Lessons Learned in NYC, Part One - Worker Justice

I have decided to write first about what I learned about worker justice issues in NYC and beyond.  I will start by stepping back to my first full day in the city and one of many experiences my colleagues at Cornell University Cooperative Extension in New York City (CUCE-NYC) arranged for me.  They set up a very busy two days of meetings, listening sessions and informal conversations.  I was very fortunate to get time to speak with KC Wagner, who is the Director of Workplace Issues at the Worker Institute in the Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) School at Cornell University.  The ILR is part of the land grant structure and does a fair bit of work on promoting workplace fairness, health, safety, equity and social justice under the land grant or outreach banner.  I was really impressed because as far as I know, my own land grant university does little in this area.  I had an intense conversation with KC and Emily Mandell, a graduate student, who were working together on the Nanny Training project and who are now engaged with training elder caregivers.

Emily and KC

I will leave it to my reader to follow the weblink to learn more about the Worker Institute and the fine work they are doing.  The ILR was founded in 1945 to help NY workers with collective bargaining and is a leader in work on national and international workplace issues - the focus is very broad.  I love it that some of the work focuses on the workers themselves and not just the people, organizations and institutions that employ them.  This interview helped me shift my focus for this trip to the conditions that blue collar and unskilled workers endure and have for many decades (and I could say centuries).  We may not have called the skilled laborers of the past who built cathedrals, castles, tenement buildings, roads, etc, blue collar but I think there is a parallel.  I also think of the names we have used for people who help with the household work for more affluent classes: drudges, slaves, servants, chorewomen, etc.  The names have often lacked the panache that they deserve.  I digress.

KC excitedly told me about several projects with which she is involved and how she sees her work one of translating research and education into practical applications.  She worked tirelessly on helping establish the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights for NYC.  She is now working with a collaborative that provides a 35 hour training for caregivers, first for Nannies and now includes elder caregivers.  

I realized early in our conversation just how important labor issues were in the state of New York and in the city.  I came into this trip wanting to know more about the conditions that impacted the immigrant population (past and present) and knew that would be one of the themes of this trip.  I was not disappointed.  I will write more about what I learned about the sweatshops and garment industry in another day or two.  For now I am going to focus on the issues that challenge the current immigrants, especially the women who seek work as house cleaners.

She asked me how long I would be in NYC and highly recommended that I arrange to visit people involved in workplace justice issues in Brooklyn.  I learned about one of the only corners in the country where female day laborers gather seeking housecleaning jobs.  It is in Williamsburg, a working class area of Brooklyn.  I was able to contact Yadira Sanchez at the Worker's Justice Project in Brooklyn and she invited me to come meet her in Williamsburg.  I offered to take her out to lunch.  Mike and I came as arranged to meet at the corner where the women gather each day in hopes of finding a cleaning job,  most of which are in homes of Hasidic Jews who live in the area.  When we found our way to the corner and Yadira there were many women milling about, waiting and hoping for work that day.  It was already 11:30 am.  Some may have already worked once that day.

Day laborers in Williamsburg

We found Yadira and with her were Angel and Maria, both of whom work with the Worker's Justice Project.  The women gathered around us.  We were so different that we stuck out.  Yadira introduced me and I gave a little speech about myself, my sabbatical and wishing them well in their lives and thanking them for their attention.  Yadira, Angel and Maria then led us to a Mexican restaurant where we could talk and we had a wonderful meal and a very animated conversation about the conditions under which these women work, the work that Yadira and her team are doing to ameliorate the conditions and their hopes and dreams for the future.

Maria, Yadira and Angel.  All three are from Mexico.  

I wanted to spend the rest of the day talking with them.  We all had to go our separate ways sadly for me.  I heard from Yadira today.  She asked if I would be writing about our visit on my blog because they need publicity.  They felt that it was a relief to have a real conversation and not to have to speak in sound bites about their work.  I decided to make their story a priority for today's writing.

