DWU is a Black-immigrant-led, grassroots racial justice organization of Caribbean, African, and Latinx domestic workers building power, demanding respect for domestic work, establishing and enforcing fair labor standards in our industry, and helping to build a movement to end exploitation and oppression for all.

Founded in 2000, DWU helped pass the 2010 Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York State, the first such legislation in the United States. Since 2015 we have been 100% worker led, by and for immigrants working as nannies, elder care workers, and house cleaners. DWU offers Know Your Rights sessions, Worker Town Halls, a food justice subsidized CSA distribution for members, healing retreats, arts and cultural activities for liberation, healthcare and health insurance access (through referrals to NYC Care), and legal advocacy, through our allied attorneys, for members struggling with discrimination, harassment, wage theft, and other injustice on the job. As the pandemic clarified all too well, domestic workers are care workers.

Our work is essential and we put ourselves at risk to continue to care—to do the work that makes all other work possible.