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.

Domestic workers, such as caregivers and nannies, make all forms of other work possible and play an increasingly significant role in the U.S. economy. However, a new national study found, on average, domestic workers earn little more than minimum wage and few receive benefits like Social Security, health insurance or paid sick days.

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.

If you're a progressive activist seeking to make economic change, delving into the role of "derivatives" or other arcane discussions likely results in blank stares. Which is why Erica Payne, founder of the Agenda Project says that progressives need to cut through the right-wing noise and talk about what's really happening to the U.S. economy. For Payne, explaining  the recession isn't complicated: "A bunch of rich privileged guys stole our money."

Ai-jen Poo director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), and Dulce Matuz, president of the Arizona DREAM Act Coalition, have been named to the 2012 Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Dave Johnson, a fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future, sends us this.

At this morning’s Take Back the American Dream conference plenary, Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), told the audience that the people who care for others are a national treasure, but the nation has yet to adequately value their work. Poo described the situation of one domestic worker who cared for a disabled child 18 hours a day, six days a week for less than $3 an hour—and who was fired without notice, leaving her homeless overnight.

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.

Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance /La Alianza Nacional de Trabajadoras del Hogar, sends her observations on the International Labor Organization’s (ILO‘s) meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, where a new global rule on domestic workers is set for a vote June 16.