Cleaning up
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
We Can Do It! Women's Cooperative:
http://www.wecandoit.coop/
http://www.indypendent.org/2009/09/17/cleaning-up/
Cleaning Up
By Carlos Davalos
September 18, 2009
After 18 years of working low-wage jobs at factories and bakeries in
Brooklyn, Alicia Ch�vez finally found an employer that pays her a living
wage: herself.
Ch�vez, 34, is the president of the We Can Do It! Women�s Cooperative, a
worker-owned and-run housecleaning business. Founded in 2006, it
currently has 24 members and is one of only a handful of cooperatives in
New York City.
�The members of the co-op are not employees, we are owners of our own
business and we conduct it as we please,� Ch�vez said.
Before joining the We Can Do It! cooperative, Ch�vez worked more than 40
hours a week, earning $350. She can now earn the same amount of money in
half that time, allowing her more time to take care of her three
children � Victor, 16; Santiago, 10; and Jos�, 2 � and read contemporary
Mexican novels in her spare time.
In addition to receiving equal pay and being able to set their own
schedules, cooperative members vote on all organizational decisions. The
cooperative is supported by the Center for Family Life, a social service
organization based in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, which provides
administrative support and meeting space.
�Because of the nature of the industry, workers work in isolation,� said
Priscilla Gonzalez, the organizing coordinator for Domestic Workers
United. �It�s important to have some sort of collective body that
unifies all of the workers, so that they can exercise their rights
together, and the co-op model gives them that collective power.�
On the first Sunday of each month, Ch�vez spends her afternoon cleaning
the staircase of a six-story residential building located at South
Oxford Street and Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene.
Dressed in blue jeans, old sneakers and a red bandana to hold back her
thick black hair, she sweeps the tiled steps with a broom and then
cleans them again with a mop, leaving the smell of citrus in her wake.
While cooperative members only use environmentally friendly cleaning
products, Ch�vez always wears a pair of latex gloves and a face mask to
avoid coming into contact with dust and fumes.
We Can Do It! currently has around 200 clients, a number that
cooperative members hope to expand through increased publicity efforts
and promotion via word-of-mouth.
Gwen Kash turned to the cooperative to clean her house after she had
ankle surgery a couple months ago.
�Monica, the person who helped us, is wonderful, she cleaned the house
perfectly,� Kash said. �There is a contract in the beginning so there
are no misunderstandings with the payment methods; it is a very fair
system.�
In early July, We Can Do It! formed a cooperative corporation, which
will provide legal protections for the workers.
�It [the cooperative] gives them tacit legitimacy; they feel more secure
about their working status,� said Gowri Krishna, a staff attorney at the
Urban Justice Center who oversaw the incorporation process.
Domestic workers are not covered by most labor laws, including the Fair
Labor Standards Act, which regulates minimum wages and overtime pay, and
the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which protects workers from
hazardous working conditions. Forming cooperatives allows them to
bargain collectively for better wages and workplace safety.
According to a 2006 survey by Domestic Workers United, domestic workers
are predominantly immigrants and women of color.
Ch�vez, who joined We Can Do It! in 2008, has 10 regular customers and
hopes to continue working with the cooperative in the future. �I�m very
happy with this job,� Ch�vez said. �It lets me sustain my family and
still have time for myself.�
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
(Wait for the new edition: http://hplmythos.com/ )
Lord We�rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"From the point of view of the defense of our society,
there only exists one danger -- that workers succeed in
speaking to each other about their condition and their
aspirations _without intermediaries_."
--Censor (Gianfranco Sanguinetti), _The Real Report on
the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy_