Workers' Rights Commission

Durham Workers Rights Commission Meeting 7.28.2020 Attendees:​ Priscilla Smith, Bianca Olivares, Nancy Kalow, Council Member Jillian Johnson, Brian Powell, Antonio Luster, Stephanie Smith, Agenda Items: I. CALL TO ORDER- 7:05p A. Note: Council Member Jillian Johnson will be the DWRC new liason II. PUBLIC COMMENTS- skip III. MINUTES/OLD BUSINESS- Brian took notes, will send around, IV. COMMITTEE UPDATES- V. NEW BUSINESS- ● New worker’s bill of rights ➔ Will be moving at a more rapid pace since it’s relevant and needed at the time. Brian will draft something and send around based on previous correspondence from Nancy on Philadelphia Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Stephanie will share the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights with Brian as well. Brian will send out a google doc to share with us so we can collaborate on that. We will try to shoot to vote on this and have a final draft by the next meeting. ➔ What do we think should be in the workers bill of rights? ◆ Brian: in NYC they have a workers bill of rights that is split into paid sick leave, work safety, right to organize, provisions for industry-specific workers (construction workers, salon, fast food, tipped workers,). Maybe for our purposes, we could include city employees, transit workers, education/academic, with the understanding that we would have to modify for our state/city needs and capabilities. May be worth summarizing OSHA/worker protections. After this document is done, what actionable legislation can be done that can be an actual codified bill of rights in whatever way it can be actionable in Durham. ◆ Nancy: quick report back from Duke Workers United; they recently had an ask to Duke university who were not including workers in the discussions to reopen regarding a seat at the table, safety, and pay. ◆ Antonio: both he and Mr. Gooch are a part of the Duke Workers ◆ Bianca: suggestion of sending a google survey to share with the Durham Workers Assembly to ask what they would like to see in a bill of rights. Antonio  instead will ask Keith to share with the Workers Assembly to note at the next meeting and bring back response. ● Brian suggested that we share on our social media to put out the general call of “what would you like to see in a workers bill of rights”- Social media team will coordinate this. ● Discussion of Human Relations Committee Grievance policy sample draft- ➔ Antonio’s suggestion is to have a “citizen’s review panel with a potential background in HR” in step 3 of the policy. Policy will be signed off by both us and HR committee and apply to Durham City Workers. ➔ The recommendation would go to the city council since we are an advisory board to city council. ➔ Commissioners should review the policy that Antonio will send via Google docs so we can add comments in the document by next Tuesday. We can review, discuss, vote on and finalize at the next meeting. ➔ Other updates ➔ Stephanie email change in the listserv: ​stephaniesmith@domesticworkers.org To-do: ❏ Antonio to send the Human Relations Committee Grievance Policy to us by ​Next Tuesday, Aug. 4th ❏ Antonio to reach out to Keith about sharing with the Durham Workers Assembly the question of what they would like to see in the Durham Workers Bill of Rights ❏ Social media team will coordinate the posting, spreading, and gathering of information regarding what the community would like to see in the Durham Workers Bill of Rights ❏ Brian will send the link to NY’s bill of rights. ❏ Brian will draft a Durham Workers Bill of Rights ❏ Everyone will add comments, revise, and create suggestions on the Durham Workers Bill of Rights Google doc ❏ Everyone will add comments, revise, and create suggestions on the Human Relations Committee Grievance Policy Google doc VI. OPEN DISCUSSION/COMMENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS Next meeting: ​25th of August @ 6p Meeting Adjourned at 7:49pm