Whose Rights? Domestic Workers Organizing in Massachusetts

Abstract

Abstract Household-based care work is a particular labor sector that presents challenges to organizing politically, including isolation and lack of coverage by labor laws. In the United States, domestic workers’ organizations have since the 1990s been led by immigrants of color, and in ten states they were successful at establishing state regulations on domestic work. This article examines the collective identity of these organizations against the background of the claims, frames, and alliances established in domestic workers’ activism at the state level, with a particular focus on the campaign for the Massachusetts Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Based on interviews with organizers and other experts carried out in 2018–2020, I analyze the discrepancy between the demographics of the organizations led by immigrants of color, and the claims these organizations were making, which largely avoided making direct reference to the issue of immigration or race for strategic purposes.