Let’s meet the activists and organizations battling workplace sexual harassment and violence—particularly in low-wage industries.
We’re highlighting some of their most powerful strategies so YOU too can take action to make your workplace safer.
The Property Service Workers Protection Act (Assembly Bill 1978), passed in 2016, requires all janitorial companies to conduct sexual harassment prevention training for employers and employees at least once every two years. All janitorial companies must also register in California in order to more easily track and investigate “bad actors” and “fly-by-night” janitorial firms.
After Georgina spoke out about being sexually assaulted at work, she joined a promotora, or peer-educator program, launched by SEIU–United Service Workers West in partnership with Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, an organization that supports non-unionized janitors, and the East L.A. Women’s Center.
Workers and survivors are best positioned to shape the response to sexual harassment and violence in their workplace. As promotoras, they educate their coworkers about their rights and resources.
“The promotora program has brought me to a place where I can speak out, not just for myself, but for other women,” Georgina said. It gave workers a space to transcend stigma, shame, and trauma. It gave them the confidence to take action.
Georgina and the promotoras carried out a hunger strike to pressure Governor Jerry Brown to sign the Property Service Workers Protection Act, which went into effect in January 2017.
Women janitors typically work alone at night and for low pay. They’re especially vulnerable to exploitation, assault, and abuse. Many janitors in California are immigrant women of color who can’t afford to lose their jobs and are less likely to report incidents or abuse.
Georgina Hernández had high hopes for her new janitorial job. Instead, she was harassed and raped on the job by her supervisor.
“It was something so dirty, so disgusting, that I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “… I shut myself into my room to cry. And I asked myself, ‘What more do I have to go through to be able to continue working and earning money to support my children?’ I asked myself if others were going through the same.”
At first Georgina remained silent. After her supervisor threatened her, she sought help and joined with other janitors to provide support for other survivors and take action to improve responses and change the culture in the janitorial industry.
The Property Service Workers Protection Act (Assembly Bill 1978), passed in 2016, requires all janitorial companies to conduct sexual harassment prevention training for employers and employees at least once every two years. All janitorial companies must also register in California in order to more easily track and investigate “bad actors” and “fly-by-night” janitorial firms.
After Georgina spoke out about being sexually assaulted at work, she joined a promotora, or peer-educator program, launched by SEIU–United Service Workers West in partnership with Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, an organization that supports non-unionized janitors, and the East L.A. Women’s Center.
Workers and survivors are best positioned to shape the response to sexual harassment and violence in their workplace. As promotoras, they educate their coworkers about their rights and resources.
“The promotora program has brought me to a place where I can speak out, not just for myself, but for other women,” Georgina said. It gave workers a space to transcend stigma, shame, and trauma. It gave them the confidence to take action.
Georgina and the promotoras carried out a hunger strike to pressure Governor Jerry Brown to sign the Property Service Workers Protection Act, which went into effect in January 2017.
Find out what protections against sexual harassment are in place for all workers, including low-wage workers, in your state. What’s missing? Who has been left out? What organizations are supporting legislative changes? How can you support those organizations’ efforts? Bring up the law’s failings with your local or national legislators at their offices, via email, or at town halls.
Thanks to market consequences and the Fair Food Program’s zero tolerance for sexual violence, reported cases of rape and sexual assault have been virtually eliminated from participating farms, and sexual harassment has plummeted. The Fair Food Program has also combated economic insecurity through the commitment by buyers to pay an extra “penny per pound” of tomatoes, which has resulted in over $30 million in wage bonuses to workers since the Program’s inception.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers created the Fair Food Program which rallied consumers to demand fruits and vegetables that have been grown on farms that provide safe and humane working conditions for farmworkers.
As more buyers signed on to the program and agreed to only buy from growers who would implement a new, worker-driven Code of Conduct and pay “a penny more per pound” for crops such as tomatoes, strawberries, and peppers, the program was able to combat economic insecurity and enact structures and systems to ensure greater worker protections.
The Fair Food Code of Conduct mandates protections against sexual assault and harassment, wage theft, unsafe working conditions, and other abuses.
Drafted by the workers themselves, the program requires distribution of worker-authored written and multimedia “Know Your Rights” materials at the point of hire, and peer-to-peer education throughout the season. Trainings are conducted in workers’ native languages.
Auditors with an independent third-party body conduct regular in-depth audits and run a 24-hour complaint resolution mechanism, which has resolved nearly 2,500 complaints since the beginning of the program.
Farmworkers in the United States face inhumane working conditions. When Nely worked on a farm in Immokalee, Florida, a typical work day began before dawn and lasted ten hours. There was often no access to water, bathrooms, or breaks. Women, in particular, faced tough working conditions. Sexual assault, stalking, and harassment in the fields were widespread. Due to language barriers, an absence of legal protections, and poor pay, Nely and her coworkers had little or no recourse to protect themselves.
