Our History

In 2000, the Women Workers Project of CAAAV, a Filipina domestic workers organization in collaboration with Andolan Organizing South Asian Workers, a South Asian domestic workers group, founded Domestic Workers United. After having done two years of advocacy work for individual domestic workers who were underpaid or abused by their employers, staff and members of CAAAV’S Women Workers Project began outreach to domestic workers from the Caribbean and Latin America in 1999. Members felt empowered, wanting to create an organized workforce. They imagined a collectivized workforce and established fair labor standards for the industry. Through a series of monthly meetings organized by CAAAV and Andolan in Brooklyn, hundreds of domestic workers, predominantly from the Caribbean, organized to form DWU. Since its founding in 2000, DWU has been supporting workers from the Caribbean, Africa, and Latin America. DWU collaborates with other domestic worker organizations in New York, across the United States, and internationally to strengthen the domestic workforce as a whole. At the first US Social Forum in 2007, DWU became a founding member of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). In 2010, DWU represented NDWA as a founding member of the International Domestic Workers Network.  

In 2003, DWU and the NY Domestic Workers Justice Coalition launched the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights campaign. After six and a half years of organizing, building a base of over 4,000 workers, and a broad coalition of employers, unions, clergy, and various community organizations, DWU brought our power to bear with the passage of the nation’s first comprehensive legislation extending basic rights and protections to domestic workers. The New York Domestic Workers Bill of Rights was signed into law on August 31, 2010. DWU is now leading the implementation of the historic law through outreach, education, and enforcement. DWU also helps to support similar Bill of Rights campaigns across the country.  As a membership-based organization, DWU is open to any domestic worker who is committed to our mission and goals to organize power, respect, fair labor standards, and to build a movement for social change.