On Wednesday, April 24, the AFL-CIO and MomsRising will be hosting a Twitter chat at 2 p.m. ET about earned paid sick leave. Follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #WellnessWed. 

Pointing to a New York City nanny who is undocumented and has spent years raising, nurturing and keeping other people’s children safe and attended today’s Senate immigration reform hearing, Ai-Jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), told lawmakers:

If immigration reform doesn’t help Pat and domestic workers and undocumented moms throughout our country, then we can’t really call it reform….It’s time we make our immigration policy work for domestic workers.

As Women’s History Month continues, it’s important to highlight the often unsung heroes doing great work that continues to push the union movement forward, like domestic workers and groups advocating on their behalf. For many of us, domestic workers are the backbone of our household, providing general family care, housekeeping and home health care. They are responsible for some of the most vital and intimate work in our nation, and yet the law does not guarantee them the same protections they guarantee our families.

Is your mom someone special? Is she an immigrant? The National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) is spreading the word about winning dignity and respect for our immigrant moms, and for all immigrants, through a new Tumblr collection of stories called "Meet My Immigrant Mom."

According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, more than 40 million Americans work in jobs where they have no access to paid sick days. In addition to the potential loss of wages and jobs for working families, the lack of paid sick days forces many people to go to work when they are contagious and get co-workers and customers sick and decreases productivity for workers who show up unable to perform to their normal level of ability. More and more cities and states are recognizing the realities of the damage having a workforce without paid sick leave does to workers and to the economy.

There has been much talk recently of our immigration policy and the possibility of comprehensive immigration reform, but too often these discussions, especially in the halls of Congress, lack a human and family dimension. In the first half of 2011, 46,000 undocumented immigrants were deported from the United States. Depending on which new outlet reports that fact, we may hear a variety of terms used to describe those people, ranging from “illegal aliens,” or “illegal immigrants,” to “undocumented immigrants,” or simply “immigrants.” Rarely do we hear: “46,000 parents  were torn away from their children and deported to another country in the first half of 2011.” A Wish for the Holidays campaign wants to change that.

This is an excerpt of "Domestic Workers Inspire the Global Movement for Rights" from Huffington Post, by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. 

Domestic workers around the world have been organizing for years to secure decent wages, benefits and recognition.

This past summer, domestic workers and their allies celebrated a major global victory after the Philippines joined Uruguay in becoming the second country to ratify International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189, Decent Work for Domestic Workers.

The convention addresses issues such as working conditions, wages, benefits and child labor and goes into effect one year after two countries approve it.

Tune in TODAY from 3-5 p.m. EDT, for a live webcast of the special AFL-CIO forum on The Future of Work and New Ways to Build Power. You can click here for the webcast and follow on twitter with the hashtag #thefutureofwork.

Join progressive activists from around the nation to map out strategy to Take Back the American Dream and rebuild America’s struggling middle class. The annual conference (formerly known as the America’s Future Now conference) is set for Oct. 3-5 in Washington, D.C. Click here to register.

Across the world, working men and women celebrated the historic vote June 16 by the UN’s International Labor Organization creating a new global rule to protect domestic workers. Now the work begins to make sure countries implement the rule, known as a convention, and make protections for domestic workers a reality.