They told me the story of the really poor conditions under which the women labor.  The Hasidic tradition is to clean all floors on hands and knees and to use harmful chemicals to do that to make sure they are as clean as possible.  They hire the day laborers to clean anywhere from 2-8 hours a day and much of the work is done on their hands and knees on hard surfaces.  Yadira shared with me some of the physical damage that is being observed in the workers.  They have seen a number of women who have hardened calluses on their knees that impact their ability to walk.  They see raw skin from the hands all the way up the arms that do not heal and are being irritated daily by harmful, and possibly carcinogenic chemical cleaners.  They know of women who organs are being permanently pushed in because of the position they must maintain for hours at a time on their hands and knees.  Cleaning synagogue floors may take a full eight hours when done on hands and knees.  They report a more frequent rate of miscarriages than one might expect and postulated that the daily exposure to cleaning chemicals and the constant position of being on hands and knees may contribute.  

The Worker's Justice Project is working with the women on several fronts.  They are giving the workers who will come a 10 hour OHSA training on the recognition and use of harmful chemicals.  They are addressing intimidation in the workplace and standing against being asked to do things that are unsafe.  They are also teaching them about worker rights.  They are creating a housekeeping guide for both employers and workers and are making some progress on identifying leaders within the Hassidic community who can help that community be part of the solution.  They have begun a campaign entitled Stand Up to Clean Up that says it all.  The art work is great.  Take a look at the pictures and the stories.  It is a campaign that makes sense and the time is now for action!  I admire that the Worker's Justice Project has formed a cleaner's cooperative.   Maria was the first member.  She began as a day laborer on the corner.  She enrolled in English and computer classes through the Worker's Justice Center and is now the bookkeeper for the cooperative.  She uses Excel.  I was impressed because I have still not mastered Excel.  She has become a spokesperson for the group.  Maria is from  the state of Puebla, Mexico.  There is a large group of immigrants from Puebla in the NYC area.  Most are recent immigrants.  

The work with the women is only one of the things these devoted folks do.  I was really inspired and grateful to get a closer look at this project. I would like to have had time to shadow Yadira for a week.  I asked Yadira and Angel about their stories and passions.  We ran out of time before I could hear much from Angel who studied business in college and who was applying that the work on labor and social justice.  Yadira helped co-found the Worker's Justice Project after being involved with the plight of the day laborer when her husband became involved.  She got involved in an organization for day laborers that she loved because it connected her with the community.  When it closed, she used her organizational skills to help found the Worker's Justice Project with Executive Director, Ligia  Guapia.  One of the most gratifying parts of conversation came when I asked Yadira what about the work she does makes her most hopeful.  She answered:

• She really wants to see changes and to see the workers protected under the law. She wants the law to be enforced for safety and dignity.
• She wants women to retrieve what they have lost (in coming to this country, working as virtual slaves under very harmful conditions, etc).  She said that "our country (Mexico) has failed us and this country (US) has failed us.  I want these women to believe in themselves and to know they deserve support.  This is hard work - you have to be emotionally and psychologically healthy to survive."  

She stated as had KC and others across this journey that social justice is very important.  Social justice is not something that lip service fixes.  Taking real steps can make a difference.  The Worker's Justice Center is one beacon for that work.  I was really glad I took KC's advice and reached out to Yadira.  My visit with in Williamsburg was one of the many highlights of my trip to NYC.

I thought I would close with two more pictures.  KC shared her art work with me.  She goes to the Folk School in North Carolina each year and she has been using printing on fabric to connect her work life with her art.

What the day laborers deserve.

The last is a piece of glass art that greeted us when we stepped off the subway at Marcy Avenue to  meet Yadira after an awesome trip over the Williamsburg Bridge.

Beauty is everywhere.

My next post will focus on my visit with the CUCE-NYC group.

Thanks for reading.

Home at last

We are home from New York City.  Over the next few days I will be posting my reflections of what I learned during my stay there.  It was a rich experience.  I am glad to be home for a time of reading, reflection, writing and sleeping in my own bed.  I have missed home and I am grateful to be here for awhile.

Mike and I visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island the day before we flew home.

