Tomorrow, Wednesday July 6, the CA Domestic Workers Bill of Rights will be heard in the Senate Labor Committee. Please click here to contact Labor Committee Chair, Ted Leiu and the other Senate Labor Committee members and let them know that their support of AB 889 is critical in ensuring that nannies have the same basic protections as all workers.
If you are unsure if you support or oppose the bill click here to learn the general arguments of those who oppose the bill and those who support the bill.
Support the Bill: Click here to send a letter in support of the bill. If you live in Senate District 8, please use the "Contact Senator Yee" web form available on his web site at: www.senate.ca.gov/yee or send a fax to him at (916) 327-2186.
Oppose the Bill: If you wish to send a letter in opposition of the bill click here.
Vote whether you support or oppose the bill at: http://bestnannynewsletter.blogspot.com/
I've said it before and will say it now again. Labor laws are a good thing and they are a win, win, win situation! Legally paying domestics they will be protected.
ReplyDeleteI think more nannies will pay taxes after the passing this law! American citizens that work in homes will reconsider and insist on being paid legally so that they will be able to get unemployment, disabiltiy, severance, and paid holiday and sick days and all the benefits of this bill in the future.
After the bill is passed and more domestics pay taxes it will be good for the national economy (more tax payers) and happier domestic workers. That's a good thing for employers too. They prefer happy employees. It only makes sense that parents want happy employees caring for their kids and their homes.
Once passed as law, websites can promote the new law, agency staff will inform nanny candidates and parents of the new law, overall making a better working environment and relationship for everyone.
I worked in childcare centers where I was required to take course work by the state in order for the business to be licensed. That course work allowed me to become a better caregiver. The children had a better overall developmental experience too.
ReplyDeleteBut childcare workers (some who are teachers) earn less in our nation than many nannies. Bottom line, is the reason I made the switch. However, as a nanny I chose to still "act" like a childcare worker and continued to educate myself.
What do nannies bring the table. We live in a nation where licensing is required from hair dressers, manicurists, plumbers, electricians, teachers, etc. We are required to have licenses to drive cars.
Yet anyone can call themselves a nanny.
Nannies frown at the word credentialing, yet they want all these rights????
I don't support this bill until we raise the bar on ourselves.
AND, because I raised the bar for myself I ENJOY perks and benefits that far exceed what these bills entail.
I have also read the INA's opposition letter and I am in agreement with all that they point out.
Bills like these cause more harm than good for nannies who know the laws and are able to be their own advocates.
Lisa the high turnover rates in daycare and all childcare jobs is due to bad pay and benefits! Childcare providers are the poorest paid industry in this country (and the world).
ReplyDeleteYou can't attract professionals and high quality nannies with bad pay and poor benefits.
We can only be better with laws like these.
I support education, nanny training and credential exams and licenses too Lisa - 100%! But just because someone doesn't have a degree NOW doesn't mean they don't deserve basic workers rights. Degree isn't everything. There are excellent nannies and housekeepers with little education.
ReplyDeleteI'm tired of hearing other nannies wanting bad to hold down other nannies or housekeepers in the same field!!
Don't you get it? This will help tax paying American citizens. It helps you!
Working towards credentials and licensing is great. In the meantime, right now domestic workers are being abused and mistreated. Great nannies leave the profession because they can't make a decent living and lack respect!!
Support those less fortunate than yourself.
It is so sad that bills and laws have to be past to get basic rights in this industry.
ReplyDeleteWow! I have been reading and not speaking up very much but now I'm pissed. I read elitest comments from attorneys and a few business owners but I didn't expect other nannies to be elitist towards other nannies too!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be taking a lot of ideas and information from others I have heard and read over the past few weeks and not be referencing those I took my ideas from but this is what I've learned over the past few weeks reading this and other blogs on this topic.
First of all, all daycare workers, nannies, childcare providers deserve better treatment and better pay. They are the poorest and I agree with Imani that the high turnover rate is due to low pay, lack of benefits and lack of respect. Teachers had to fight (and still do fight) for their pay and benefits. They luckily have unions to help them do that. We don't have that luxury. I think this bill provides us some help in that direction.
But some comments today really piss me off. It really does sound like Lisa you think you are better than me (us) just like some attorneys and business owners that have been opposing the bill. It's sad because you are a nanny too and not supporting others in your field.
I have a college Bachelors degree. I include it on my resume but no one else need know that. I don't rub it in other nanny's faces.
I clicked your link and am upset that while you work as a nanny you are obviously embarrassed by that label and call yourself a "teacher caregiver." You want to show you are a better nanny because you label yourself a teacher caregiver, which proves the point you are embarrassed by the term nanny and think you are better than the average nanny.
If nannies don't even respect nannies how can we expect others to respect our profession?
Why do you call yourself a teacher when you are a nanny?! Because nannies aren't respected! You feel you are better than a nanny!! You want to be called a teacher to give yourself more respect! Elitest! Without a teaching degree how are you a teacher?! Fine to state your grades in courses you have taken but without the degree you aren't a teacher! Insulting to all nannies who work just as hard as you and insulting to all teachers who earned their degrees and earned the title.
