CONSTRUCTING A WORKER IDENTITY.

HOUSEHOLD employees; WAGES; GROUP identity; ACTIVISM; LABOR organizing; CONSTRUCTION workers

NEW York (N.Y.); NEW York (State)

This article examines the debates over the meaning of ‘worker’ in Workers' Awaaz, a female domestic workers' group in New York City, at three moments in the organization's history. Workers' Awaaz set itself apart from other South Asian groups through its focus on low-wage workers and by attempting to institute an organizing, rather than activist or service model. However, I argue that an infrastructure that divided workers from other membership along lines of occupation and income prevented Workers' Awaaz from engaging in mass-based organizing due to its reinscription of roles of service provider and client. By examining the shifting construction of worker, I hope to illustrate the debates and processes occurring within new organizational forms in the South Asian American community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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