Ellis Island

Looking up at Lady Liberty

I was really glad we took the time to explore what and why the statue of liberty is.  It is an engineering marvel thanks to the ingenious Monsieur Eiffel who used his bridge building skills to create the infrastructure for the copper exterior.   The statue is so iconic and has so many meanings for people in our country and for those entering our country.  It was well worth the visit and was related to my study of the immigration experience.  I took a picture of one of the many pieces of art that were done over the years that interpreted the immigration experience.  The one I choose to share represents some of the things I have been learning on this sabbatical.

Who do we hold captive?

I will let the image of liberty as prison speak for itself.

We also took time to see a Broadway play.  I was really encouraged by almost everyone, native New Yorker or not, to go to Broadway.  We bit the bullet (tickets are spendy, even half price) and went to see "It's Only a Play."  We were not disappointed.  It exceeded my expectations.  I am still remembering it and was really glad I witnessed first class acting and comedic timing that was impeccable.

I wanted to let you dear readers know that Mike and I are doing the service at our church, Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship next Sunday, May 3rd.  Our theme is Immigration Injustice.  Here is a brief description:

Immigration Injustice: Reflections from faithful witness at the southern border.

Drew and Mike Betz, Speakers

Drew and Michael were members of a BorderLinks Delegation sponsored by the UU College of Social Justice in Tucson in February, 2015.  They spent four days studying and witnessing the issues of injustice, broken policies and modern samaritan efforts to save lives and dignity in the harsh desert of the Southwest.  They will reflect on some of the images and stories they brought home through reading and first hand experience and ask the questions: Why should we care if the system is broken? What is our role as a community of faith and as individuals of conscience? How can we respond Border to Border?

The service begins at 10:30 a.m.  If you are close by we would love for you to join us.  Directions can be found on the website, linked above.  Most services are also recorded if you are inspired to listen.

I leave you with some other images of NYC.

New York City Library, one of many jaw dropping images.

Riding the F Line

Sleeping on the way home

One of my favorite subway art pieces, taken at the Marcy Avenue station in Brooklyn. Made of glass this piece was in the open air and the light shone through it.

As always, thanks for reading.

Saturday in Manhattan

We are in New York City and it is an amazing place!  I spent two very productive days with the great team at Cornell Cooperative Extension - NYC.  I will write more about that visit in detail in a future blog.  I wanted to share some of the fun things Mike and I saw and did in various places in Manhattan on Saturday.

We headed out from our hotel, the Chelsea Savoy, on foot and walked to Union Square where the Greenmarket is on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.  Mike and I love Farmer's Market and go to the Bellingham Market as often as possible.  We like to visit markets in other cities and we are never disappointed by what we find.  This market was no different.  It was a feast for the eyes and the spirit

Yummy cheese!

.

Plants galore!

Amanda, the friendly yarn woman who helped me select beautiful hand dyed green yarn.  This farm was a big part of Clara Parkes Great White Bale project.  I am a reader and fan of Clara's and a regular reader of Knitter's Review. 

The beautiful naturally dyed yarns at Catskill Merino Sheep Farm.

We had a great time visiting with these folks and brought home some seeds to plant.

Mother Pigeon created these lovely birds.  What a pleasure to see the art being so approachable!

We hopped on the subway and went north to the Upper East Side where we ate lunch, found the All Souls UU Church and walked to and through Central Park.  Central Park is an awesome part of the city.  Mike has been almost every day.  I have been three times already.  We spent time on Saturday wandering through the sunning crowds, watching bicyclists of all sizes and shape ride the road around the park, and visiting the Turtle Pond.

Spring time in Central Park!

Turtle Pond, and yes,
we did see turtles sunning themselves along the edge.

After returning to hotel and having a rest, we set out again for Chelsea Market and the High Line Park.  Both are in our neighborhood and we were excited to go.  Again, we were not disappointed.  The Chelsea Market has a plethora of shops and eateries and art galore.  We enjoyed a very casual meal of Japanese Mexican fusion restaurant, Takumi.  I have never tasted a spicy tuna taco but it was good.  As was everything else we ate.  Beans and rice were a combination of edamame, red beans, black beans and brown rice.  So good to my palate. We topped the meal off with gelato that was to die for.  We tasted but did not order the olive oil flavor.  Interesting.  Where else but NYC?