“Supervisors did use intimidation,” Nely said, “showing weapons, or shouting, or yelling at other workers to show their power, to intimidate you. And this is something, as a worker, you can’t imagine reporting.”
Nely and others formed the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a worker-based human rights organization. They have fought for and secured better wages and working conditions, including safety from sexual assault in the fields and farms.
Thanks to market consequences and the Fair Food Program’s zero tolerance for sexual violence, reported cases of rape and sexual assault have been virtually eliminated from participating farms, and sexual harassment has plummeted. The Fair Food Program has also combated economic insecurity through the commitment by buyers to pay an extra “penny per pound” of tomatoes, which has resulted in over $30 million in wage bonuses to workers since the Program’s inception.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers created the Fair Food Program which rallied consumers to demand fruits and vegetables that have been grown on farms that provide safe and humane working conditions for farmworkers.
As more buyers signed on to the program and agreed to only buy from growers who would implement a new, worker-driven Code of Conduct and pay “a penny more per pound” for crops such as tomatoes, strawberries, and peppers, the program was able to combat economic insecurity and enact structures and systems to ensure greater worker protections.
The Fair Food Code of Conduct mandates protections against sexual assault and harassment, wage theft, unsafe working conditions, and other abuses.
Drafted by the workers themselves, the program requires distribution of worker-authored written and multimedia “Know Your Rights” materials at the point of hire, and peer-to-peer education throughout the season. Trainings are conducted in workers’ native languages.
Auditors with an independent third-party body conduct regular in-depth audits and run a 24-hour complaint resolution mechanism, which has resolved nearly 2,500 complaints since the beginning of the program.
Shop at grocery stores and fast food chains participating in the Fair Food Program. Also look for the Fair Food label to help you identify foods that are harvested by workers with the highest level of protection of rights.
City ordinances that require hotels to provide panic buttons (devices that immediately locate a worker in need of assistance). Several hotel chains such as Marriott and Hilton have since pledged to provide panic buttons for their workers in the United States. Some of the city ordinances also require hotels to keep a record of guests reported to have sexually harassed or assaulted hotel workers. They must warn workers if an accused guest returns to the hotel. If a sworn accusation of harassment or assault was made, the accused guest is banned from the hotel for three years.
UNITE HERE! surveyed their members in Seattle and Chicago, finding that more than half of their workers had experienced workplace sexual harassment. They led public awareness campaigns to pressure lawmakers to act. They circulated petitions and UNITE HERE! Local 1 created a #HandsOffPantsOn social media public awareness campaign.
Hotel housekeepers often work in isolation. Most are women of color. Many are immigrants. And they are particularly at risk of sexual harassment and violence.
Nuris, an immigrant housekeeper from El Salvador, was sexually harassed by a hotel guest in Seattle.
“After this happened to me, it was hard because you sort of go into a panic,” she said. “You get very anxious, you don’t know how to act. At first, I didn’t feel like I was able to talk to anyone…I was afraid of being fired.”
Through her union, UNITE HERE! Local 8, Nuris reported the incident to her employer, which took action. She then became involved in the union’s campaign to make hotels safer workplaces for housekeepers and other hospitality workers.
City ordinances that require hotels to provide panic buttons (devices that immediately locate a worker in need of assistance). Several hotel chains such as Marriott and Hilton have since pledged to provide panic buttons for their workers in the United States. Some of the city ordinances also require hotels to keep a record of guests reported to have sexually harassed or assaulted hotel workers. They must warn workers if an accused guest returns to the hotel. If a sworn accusation of harassment or assault was made, the accused guest is banned from the hotel for three years.
UNITE HERE! surveyed their members in Seattle and Chicago, finding that more than half of their workers had experienced workplace sexual harassment. They led public awareness campaigns to pressure lawmakers to act. They circulated petitions and UNITE HERE! Local 1 created a #HandsOffPantsOn social media public awareness campaign.
Stay in hotels that participate in the Fair Hotel Program, which have committed to providing better working conditions and wages for employees. Find socially responsible hotels here: https://unitehere.org/industry/hotels/.
While many consumers routinely tip restaurant servers, hotel workers also rely on tips to supplement their wages. When workers are more economically secure, they are less vulnerable to the risks of reporting or confronting sexual harassment. For hotel housekeeping, a tip of $4-$10 per night (depending on how messy your room is, or the caliber of the hotel). It’s important to tip the housekeeper for each night of your stay rather than giving one large tip at the end. You may not have the same housekeeper every day, and if the hotel doesn’t allow workers to pool tips and distribute evenly, then you may not be providing a tip to the person who provided the service to you. Best practice is to leave a note each day with your tip that clearly indicates it is intended for the person who will clean your room.
