Antonia Peña is a Co-Lead Organizer of NDWA’s DMV Chapter and a proud domestic worker. She has worked as a domestic worker since the age of 15 and came to the U.S. more than 20 years ago while working for a diplomat family. It was her own experiences of abuse and the lack of protections that she saw in the domestic work industry that led her to become an organizer in 2000. She began organizing domestic workers at CASA Maryland, an NDWA affiliate, and participated in the founding of the National Domestic Workers Alliance in Atlanta, Georgia in 2007 as a representative of CASA. For 5 years she was the North American representative to the International Domestic Workers Federation and in 2017, she helped found the DMV Chapter of NDWA.
Patricia Sauls is a long-time domestic worker leader and organizer, who was born and raised in the state of Georgia. In her work, she encountered the issues that many domestic workers are familiar with, including low pay, discrimination, and injustice. As an active member of We Dream in Black and the Atlanta Chapter of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Patricia traveled to Savannah, Georgia and Washington, DC to advocate for domestic workers’ rights. She is a graduate of NDWA’s “Strategy, Leadership, Organizing” institute, and earlier this year joined the preeminent delegation of domestic workers at the Women’s March in DC.
Iyesha Alston is a proud domestic worker and Gig Economy Organizing Fellow with NDWA Labs. She lives in Statesboro, Georgia with her family. For many years she was a cleaner on the Angi platform (formerly Handy), before she became a vocal member in NDWA’s gig worker Facebook group. That’s when she stepped into a worker leadership role with NDWA.
Iyesha was a powerful and steady voice in helping NDWA Gig Worker Advocates negotiate and win the first legally binding agreement for domestic workers in the gig economy with Angi Services.
Since the summer of 2021, Iyesha serves on the pilot’s Angi Pro Committee where she and other workers meet with Angi executives every month to improve the working conditions at Angi.
Barbara Young has been a domestic worker for the past 17 years, and is well acquainted with the exploitation domestic workers face. She is a founding member of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and has provided consistent and inspiring leadership for NDWA since its foundation. She currently serves as NDWA’s National Organizer.
For NDWA’s 15th Anniversary, we are honoring Richard Winsten’s invaluable contribution to the labor rights and domestic worker movement. When our organization had few resources and the support of only a handful of organizations, Richard worked tirelessly to help pass the first Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in 2010 in New York—leading the way for the passage of Bills of Rights in other states and municipalities. Learn more about Richard and join us in celebrating Richard by making a gift in his honor.
A longtime leader in social movements that span issues from housing to labor rights, Mariana Viturro has played a critical role in the growth, expansion, and success of the National Domestic Workers Alliance for over a decade. Steadfast in her commitment to lifting standards for women of color and domestic workers, Mariana is an organizer-at-heart with a deep and strategic understanding of how to build movements, scale movements, and create lasting change for workers along the way. Prior to joining NDWA, she was organizing in the San Francisco Bay area for 12 years, where she experienced first-hand the potential of working-class immigrant women and women of color to advance movements for immigrant and workers’ rights. Mariana brings that experience with her daily as the Deputy Director of NDWA where her positive impact and effect on the organization are immeasurable.
We are sending all our love and healing thoughts to our sister Myrtle Witbooi, President of the IDWF, as she battles cancer. She is a fighter and, just like she has stood up for all of us and domestic workers around the globe, we stand with her today.
It is with great sadness that we share the passing of long time movement leader and NDWA sister Lolita Lledo, Associate Director of the Pilipino Workers Center. Lolit passed away in her homeland, the Philippines, on September 3, 2022.
Lolit was a fierce advocate for social justice all her life. She spent most of her years organizing the Filipino people and fighting for the equality of the marginalized and for the freedom of the oppressed. As a young activist in the Philippines, she joined the movement of resistance against corruption and violence during martial law. After migrating to the United States, she continued her organizing work by advocating for immigrant and domestic worker rights. She led Pilipino Workers Center’s Workplace Justice Team by organizing workers, mobilizing for marches and protests, advocating for workers in wage cases, being a friend and a mentor to members and so much more. Lolit was also a powerful leader in NDWA and participated in campaigns for domestic worker and immigrant rights, and contributed her vision and voice to building our movement.
Lolit was an inspiration to many in our movement, and she leaves behind a powerful legacy from a life spent fighting for justice.
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