The Woolsey Fire took a financial, physical and emotional toll on those who lost their homes—but they are not the only ones struggling in the wake of the disaster.
Malibu’s domestic workforce, including housekeepers, cleaners, gardeners, nannies and more—plus laborers, like ranch workers—have lost weeks of much-needed pay, and in some cases their jobs entirely.
A web page for Malibu Domestic Worker Resources has been set up to help assist those, many of whom are undocumented workers with little recourse.
“These are folks who don’t have paid time off, don’t have paid vacation and may not have the ability to receive public benefits,” a description on the web page explained.
The site includes a statement signed by organizers Rebecca Gray, Zara Drapkin, Raoul Emmanuel, Carol Yang and Robin Yang, which reads, in part, “During this crisis, we’ve been careful to think about all who might be affected by this and have spent some time organizing around helping folks who have and will face significant job loss because of these fires and devastation.
“Many of these folks are people of color, immigrants, undocumented folks or folks with families that have a mix of documented and undocumented status, folks with limited access to work, and folks who have no contingency plans for missing work,” the statement said. “These are folks who don’t have paid time off, don’t have paid vacation, and don’t have backups. Folks who travel significant distances every day in order to be in Malibu for work. We know that all of our struggles are interconnected, and are therefore asking that we band together financial resources in order to distribute directly to workers who have been affected.”
The site suggests three actions that can be taken: First is to donate to the Malibu Community Labor Exchange, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that “is working towards becoming the financial center for the project in order to disburse funds directly to workers.” The second is compensating workers for lost wages. The third is sharing information through the group’s website.
Malibu Domestic Worker Resources can be found at mdwr.squarespace.com.
Donations can be made to the Labor Exchange directly at malibucommunitylaborexchange.org/donate.