Ross: Labor Day is about undocumented immigrant workers too

They’re the workers who don’t get to work from home: domestic workers – cleaners, cooks, delivery people, home health aides, nannies. They’re considered essential workers; they’ve even been called heroes. But the Domestic Workers Alliance points out that many of them are undocumented immigrants, who don’t get protections like sick leave, or health care – or hazard pay (when they work in occupations that could expose them to COVID).

“Every day I pray that I don’t come home and make my family sick or I don’t die from it,” one worker said.

So for Labor Day, the Domestic Workers Alliance is trying to spread their stories – along with stories of restaurant workers, grocery workers, and others – on a website called “Honor Essential Workers.”

“From the time this pandemic started, we’re supposed to get hazard pay, but we’ve seen a dime of this money that’s supposed to be coming in …,” another worker said.

And this is one of the sticking points holding up the next coronavirus aid package in Congress, whether to provide these workers, some of whom may be undocumented, the same kind of relief other workers are getting, on the grounds that if they’re considered essential, they should actually be treated that way.

“Our voices will not be silenced,” the first worker said.

“We need to unite as a country,” the second worker said. “We can definitely make change if we stand together.”

Congress returns from recess tomorrow, and job one is to decide who gets federal help.

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