some rosary beads I purchased earlier in the Old City in my pocket, and began praying the rosary as I walked in the early morning silence.

When I visited during the day, the Old City was bustling with locals, tourists, merchants, children, and workers. The sounds of conversations, footsteps, and hum of city life echoed through the narrow streets and alleys. Now, the streets were silent, except for my own footsteps on the ancient cobblestones. The once crowded shops were now shuttered. I followed the signs to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, meandering through the dark alleys and narrow streets. The signs led me through an archway that opened up to the modest courtyard of the church, Christianity’s most holy place.

I stepped into the church. The chatter of tourists from the day before was replaced by chants, prayers and serenity. I made my way to the main rotunda of the church containing the Aedicule, a small chapel or shrine. The long line of tourists waiting to enter the Aedicule was gone. In this early hour, groups of pilgrims were gathered in the side chapels of the church, praying and waiting for their turn to enter the tomb.

In the Aedicule, about two dozen Polish Catholic pilgrims were celebrating mass. After they finished mass, the Polish pilgrims filed quietly out of the tomb. As they exited, a group of Italian Catholic pilgrims entered the Aedicule to celebrate mass. I made eye contact with the pilgrimage leader, asked if I could join them. After her group entered, she invited me to come into the Aedicule with them.

I was the last person to enter as they closed the wooden doors behind me for the mass. The Aedicule is made up of two very small rooms. The first contains a remnant of the Angel’s Stone. The stone that was rolled to cover the entrance of Christ’s tomb. On Easter Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene found the tomb open and empty, and the angel sitting on the stone. The second room contains the tomb itself.

While the mass was in Italian, I could make out the parts of the liturgy and responses. I whispered the responses to myself in English. During the course of the mass, two pilgrims at a time would enter the tomb, kneel before and touch the place where Jesus was laid to rest. During the liturgy of the Eucharist, after nearly all the pilgrims had gone into the tomb, she invited me to do the same. Standing in the back of the crowded room, the pilgrims parted enough to allow me inside the tomb. I knelt, said a prayer, grateful for this moment, and kissed the place where our faith tradition tells us Christ was laid after he was crucified. After a moment, I got back up and returned to the room of the Angel’s Stone. I pressed myself into the corner near the entrance of the tomb to allow others to come forward.

When it was time for Holy Communion, the priest emerged from the tomb and began distributing the Eucharist. He placed the host in my hand. I paused, stared at the wafer, and thought about this moment. I was taking the body of Christ in the tomb where he had risen from the dead.

I placed the host in my mouth. As it dissolved on my tongue, I felt a sudden rush of emotions come upon me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, goosebumps ran up my arm. I felt a sensation throughout my entire being. It was something I have never felt before. I felt the immense solidarity of faith across the world and time. I felt small and humbled. I felt joy and elation. I felt so many emotions. We often talk about being in a state of Grace, about having the Holy Spirit come upon us. At that moment, I truly felt a state of Grace, the Holy Spirit.

After the priest gave his final blessing, ending the mass, we filed out of the Aedicule. A group of Korean Catholic pilgrims came in behind us to also celebrate mass. Mass in the tomb was a transformative moment. I was burdened when I entered the tomb. A half hour later, I emerged transformed, changed, uplifted.

As I exited the church, I felt a new sense of clarity. I had been preoccupied by work, family life, responsibilities, meetings, challenges, personal and professional relationships, image, disappointments, heartache, sorrows, joys, successes, and with absorbing all I had seen and heard during the past few days. The burdens, ebb and flow of life that preoccupy everyone weighed me down. For a moment, those burdens felt lifted. My daily prayer included a plea for God to guide me, show me the way, give me strength to continue on as a labor activist, as an advocate, as someone trying to live their faith, and advance the Labor Movement and the cause for worker justice.

When I first entered the church, it was dark outside. The darkness was now replaced by the morning light and blue skies. The sound of birds singing filled the air. The shops catering to tourists in the Old City were still closed, except for a bakery. The baker was placing dough into an old brick oven. The smell of fresh baked bread wafted from the oven, filling the narrow streets of the Old City. Jerusalem was slowly waking from its slumber to a new and beautiful day.

Rose was still in bed when I returned to our hotel room. I sat beside her and began to cry as I shared with her what I just experienced. I know I don’t always get life right. I make mistakes. I stumble. At this moment, I felt a renewed sense of purpose. I felt that God was answering my prayers to guide me, show me the way, and give me strength to continue on.

On this Friday morning, it was God that was calling me, pulling me from my sleep and exhaustion, to spend a moment of peace in the early morning in the Holy City and renew my spirit.

 

DC Council votes unanimously for new law; second vote pending

The Washington DC Office of Human Rights is charged with preventing discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace. But did you know that it has no power to protect domestic workers – nannies, housekeepers and others who work in the home?

That may be about to change. Although few workers are more isolated and in need of protection than domestic workers, many of our nation’s laws drafted to protect workers from exploitation and abuse have excluded them from coverage. But domestic workers have been organizing for years to change this, and in DC they are on the brink of success.

On Tuesday the DC Council voted unanimously in favor of the DC Domestic Workers Employment Rights Amendment Act. The Act would extend the DC Human Rights law to cover domestic workers; it would provide for their occupational health and safety; and it would also require employers of domestic help to prepare and sign a written agreement setting out terms and conditions of employment.

The Catholic Labor Network has been accompanying DC’s domestic workers on their campaign for justice for more than a year, starting with a “listening session” in which Catholic activists heard testimony from area domestic worker Antonia Surco. Last week CLN joined domestic worker advocates in a final round of visits with Councilmembers in support of the bill.

Passage of the Act requires a second Council vote on Dec. 20.

Catholic religious orders are known for their works of mercy, often running hospitals, nursing homes and schools. But in the course of their activity, many of these orders accumulated substantial assets, including stock holdings in major US corporations. That gives them power, and, increasingly, they are using this power to advance worker justice.

This work is coordinated by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), where Catholic and other religious organizations come together and use their power as activist shareholders to promote justice. The ICCR came together in 1971 and was originally focused on fighting apartheid in South Africa. Today ICCR members control some $4 trillion in assets work in a variety of program areas, including – since June of this year – “Advancing Worker Justice.” They are engaging some of the nation’s leading corporations about living wages, freedom of association, occupational health and safety, paid sick leave, and other essential topics.

The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, a community of more than 300 in Southeast Pennsylvania, have been on the front lines of this work. As Sr. Nora Nash explained,

“The old adage ‘an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay’ is still at the heart of worker’s rights and responsibilities. A just wage reflects equality, opportunity, transparency and a decent life for the worker which includes a safe working environment, paid time off for sickness, personal days, vacation, etc. We’ve spent many years working with major corporations to draw attention to the extreme inequality between the CEO and the lowest paid worker.”

The process usually begins with a letter to the corporate target asking for a dialogue on the topic of concern. If dialogue is rejected or proves fruitless, they may file a shareholder resolution. For the activist shareholder, it’s not enough to object to a corporate practice – you need to make a “business case” for resolving it. Fortunately that’s not an insuperable obstacle: for instance, it’s perfectly plausible to argue that eliminating known occupational hazards or reducing occupational injury rates is good for the bottom line.

The Sisters have an active agenda this year. In the worker justice field they are looking to engage Darden Restuarants (think Olive Garden or Longhorn Steakhouse) and FedEx. At Darden they are concerned about low wages for restaurant workers; at FedEx they are seeking information about paid sick leave policies.

Labor unions have long leveraged pension fund investments to initiate similar dialogues with major corporations in order to promote worker justice. It’s great to see religious orders stepping up their activity in this field!