You call yourself a teacher because you know that there are others with your training and experience working as live in nannies, being paid under minimum wage, on flex time, living in a cold basement bedroom, and be fired at the whim of her boss and she's just as qualified and experienced as you!!! She stays at the job because she works 60 hrs weeks without time or resources to look for another job. She's intimidated to say "no" and will do any chore asked since she doesn't want to lose her home.
Unlike most of California’s employers of 75 or more employees, domestic worker employers (the parents that employ us) have no obligation to provide their worker advanced notice before terminating her services. Domestic workers lose their home when they lose their job. The bill would require at least 3 weeks days advanced notice because we are homeless when we lose our jobs!!
I can understand the INA and APNA opposition and Tales of Nannyhood's opposition, because they sound like they are supporting their political convinctions to me. We are allowed to feel like more government is good or bad and that's fine. I'm never going to convince a staunch opposer of the bill to support it and it's ok not to agree with everything that I think. But, they didn't sound like they think they are better than us and your comments and website are condescending towards others that work in your same profession.
Lisa and Nancy your comments are too long to read anyway. Want to make change stop writing on blogs and write the letter to your Senator.
ReplyDeleteHow many of you actually live and work in California?
ReplyDeleteI live/work in NJ- and supported NY- and now CA. I think it's only a matter of time before this spreads to the other states.
ReplyDeleteI think this type of bill is needed. For those who claim that everyone is simply siding their political party is wrong. I think many might be but I am a registered Republican that supports this bill!
ReplyDeleteIt is necessary because domestic workers labor in a lawless industry, which makes for working conditions that are abusive and lots of exploitation. Also, we need to rectify over 70 years of injustice due to their exclusion from the federal labor law. Domestic workers need to be recognized for the important work they do for our homes, and families, and for society. They really are the glue.
ReplyDeleteI live in CA. I'm considered a very successful nanny by industry standards. Even at my level, I'm not guaranteed basic worker rights. For 22+ years I've worked in this industry and I can say without a doubt that the times I've never received overtime yet with the exception of a couple of years, I've worked 50-60 hours weekly depending on the job. I don't believe I should have a work agreement to guarantee me the rights that workers at McDonald's, retail workers, and gas station attendants receive? Why is a food handler given better rights than us? I care for my fellow caregivers because I know by empowering them, I'm in return empowering myself and all future people who choose this career path. I don't sit on a pedestal and preach the "go get yours advocate for yourself crap" when I know the reality of the situation. We make the difference. If we want change in this industry and to have basic worker rights, we have to effect that change as a whole, not as an individual.
ReplyDeleteAmen Buffi.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand the rationalizations I keep hearing of, "Why do we deserve more than other workers?" Self defeating. If we don't support ourselves who will?
When Americans aren't treated well we pass laws to protect them. Blacks, children, immigrants, gays, women, actors, or auto workers, it doesn't matter we all deserve equal and better than equal treatent.
We need this bill. Sadly, experience shows that domestic workers are the poorest, most taken advantage of workers, and I do mean American citizens! You don't have to be illegal to be mistreated in this profession. Such labor rights may not solve all of our problems but it's a step in the right direction.
Thanks Buffi, I've been having trouble figuring out how to word some of my feelings and you just did it for me. Why are some nannies blaming the vicitims (the nannies)? It's the strangest thing.
ReplyDeleteFiona, for the record, before I commented on any of these blogs, I did write politicians first. Dud, legislation is not being decided on discussion boards.
ReplyDeleteI took taking American Civics classes and history seriously as a kid. Maybe that's how I learned to not be vocal and my own advocate.
No, it hasn't been easier or pretty. At times I did take low paying jobs to survive. BUT In the past several years. I did suffer with being jobless and homeless relying on the kindness of family and friends to support me until I did find a fair decent job. YES, I turned down tons off offers, with the ability to say NO, you aren't paying enough. There is a degree of satisfaction in being able to do that. At the same time there is a degree of terror in wondering if the real offer with a good job will ever come.
Look around --- Unions are being busted in this country. (Am I happy about it happening to family and friends I know in Wisconsin? NOT) Am I pissed that the debt celling can't be raised while CEOs and Companies don't pay taxes, while millions upon millions of Americans are losing support and aid?
Do you all honestly think with everything else going on in this country that a law or right is going to protect a nanny? Who is going to fund the legal costs? Who is going to go on strike for others? There are SCABS, who will come and undercut caregivers. I shared this information here in a DC nanny and parent discussion board where we do have employers providing worker rights say they would be pissed and terminate a nanny if she left her job in solidarity and they were out childcare. (DO you honestly think this can't happen in other cities in the country???)
Have you read what parents are writing in articles on this topic across the country? A majority aren't on our side... the honest ones are doing the best they can, and the morons don't care what laws are.
