Labor Updates (7/14/08)

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
MontCo Domestic Workers May Finally Get Rights: Supporters of a domestic workers’ rights bill – currently before the Montgomery County Council – launched an online campaign Friday urging County Councilmembers to pass the legislation at a vote on the bill tomorrow. The proposed bill – introduced in January – would be the first bill in the US to guarantee domestic workers the right to a written contract and give live-in workers the right to dignified living quarters with a locking door. “Historically, the terms of domestic employment have changed little since slavery,” said Alexis De Simone, a Domestic Worker Organizer at CASA de Maryland. “Domestic workers’ exclusion from virtually every significant labor protection, from the Fair Labor Standards Act to the Civil Rights Act, compounds the invisibility of their work leaving them especially open to exploitation and abuse.” Tomorrow’s final vote on the measure follows a four year campaign by workers and a coalition of 31 faith-based, labor, and community organizations to pressure the County to give rights to domestic workers.