Women in low-wage jobs – janitors, domestic workers, farmworkers, waitresses – face rampant sexual abuse and assault on the job. When wages are low, there's no HR to report abuse and work sites can be isolated.
Low-wage workers, who tend to be women and immigrants, are finally getting attention in the national media's #metoo coverage. What will it take for them to be heard and treated with dignity and respect at work?
Guests:
Sasha Khokha, host of The California Report Magazine at KQED, worked on Rape in the Fields and Rape on the Night Shift, collaborative investigations by PBS, Reveal and KQED about the sexual assault of women janitors and farm workers
Linda Burnham, senior advisor at the National Domestic Workers Alliance and co-author of the report, Home Economics: The invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work
Mónica Ramirez, co-founder and president of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, a national alliance of women farmworkers, an attorney who comes from a family of farmworkers
Web resources:
TIME: 700,000 Female Farmworkers Say They Stand With Hollywood Actors Against Sexual Assault
The Atlantic: Is This the Next Step for the #MeToo Movement?
New York Times: How Tough Is It to Change a Culture of Harassment? Ask Women at Ford
Sacramento Bee:Jerry Brown signs janitor protection bill amid fast
Pro Publica: California Governor Signs Bill to Protect Temp Workers