MEMBER STORIES

One of the most publicized cases brought by an Andolan member was the case of Shamela (see the New York Times article under the LINKS page). Shamela, a Bangladeshi woman, was contracted to work for a diplomat from Bahrain and came to the United States in 1998 on a special visa issued to domestic workers of UN diplomats. Upon her arrival in New York, Begum’s employer confiscated her passport and she was forbidden to leave the apartment alone. For nine months, she worked seven days a week and was paid a meager $100 per month. With the support of Andolan, ultimately Begum’s case was settled out of court and she received compensation.

We celebrated a landmark case settlement for Zarina, an Indian immigrant domestic worker in her 60’s, who suffered from the extreme neglect of her employers. Zarina broke her hand while on the job and her employers refused to allow her to seek medical treatment. She worked 70-80 hours a week with no holiday for less than $2 per hour. She filed a case against her employer and received $94,000, the largest amount a domestic worker has ever received, creating a precedent for domestic worker cases. 

Another example of how Andolan’s work is impacting the community it serves is evidenced by the story of Marjina. Marjina was brought to the United States on a temporary visa as a domestic worker by an Indian family who operated a large business in New Jersey. Upon arriving in the United States and being told by her employers to overstay her visa, Marjina was forced to work 80 hours per week with no holidays and endured severe verbal abuse. Marjina’s work duties included cooking three meals a day for twelve extended family members, cleaning, handwashing dishes, doing laundry for immediate and extended family, ironing, and shoveling snow, in addition to taking care of two infants, including one new-born. For this work, Marjina was paid only $100 per month, wages which she never once saw since they were sent directly to her family in Bangladesh.

Marjina escaped from her abusive work situation in 1999 and decided to work for another Bangladeshi family who lived nearby and promised to pay her higher wages. Marjina faced extreme hardship with the new family, suffering sexual abuse and was again extremely underpaid. Complaining to the wife of the family about the abuse she faced at the hands of her husband, Marjina was thrown out of the house, unable to gather any of her belongings and forced to fend for herself with little money or knowledge of English. After finding her way to New York City, a bus driver introduced Marjina to an Indian storeowner with whom she could communicate and he called some contacts to seek a referral for her. It is through this chance encounter that Marjina was put in touch with Andolan’s director Nahar Alam and joined the organization.

With Andolan’s support, Marjina met one of the many lawyers who do pro-bono work with Andolan and decided at that time to file a lawsuit against both of her previous employers. After successfully winning one of the cases in 2002, Marjina settled the second case against her employer for back wages in July 2003. More important than the financial compensation was the message sent to the employers who were forced to account for their actions and recognize the unacceptable treatment of their former employee. In the process of the cases, Marjina has become a leader and board member of Andolan and inspire other workers to demand that their employers respect their rights. For example, although Marjina never attended school in Bangladesh and is just learning English, she has become a leader of Andolan in her own right. This past summer Marjina befriended another domestic worker through her job (the employers of both women were friends) and realized that this woman was being severely mistreated and underpaid. Recalling a story of how Andolan’s director sent a taxi to a women’s house who was being abused by her husband in order to facilitate her escape from the situation, Marjina called and sent a taxi to the woman’s home and found her help and shelter. Her courage has motivated other workers to file lawsuits despite the obstacles, fear and community pressures to remain silent that many workers experience in determining whether to stand up against the abuse they face. One such worker who was encouraged by Marjina’s example is Carmine. Carmine recently settled her case against abusive employers for a substantial amount in back-pay and has been active in testifying at events organized by Andolan and Domestic Workers United, speaking out against the silence that often characterizes the domestic work sector, particularly in the South Asian community where most domestic workers are employed in the homes of affluent South Asians. 

Another example of how Andolan’s work has affected workers’ lives is evidenced by Shamsun Nahar, our newest Board member and a member of Andolan for the past three years. Her involvement in Andolan facilitated her decision to file independent immigration papers after suffering domestic abuse from her husband who sponsored her to come to this country. Shamsun Nahar works as a domestic worker and Andolan is collaborating with Safe Horizon who will provide her pro-bono legal representation in her case. The program areas in which Andolan works—support to workers, legal cases and campaigns—together provide members the opportunity to learn about and take action regarding their rights and form an important vehicle for individual and community empowerment. 

The establishment of our office in Jackson Heights has been a huge step forward in regularizing Andolan’s work. As a space for legal consultations, trainings, meetings and a resource center, many new workers have learned about the work of Andolan. We recently celebrated the legal victory of Carmine’s case against her abusive employers who brought her from India to work for them, and then severely mistreated her. At the celebration that was held at the end of October 2003, five new women workers attended and expressed interest in joining Andolan. For the initial pilot project to outreach to retail store and beauty salon workers, we have made contact with approximately 30 workers and Andolan’s director has personally talked with 14 thus far. We hope that a greater number of workers will be reached through the brochure dissemination and advertisements in the community newspapers as we continue this campaign. 

We held a self-defense workshop in September 2003 and had 30 women, all low-wage workers from ages ranging from 20 to 60 years old. It was a successful event and we had five new workers come for the first time to an Andolan event. Andolan’s visibility in the community has also increased resulting in a greater number of calls and consultations. At the end of September 2003, nearly 30 workers—mostly all female—of the Malabar restaurant approached Andolan for assistance. The owners of the Manhattan restaurant had closed the doors and left the country, owing most workers tens of thousands of dollars in promised wages they had failed to pay. Andolan is currently securing legal representation for these workers and organizing community information campaigns to bring attention to the issue. Already the case has appeared in several newspaper reports and will likely generate more interest as further details emerge. As this is Andolan’s third case involving restaurant workers, our presence in the community is expanding beyond the issue of domestic workers to defending the rights of broader constituencies of South Asian low-wage workers. Given the press reports, many new workers are contacting us of their own initiative, demonstrating the tremendous need for the work that Andolan does.