Aliyya Swaby Photo
With a few quick flourishes, Mayor Toni Harp signed off on a city resolution that urges the state to pass laws protecting its 40,000 domestic workers.
She was joined in City Hall by four domestic workers, their advocates, and Alders Darryl Brackeen, Richard Furlow and Andrea Jackson-Brooks, who drafted and supported the Board of Alders Resolution. The resolution will head next to the Connecticut General Assembly, urging delegates to pass laws that offer domestic workers labor protection, sick days and workers’ compensation.
After domestic workers testified before the Human Services Committee of the Board of Alders in early March, the committee voted to support the proposal. Though politicians have been working on this issue for years, this is the first time that a “major city like New Haven had these discussions and passed these types of resolutions” in Connecticut, Brackeen said. “It’s a big deal.”
As baby boomers continue to age, domestic workers will be more and more in demand, Mayor Harp said, and should have access to legal protection. They are an “essential part of the aging equation,” she said.
Connecticut would be the fifth state to pass a domestic worker bill of rights, after Massachusetts, New York, Hawaii and California. “Slavery is over and we have to make sure that is reflected in our labor laws,” said Natalicia Tracy, the executive director of the Brazilian Workers’ Center.
Domestic workers, largely low-income, immigrant women of color, are having trouble providing for their families, while they “help us with our daily issues,” Tracy said.
Do not wait on the state.Form a union.