Marleni had a good union job in the Dominican Republic. For five years she worked in a garment factory, stitching jeans for a well-known U.S. brand. But when the company pulled out, the factory shut down, and Marleni and her 500 co-workers, mostly women, lost their jobs. After months of searching for other factory work, Marleni, like 75,000 textile workers in her country since 2005, entered the informal economy as a domestic worker.

	As part of an awareness campaign for domestic workers, the Solidarity Center and its partners in the Dominican Republic created this poster. The slogan at the top says, "I am a domestic worker and I have rights."

Today, informal economy employment, such as domestic work, street vending, and jobs in beauty salons, represents the largest area of employment growth, not only in the Dominican Republic but worldwide. Informal economy employment leaves workers with low salaries, no job security, and few social benefits. Workers like Marleni who once worked in factories with steady paychecks and benefits struggle to support their families.

The Solidarity Center supports worker associations that promote and protect the rights of domestic workers. ASOMUCI, an association of women workers in the Dominican Republic’s second largest city, Santiago de los Caballeros, reaches out to both Haitian migrant and Dominican domestic workers and trains them on their worker rights, including their right to join a union. ASOMUCI and its counterpart in Santo Domingo, the Association of Home Workers, work with the national labor federation CNUS. This year, domestic workers throughout the Dominican Republic launched a public awareness campaign aimed at educating workers about domestic worker rights. The campaign resulted in the formation of a coordinating network of four domestic worker associations, including one newly founded association of Haitian domestic workers in Port-au-Prince.

Fortunately, Marleni’s story is a one of progress and hope for domestic workers in the Dominican Republic. She now belongs to one of the small committees of domestic workers organized by ASOMUCI. Through trainings, she has learned about her rights on the job. Most important, she has learned that she is not alone. She is part of a larger movement of domestic workers who are organizing to develop national public policies and to advocate for an international convention aimed at protecting domestic workers throughout the world.