New York passed the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in 2010. Seven other states followed as well as the City of Seattle. These bills ensure fair working conditions, including a clause that protects domestic workers from sexual harassment and other forms of workplace abuse. In July of 2019, the Federal Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights was introduced in Congress.
The NDWA shifted how people perceived domestic workers. Instead of “the help,” they are valued employees who support homes, families, and care for children and the elderly. The organizations assisted workers in taking collective action and trained them—the ones most impacted by workplace sexual violence—to take on leadership roles and lobby and garner public support.
“I understand their struggle,” Daniela said. “They’re like me. Most of them are single moms, undocumented, and they need to know that this is the place where you can come and know that you have support, not only from me but from the whole team.”
The NDWA has also worked to gain the support of employers and allies. They reach out to families that employ domestic workers, telling them about the Bill of Rights and how they can maintain safe work environments.
Housekeepers, nannies, and elder-care providers often work in private homes. They’re exempt from most employment and workplace protections. Like hotel workers, they’re often women of color and immigrants and therefore vulnerable to workplace sexual harassment and violence.
Daniela, an immigrant from Mexico, was a teenaged nanny when she was sexually harassed by her employer. She fled the house to escape him. Afraid she would be blamed, not believed, or deported, Daniela didn’t tell anyone for years. Then a friend connected her with the National Domestic Workers’ Alliance, a network of more than 60 affiliate organizations dedicated to improving working conditions and strengthening protections from sexual harassment and other workplace abuses. She got involved with NDWA, connecting workers in New York City with resources.
June, a queer Jamaican immigrant, has performed domestic work in the U.S. for over 18 years. She is an organizer and leader with the ‘We Dream in Black’ program of NDWA, which centers the experiences of black nannies, home care workers, and housekeepers to provide policy recommendations and reforms needed to address low wages, rampant sexual harassment, and other abuses faced by domestic workers. She is a leading spokesperson in the #metoo movement sharing her personal experiences of verbal, physical, and sexual violence she experienced while working as a home care worker. She is a fierce campaigner against wage theft and advocates for affordable health care options for marginalized workers.
New York passed the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in 2010. Seven other states followed as well as the City of Seattle. These bills ensure fair working conditions, including a clause that protects domestic workers from sexual harassment and other forms of workplace abuse. In July of 2019, the Federal Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights was introduced in Congress.
The NDWA shifted how people perceived domestic workers. Instead of “the help,” they are valued employees who support homes, families, and care for children and the elderly. The organizations assisted workers in taking collective action and trained them—the ones most impacted by workplace sexual violence—to take on leadership roles and lobby and garner public support.
“I understand their struggle,” Daniela said. “They’re like me. Most of them are single moms, undocumented, and they need to know that this is the place where you can come and know that you have support, not only from me but from the whole team.”
The NDWA has also worked to gain the support of employers and allies. They reach out to families that employ domestic workers, telling them about the Bill of Rights and how they can maintain safe work environments.
If you employ a domestic worker for child care, elder care, housekeeping, etc., at a minimum, provide the protections accorded in these bills. If you have ever employed a domestic worker, and they have allowed you to work outside the home, have a career, or support your family, pay it forward by finding out if your state has a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights or other legislation, and if not, contact your local representative to advocate for employment protections for these critical workers. Here are some other ways to take action: https://www.domesticworkers.org/take-action
Alianza has helped thousands of women not only tell their stories—often for the first time—but transform their experiences into action. Members, some of them organizers and others promotoras (trained peer educators and advocates), educate other campesinas and farmworker communities about their rights and how to advocate for better working conditions. The group’s coalition-building efforts have provided more support to women farmworkers and helped pass laws to better protect them and ensure the implementation of these laws are effective.
The campesinas planned events, conferences, and teatros, or theater performances, to inform and engage fellow women farmworkers and their communities. They created educational materials on sexual harassment and domestic violence. They lobbied politicians and strengthened services available to survivors of sexual harassment and violence. They also helped social service organizations adapt to better serve the particular needs of campesinas.
Beginning in 1991 in California, farmworker women started a national movement of survivor-led grassroots advocacy and organizing. In 2010, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas (Alianza) was founded by a group of women representing farmworker-led organizations to address the needs, concerns, and vulnerabilities of farmworker women to rape and sexual harassment in the fields and farms, and other forms of violence against campesinas including domestic violence at home.
Alianza has helped thousands of women not only tell their stories—often for the first time—but transform their experiences into action. Members, some of them organizers and others promotoras (trained peer educators and advocates), educate other campesinas and farmworker communities about their rights and how to advocate for better working conditions. The group’s coalition-building efforts have provided more support to women farmworkers and helped pass laws to better protect them and ensure the implementation of these laws are effective.
