You can go see Misty Upham onscreen with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in
August: Osage County. So you might think she's the kind of person who can hire someone to clean her big house for her, not a domestic worker like the character she plays in the movie. But in fact, she was
cleaning houses for a living at the time she was asked to audition for the movie, and she's written a great piece about that:
For many years, domestic workers have worked in relative invisibility—unseen, unprotected and undervalued. Most are excluded from basic federal and state labor laws that protect the rest of us from workplace abuses, wage theft, and unpaid overtime. And their work is not just practical, but emotional as well. Like Johnna, domestic workers often report for work during a family’s most trying, intimate moments. Whether the need is for childcare as new parents navigate their emotional return to the workplace, or like the Westons, for elder care when a parent receives a difficult diagnosis, domestic workers provide positive solutions when families need them most.
Where the film’s fiction and the real world diverge is in the way domestic workers today are changing their circumstances by organizing and mobilizing. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of workers are waging—and winning—campaigns to pass domestic worker bill of rights laws that restore basic labor protections to this vital workforce. In September 2013, the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Caring Across Generations—two organizations that I actively support and encourage you to explore—joined allies across the country in celebrating a historic victory when the Department of Labor updated its regulations to extend minimum wage and overtime protection to millions of the nation’s homecare workers. This landmark change is just the beginning of the road to opportunity for this workforce. More is needed, including a living wage.
And more:
- Hey Macklemore, can we go new wireless provider shopping?
- Tennessee Republicans want to roll back a law requiring meal breaks for workers who've worked six consecutive hours.
- The fable of dependency: How the GOP kills unemployment benefits.
- Go, team!
The Raiderettes, cheerleaders for the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, sued the franchise in a California court Wednesday, alleging that the team failed to pay them for all hours worked and engaged in other unfair employment practices.
According to the suit, the Raiders withheld the cheerleaders’ annual pay until after the season ended and forced them to pay for many of their other expenses, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Their annual salary, according to the suit, is $1,250, which works out to less than $5 per hour worked once games, practice, and other events are included (the California minimum wage is currently $8 per hour).