Women Workers Project

As New York City's economy increasingly relies on the exploited labor of undocumented immigrant service workers, WWP seeks to develop leadership among and create spaces for Asian women working in these sectors to unite with other immigrant workers to fight sweatshop conditions and build power for all low-wage workers City-wide. To this end, Women Workers Project organizes Asian immigrant women working in the new and growing service sectors of New York City, such as domestic work, nail salons, and laundries. WWP also mobilizes Asian women workers to oppose racist immigration practices that tear communities apart, and promotes policies supporting human rights and dignity for all.

WWP's work includes:

Asian Women's Leadership Institute

This four-week program held twice per year is a space for learning and sharing information among Asian women workers to strengthen leadership and organizing skills among new members. The sessions are grounded in the migration histories and experiences of workers in their particular industries, and prepare workers for active leadership roles in ongoing campaigns for immigrant workers' rights. Workshops include: Power and Systems of Inequality, How Change Happens, Introduction to Organizing, Globalization and New York City's Workforce, and more.

Domestic Workers United

DWU is a New York City-wide movement of individual domestic workers and domestic worker organizations including WWP of CAAAV, Andolan Organizing South Asian Workers, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, and Damayan Migrant Workers Association, organizing to raise the level of respect and recognition for domestic workers and establish fair labor standards in the domestic work industry of New York City. DWU's current campaign, "Dignity for Domestic Workers," seeks to establish a Standard Contract for all domestic workers including provisions for health care, paid vacation, notice of termination and severance pay. DWU's recent major victory was the passage of Local Law 96-A and Resolution 135 in New York City Council in support of rights and dignity for domestic workers.

Health Advocacy

In the nail salons, laundries and child care-giving and housekeeping, workers work long hours, for low wages, and are exposed to cleaning agents and other chemicals that effect women's health and safety. At the same time, these workplaces are unregulated, and in some cases not even considered workplaces. WWP is developing a program to document and analyze reproductive and occupational safety and health issues among low-wage immigrant women workers in the new "service sweatshop" economy of New York City. The program examines health issues related to undocumented women workers, such as access to health care, workplace injury prevention, new toxins and their implications for immigrant women's health and is in the process of developing long, mid-range and short term strategies to address such issues. Currently, WWP works with No Dut Dol for Korean Community Development, another community-based organization in Queens, to provide ongoing access to health care for undocumented women workers.