One of my favorite shops in the market was a Spice and Tea shop.  I bought both to bring home.  The colors and smells lured us.  I felt like I was being transported to a street market in Africa!

What would you buy?
We got a special blend for cooking fish and another for poultry

and some tea.

Famous clock in the Chelsea Market.

We ended our day by walking back to our hotel on the elevated High Line Park trail.  What a wonderful thing to do at sunset!  It was a beautiful day and many were enjoying the pleasure of walking along the edge of Manhattan above the crowded streets.

Looking west from the High Line.

Going north on the trail.

Saturday was a great day for both of us.  We walked over eight miles, not uncommon for tourists in New York, took several subway rides and at the end of the day walked past people lined up to see films at the Tribeca Film Festival.  Two of the theaters showing films are on our street, one on our block.

Whether you have been to New York City or not, I know you will all appreciate the words of a newcomer who sees the city for the first time and you will think about going for yourself or returning.

Thanks for reading.

Halfway Point Reflections

Thanks to all of you who are reading this blog and letting me know what you think and what you are learning about me and the issues I am presenting.  I know the last entry was long and detailed.  This will be shorter.

I am still in recovery mode from my cold.  Such is life.  I am grateful to have the space to do it in my own home rather than having to recover in an office environment where every sneeze and blow of the nose causes people to shudder.  It will take time.

I was able to attend church on Sunday and joyfully sing.  I  believe that singing is a very healing activity.  I was so moved by being able to join my voice with others and in swaying to the African rhythms of the BUF choir as they enchanted us with a special Alleluia chorus.   Our closing hymn was the traditional Easter alleluia set to the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Lo, the Earth is Risen Today.   I was able to trill with the best of them while singing the refrain.   The whole experience was just what I needed.  Earlier in the year I purchased a new hymnal and dedicated it to my daughter Kate Bronwyn Oakley, who died on May 12, 2002.  She was a singer and deeply connected to our faith tradition.  I found the hymnal and read her name and started to cry in her memory.  I ended up shedding tears off and on during the day and the next.  A wave of grief that I am grateful to experience.  Being in a faith community, whichever one calls to us, is a protective factor for coping with life for those who find harbor there.  I was moved to remember the myriad of rosaries that were left by migrants at the chapel at San Juan Bosco Albergue in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.  I brought one home and placed it on my own altar of remembrance to remind me of the loss and hopes that I share with the women and men on the journey.

Rosaries being offered as gifts to our delegation.  For fellow travelers. San Juan Bosco Albergue.

I am at a halfway point of this sabbatical and I thought it would be good to reflect on what I have learned to date.  The list is not exhaustive but what is popping for me on this beautiful April morning in Bellingham.

1. Brown lives matter.  The United States has created an intolerable web of policies around immigration and trade that have acted as destructively as how the American Indians were treated, how the Jews were treated during WW2 by this country and other countries that would not aid their escape or even even recognize what was happening in Germany and Poland.  I believe more firmly than ever that we need to take off our blinders about what we as taxpayers are supporting at our mostly southern border - torture, discrimination of the worst sort, death by neglect and more.  It is not pretty and we need to be mindful of this situation not just in the present tense but in how survivors are coping with the losses of their families and livelihoods and separations from their dear ones.  We need to be cognizant of the perils of the journeys our policies are supporting and take responsibility for making an ethical stand.  I have been changed by my experiences on this trip.  

2.  There are many wonderful samaritans, scholars, educators, politicians, activists and survivors whose voices are speaking out and who need to be heard over and over.  I was so impressed by the work that is being done in Arizona that I am more hopeful that the generation of students who are now in high school and college will be part of the change.  

3. There are some improvements we can make in how we structure our programs.  I came away from my SW trip full of ideas about how to incorporate conversations and activities that focus on sexuality, racial/ethnic pride, safety and immigration into our program.  I am still gathering ideas and will continue to do so when I visit NYC next week.

4. I am ready to start acting on what I am learning.  I am starting to explore foundations that might give to our project revision.  I am thinking about expanding our program to serve younger children and their families.  I am ready to plan the May 3rd service at my church about the Immigration Justice Journey.  Mike and I will be doing that together.  I am ready to live the next 3 months to the fullest.