ReplyDeleteNancy T - how you chose to read my comments and interpret them I can't control. But yes I am going to marketing my education, just as a nanny who went to a formal nanny training school would. Why, because mine at least came through accredited institutes. It's called selling oneself to the best of their ability in a very weak economy where nannies are losing jobs because their employers are losing jobs. It is called marketing to a niche. And my niche happens to be tutoring and teaching. YES, I DID PAY MY DUES TO GET HERE to anyone who wants to label me an elitist. I challenge any of you to take on some of the jobs I took on in the past. (I worked in homes impacted by death, divorce, addiction, etc. getting kids to still bring home great report cards when odds are against them) I know for a fact from conversations with others all the time that I am doing a lot of teaching with my charges in playful learning ways.
Some other nannies have said "gee how can you consider yourself a teacher?", I shared that with my bosses and said, "Gee would they like to come spend a week and observe you in action?" Then they said, "It doesn't matter what some of these people think, we and your former employers know better."
Guess what regarding that comment - "Why do we deserve more than other workers?" OUR NATION IS SAYING THIS --- I have heard it over and over again from non union people in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and all the other states in the Midwest in the fights for their lives. People (like friends and family) who want to label teachers, democratic politicians, and their supporters sociolists.
THE BILL DOES NOTHING MORE than other labor laws that already out there. Until nannies individually take a stand. No I can't control what other nannies are going to take stands on, when they are to scared to see beyond the roof that is over their head, and their willingness to possibly be homeless.
Instead of tuning out voices like mine, who aren't on your bandwagon, perhaps you should listen to our argument instead of knocking us down anyway you can. I realize we may never agree. But I have listened to negative people in the Midwest battles, the facist mindset, and ignorant republicans and teabaggers. You learn their points and then you find a way to meet in the middle ground if and when possible.
I just appreciate this forum to discuss difficult issues like this. Craft projects aren't needed like found on every other site. This is what is most important even if it's not reaching the typical nanny who doesn't have a personal computer!
ReplyDeleteI support the bill and am very liberal but what Lisa has written and feels isn't crazy by any means.
ReplyDeleteMichelle, what she wrote is her personal experience. Kudos for Lisa for advocating for herself. That doesn't mean it works for the rest of us nor does it mean that we don't just all deserve basic worker rights. We have to help those who can't help themselves.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate all the accolades. I just reread what I wrote and was surprised anyone could understand what I wrote, lol. Today's the day. It may not happen today, but it will happen and it starts with us.
Today's the day, it may not happen today, but it will happen and it starts with us.
ReplyDeleteHERE-HERE!
I strongly feel this bill is needed. Making a solid base for workers providing them simply with a living wage and benefits can only helps everyone that hires a nanny, is cared by a nanny, and the nanny herself.
ReplyDeletePeople opposed the civil rights act too and equal marriage but eventually all wrongs must be righted. It's the morally right thing to do.
I was supporting Lisa's first comment, but I didn't see the following comments which were posted and they are confusing me. But still, I don't think Lisa should feel or be attacked for her opinions. My opinons are strong too. Let's keep on sharing are views, nothing wrong with that.
ReplyDeleteLisa, your comments were automatically being sent to a SPAM file via a SPAM filter I didn't know was on the blog's comments. Problem solved for now. Your comments are posted.
ReplyDeleteI think you misspoke, I think the INA OPPOSES the bill just like you Lisa. I SUPPORT it.
ReplyDeleteI posted similiar follow up comments, that went to spam, only Stephanie and I weren't aware of that happening. I apologize for that confusion.
ReplyDeleteI was frustrated over an early character attack that had nothing to do with the debate.
Digital dirt matters and I really don't care to see my image tarnished by someone who has never met met or discussed in private my philosophies.
I know the INA opposes it.
ReplyDeleteWe (and I presume them) are looking at standards they, (agencies and associations) have already tried to put into place that are better than these so called laws.
A lot of time has already gone in to educating employers about all that. Are they perfect no, but they are still better than these laws are.
It will help build better relationships between employers and nannies. Working in someone elses house with their kids is an emotional job but when it comes down to it we work to make money!
ReplyDeleteI am a Republican and I support this bill. To say regulation is harmful is not looking at the big picture. That's a narrow view in this situation. Sometimes you have to look beyond your party affiliation and do what's best for you and your fellow workers.
ReplyDeleteI have learned from this blog (and others) that employers (parents) that already refuse to pay their domestic help (nannies) legally on-the-books or to pay them fair market rates (such as at least minimum wage) won't do so without laws.
ReplyDeleteFace it, if they haven't done it yet, so we have to make sure they do legally. People argued against the civil rights act much more than they argue this bill and who would say civil rights aren't needed or that legislation was bad?
These fair basic workers rights will make happier employees which makes happier parents and the children too.
Arguments against further regulation being dangerous is just fear not based in any facts. Clearly we can't be treated any worse, workers rights laws can only help us.
When some nannies are paid less it hurts all nannies. It brings down the average pay for all of us.
ReplyDeleteWhen one nanny is mistreated it hurts all nannies. It allows another employer to think nannies can be mistreated.