The campesinas planned events, conferences, and teatros, or theater performances, to inform and engage fellow women farmworkers and their communities. They created educational materials on sexual harassment and domestic violence. They lobbied politicians and strengthened services available to survivors of sexual harassment and violence. They also helped social service organizations adapt to better serve the particular needs of campesinas.
Mily’s life as a campesina had not been easy. “So many of us had experienced sexual assault, harassment, and reproductive health problems thanks to the pesticides we were doused in,” she said. “We were all sick and tired of it.”
Mily found that organizations working on farmworker or immigrant issues tended to dismiss sexual harassment as just a “women’s issue,” and due to stigma and cultural taboos, rarely discussed it. She knew there was a need for women to form a collective—a space for and by campesinas—to share stories and work against the structures enforcing silence and enabling harassment. Mily was one of the co-founders of Alianza, which has become a powerful advocacy organization for women farmworkers, lifting up their voices and concerns.
Advocate for laws that provide the same employment protections for farmworkers as other workers such as overtime pay, and greater accountability for discrimination and harassment. Assemble friends or coworkers to watch the Frontline documentary Rape in the Fields to raise awareness of sexual violence perpetrated against farmworker women and build alliance with the farmworker/survivor movement.
Created by advocate, activist, and co-founder of Alianza Mónica Ramirez, the Bandana Project is a public awareness campaign that addresses sexual violence in the fields and farms perpetrated against campesinas. Farmworker women decorate bandanas as a symbol of their experiences with sexual assault and harassment. In acts of solidarity, community organizations, advocates, government officials, friends, and activists decorate bandanas as well with words of encouragement and support, or inspirational drawings or art. The bandanas are then exhibited in public spaces to demonstrate a shared commitment to ending sexual violence in the fields. While this project has done so much to inform the public of this issue, it also allows campesinas to better understand and take power over their own stories and work to create change themselves.
Learn more about The Bandana Project here:
https://justice4women.org/the-bandana-project
Seven states now require that restaurants pay the standard state minimum wage for those in the industry who work primarily for tips. ROC-United was also instrumental in getting Congress to pass a bill making tips the property of workers instead of the property of restaurant and bar owners.
ROC-United established the One Fair Wage campaign. First, the organization researched the origins, extent, and scope of sexual harassment in restaurants and demonstrated the link between this conduct and servers working for tips. With this information in hand, they could win public support for legislative action. ROC-United also developed a national employer association, Restaurants Advancing Industry Standards in Employment, or RAISE, to provide guidance and support for restaurant owners who want to promote safe and respectful working environments. RAISE shows owners how to provide a safe work environment without hurting their bottom line. More than 750 employers now benefit from training and support and, importantly, stand behind campaigns to change laws in their states. Finally, ROC-United has mobilized customers. The group created Diners United. Its accompanying Diners’ Guide helps consumers choose restaurants that promote safer working conditions and a livable wage for their employees.
The U.S. restaurant industry employs nearly 14 million workers and is the nation’s largest source of sexual harassment claims.
Workers earning a sub-minimum wage depend almost entirely on tips, a situation that is associated with higher rates of sexual harassment from customers and managers. It encourages an environment where workers are dependent on pleasing the customer, and it makes it more difficult to push back against mistreatment. Saru co-founded Restaurant Opportunities Centers United to raise base wages and restore a balance of power in restaurants.
In 2019, Saru founded the organization One Fair Wage, which advances policy and drives industry change to ensure that all workers in the United States are paid a living wage by their employers, or at least the full minimum wage.
Seven states now require that restaurants pay the standard state minimum wage for those in the industry who work primarily for tips. ROC-United was also instrumental in getting Congress to pass a bill making tips the property of workers instead of the property of restaurant and bar owners.
ROC-United established the One Fair Wage campaign. First, the organization researched the origins, extent, and scope of sexual harassment in restaurants and demonstrated the link between this conduct and servers working for tips. With this information in hand, they could win public support for legislative action. ROC-United also developed a national employer association, Restaurants Advancing Industry Standards in Employment, or RAISE, to provide guidance and support for restaurant owners who want to promote safe and respectful working environments. RAISE shows owners how to provide a safe work environment without hurting their bottom line. More than 750 employers now benefit from training and support and, importantly, stand behind campaigns to change laws in their states. Finally, ROC-United has mobilized customers. The group created Diners United. Its accompanying Diners’ Guide helps consumers choose restaurants that promote safer working conditions and a livable wage for their employees.
If you have a neighborhood restaurant or one that you frequent, ask the management if servers are paid one fair wage, and provide information on the risks to servers and benefits of becoming a “high-road employer”. When you dine out, see if the restaurant is recommended through the Diners’ Guide. If you work in the restaurant industry, find out if there is a ROC affiliate in your community and look to see how you can get involved as an advocate. If there isn’t one, talk to your coworkers and think about starting one in your area.