5.  I have been overwhelmed by the generosity I have experienced on this journey to date.  I have stayed at private homes in Arizona, California and Oregon.  A big shout out to our friends Barbara and Ron for showing us hospitality in Portal, Arizona; to friends Marilyn and Dale for allowing us shelter and space to enjoy Healing Waters in Desert Edge, California; to Debbie and Rick for sheltering us in Portland on the journey and twice more before the end of June; Marie Provine and Mike Shelton in Tempe Arizona.  The generosity of people who have shared their work and passion with me: Emrys Staton, Anna Ochoa O'Leary, Jose Rodas, Andrea Romero in Tucson; Darcy Dixon and all her crew in Santa Cruz County, Arizona; Cathi Lamp and her team in dry Tulare County; Benny Rodriguez at Bethlehem Center in Visalia; David Ginsburg and Lucia Kaiser at UC Davis; Marcel Horowitz and her team at Yolo County CE; Lorena Carranza at Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services; and Rebecca White and her Latino Resilience Enterprise Team in Tempe.  Most of all a deep sense of gratitude and relief that my husband Michael came along for the ride and ended up being pulled into the conversation.  I am grateful for the miles he drove and for his company.

6.  I have done some really fun things along the way.  We had a wonderful family reunion at our cousin Marc's home in Palm Springs.  We spent a night in Ashland, OR, on the way home and saw Guys and Dolls at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (preparation for going to NYC :>)).  We toured windmills, hiked, ate marvelous food, brought home a huge amount of fresh dates, deepened friendships and made new ones, took a side trip to San Diego and visited old friends there, explored Davis, California and I got to attend my first ever spring training game last week in Arizona!  Go Mariners!  They won, it was 95 degrees and I had a great time.

Dark blue clothes in 95 degree weather?  HOT!

7.  I really enjoy blogging.  I promised a shorter post today so I think I will let it go here.  As always, I am grateful for your readership and continued support.  I love hearing from family and friends who are reading.  We are off to NYC a week from tomorrow.  I will post once more before we head out!

Thanks for reading!

Butterflies at the Desert Botanical Gardens near Tempe, a reminder that life is short and to seize the day!

Latino Resilience Enterprise at Arizona State University

I traveled to the Tempe/Phoenix area this week for a whirlwind visit with the Latino Resilience Enterprise team at the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University.  I became familiar with the amazing work that is happening within the LRE by attending a series of sessions at the National Council on Family Relations 2014 meeting in Baltimore, MD.  I was fortunate to make connections and to work with Dr. Rebecca White, one of the co-directors of LRE, to arrange a visit.   Thanks to the LRE and especially to Stefanie Fuentes for their care and time in making it a productive day for me.

Stefanie showing off the gorgeous bow she put on the bag they gifted me with as a memory of my day.

I spoke with Rebecca to get an overview of the work LRE is engaged with and to gain an understanding of her work directing the Success in Latino Neighborhoods project.  Rebecca generously shared a number of articles that she and others in her group had published and also gave me a recommendation for a book I have just ordered: Immigrants Raising Children: Undocumented Parents and their Young Children By Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2012.

Rebecca's project is one of seven initiatives listed on the LRE website.  I want to spend some time talking about her work before moving to other work of the LRE.  Rebecca is funded by the William T. Grant foundation as an early career scholar.  It is a prestigious award that will fund five years of her work.  Her first graduate student for the project comes from our very own Washington State University Vancouver Human Development Program.  Elizabeth (Liz)  Burleson came south to work with Rebecca and the neighborhood project.  She is a statistics whiz and was also drawn by the strong statistical analysis focus of the program.  I remember Liz from our regional NCFR conference when she was the undergraduate poster winner.  It was great to connect with someone from home.  I was delighted to go out to lunch with Liz and Michelle Pasco, Rebecca's first year student on the neighborhood project.  We had a conversation that ranged from statistics, the hard work being a graduate student requires, life and work balance and the reasons they both chose to come to ASU.  

Liz Burleson, data whiz and second year graduate student and WSUV graduate.

Michelle Pasco, first year student, UCLA graduate.

