This lecture will focus on how Latin American Domestic Workers, through their membership in the International Domestic Workers Federation, have led the global movement to advance domestic workers’ rights. In particular, it will share insights about how domestic workers have used grassroots organizing, strategic alliance building, and transnational solidarity to secure and enforce one of the most historic victories for domestic workers: C189, the Domestic Workers Convention of the International Labor Organisation.

Guest speaker: Adriana Paz Ramirez, Regional Coordinator for the Americans, International Domestic Workers Federation

Adriana Paz Ramirez is a labor rights organizer and popular educator based in Mexico and Canada. Originally from Bolivia, she is the regional coordinator for the Americas for the International Domestic Workers Federation. Prior to that, she was the senior organizer for the Workers’ Action Centre in Toronto and the gender, equity, and women’s empowerment officer at the Solidarity Center in Mexico. She was also the manager of the International Development certificate program for the University of British Columbia, and co-founder of Justicia for Migrant Workers in British Columbia, a national grassroots organization advocating for the labor and immigration rights of migrant farm workers. Currently, Adriana holds an Open Society Fellowship in which she will identify how the strengths of grassroots organizing can be leveraged to tackle the challenges of policy enforcement and implementation, based on the successes of the Latin American domestic workers movement.

Panel Moderator: Jennifer Jihye Chun, Asian American Studies, Labor Studies, and the International Institute

Co-sponsors: UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, UCLA Latin American Institute,  UCLA Center for Mexican Studies, Center for the Study of Women

RSVP HERE