*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE* Friday, April 29, 2022
Media contact: Lizzie Suarez lizzie@miamiworkerscenter.org, 305-759-8717 (ext 109)
Miami, FL – Workers in South Florida who have been on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic, and experiencing rising costs of living and rent hikes, will be gathering to march through Downtown Miami on May 1, International Workers Day. Care workers, domestic workers, workers in the informal economy – and their labor unions, workers’ centers, and community-based organizations – are demanding higher wages, an end to wage theft, protections on the job and more rights as renters.
While mask mandates and public health protections against COVID-19 are being lifted, and the wealthy continue to raise prices and make record profits, workers across the country and South Florida are bearing the brunt of the rising cost of living, wages that aren’t keeping up, and an affordability crisis that is pricing out thousands of working families from their homes and neighborhoods. The prosperity of our economy relies on the labor of all workers, particularly workers in the informal economy of care work – domestic workers, home health care workers – who are predominantly women of color and immigrants.
Access to safe, dignified housing for low-wage earners has been the biggest concern for domestic workers in Miami-Dade, and across the country. The housing affordability crisis is actively pricing out from our communities the very workers who are integral to our public safety system, yet are excluded from policy around standard labor protections. Lack of protections are leaving working families vulnerable to wage theft, and discrimination on the job and in housing.
Domestic workers, with the Miami Workers Center, an organization that builds the collective power of low-wage workers of color including domestic workers and tenants, are seeking racial and economic justice through demands to Miami-Dade County elected leaders, urging them to:
- Pass the Tenant Bill of Rights, to increase protections against eviction and housing discrimination for tenants and their families across the county.
- Include workers of the informal economy in policy surrounding labor rights, to gain protections against wage theft, and racial, sexual, verbal harassment and discrimination.
Workers with the Miami Workers Center, WeCount!, SEIU Florida, South Florida AFL-CIO, Farmworker Association of Florida, Starbucks Workers United, and others will be sharing their personal testimonies and marching in Downtown Miami as one united and growing labor movement, demanding what we all deserve in South Florida: living wages, safe and dignified jobs, and the right to housing.
WHAT: Rally and March through Downtown Miami
WHO: Labor Organizations, Impacted Workers, Elected Officials, Community and Faith Leaders
LANGUAGES: English, Spanish, and Haitian-Creole
WHERE: Starting at Stephen P. Clark Government Center, 111 NW 1 st St., Miami, FL 33128
WHEN: Sunday, May 1, 2022 at 1:00pm (ET) on International Workers’ Day