Both young women are working with a project in which they are using photo elicitation with youth in Latino neighborhoods gather qualitative data about what the youth perceive are the strengths and challenges of living in their neighborhood and they are also working with a large data set that comes from Los Angeles where there are many such neighborhoods.  Some of the preliminary findings that Dr. White reported are that Latino youth receive increased ethnic orientation beyond what the parents are providing and that this increased orientation and Spanish language use act as moderators and protective factors against substance abuse and other risk behaviors.  I came away with more questions than answers as always but I was really enriched by what I learned and from the resources I now have for deepening my learning about the benefits ethnic identity has on adolescent growth and development.

I met with several other students.  Many thanks to Diamond Brave, Danielle Seay, Chelsea Derlan, and Sara Douglass for sharing their work with me.  

Diamond, Danielle and Chelsea are all involved with the Supporting MAMI project.  MAMI stands for Mexican-origin Adolescent Mothers and their Infants.  I had a little familiarity with the project because I had attended a session that Diamond gave at NCFR in Baltimore.  If you have been following my blog you are aware of the interest I have in the issue of teen parents in the Latino populations.  These young women were engaged in significant work with their mentors in understanding the connection between parenting/family stress and family support and its influence on child development and parental mental health in these moms.  The study is longitudinal, having the 204 adolescent mothers and their children and extended families for six years.  I asked them both for the takeaways from their work.  They provided me with path analyses of their work.  My early work in statistics during my graduate studies helped me enormously.  Diamond's work showed significant negative relationship between parenting efficacy and economic hardship on adolescent parenting stress and that the adolescent stress negatively impacted the adolescent's endorsement of their child's readiness (academic and social emotional) attend kindergarten.  This finding seems very intuitive and has many implications for how teen pregnancy and parenting is handled on the school and community levels.  

Chelsea works with the Family Stress model and found that economic pressure and maternal depressive symptoms are connected to co-parenting conflict between the grandmother and the mother and are compounded in future years with co-parenting conflict with the father and increased hassles for the mother that result in the both acting out and internalizing behavior problems in the 6th year of the study.  I asked Chelsea where the salient points of intervention could be made that might mitigate these effects on both mother and child.  She pointed to year three of their data when the depressive symptoms emerged and in year 4 when the mother-grandmother co-parenting conflict emerges and influences the child's later behavior.    My mind was spinning with possibilities for education and support.  

Danielle was looking at the transition of maladaptive parents within the MAMI sample.  She has found that teen parents who are parented with psychological control more likely to engage in punitive discipline and have higher potential for abuse of their own children.  Effect size is small but robust. We wandered into a long discussion of incidence and effects corporal punishment and authoritarian parenting because I have a long standing interest in the subject.  Danielle had experience working in India before she came to ASU and was doing community training to reduce the amount of corporal punishment and shaming being used as a control mechanism in a secondary school.  I enjoyed our conversation.

My last interview of the day was with Dr. Sara Douglass who is completing her two-year post-doctorate work with the Foundational Director of the LRE, Dr. Adriana Umana-Taylor.  She had just completed the "pilot" study of the IDENTITY project in which they compared 4 groups of 9th graders that received the newly developed curriculum that helped youth explore their ethnic identities with 4 groups of youth that not receive the lessons. Initial findings of the project are that family messages about ethnic-racial identity assist young adolescents in exploring their identity but less so as kids age.  They are less likely to come to resolution of their ethnic-racial identity as a result of family messaging and need some support from other sources, including their parents for creating their own identity.  The benefits of cultural pride are well documented.  Sara gave me some great resources with which to follow-up.

Dr. Sara Douglass

I was exhausted and completely sated with new knowledge by the time I left the LRE.  I had the misfortune of coming down with my husband Michael's generously shared cold that morning.  I was really glad that I took the time to visit Tempe on March 31st.  I was surprised and pleased to know that the city was closed to observe Cesar Chavez's birthday. He is an honored man throughout the SW.

My selfie!

Sign on City Hall 3/31/15

This was a long post so if you made it all the way through I appreciate your attention. I am writing on day 3 of this danged cold and wanted to remember this amazing visit.

Thanks for reading!