In 1991, a small group of Filipino domestic workers and a Filipino graduate student at the McGill School of Social work, decided to form an organization that would begin to address some of the issues facing migrant women living and working as domestic workers in Montreal. This newly formed organization was called PINAY.
The first year of PINAY was focused sharing the stories of many domestic workers and their experiences as migrant women within the Foreign Domestic Movement Program. PINAY’s aim was to provide a space where domestic workers could speak openly about their hardships and break the isolation of live-in caregiving work. At that time, proposed reforms to the Foreign Domestic Movement Program included removing the right of caregivers to apply for permanent residency after 24 months of fulltime live-in domestic work. This possibility mobilized PINAY members to began organizing domestic workers to preserve the right to apply for permanent residency and with the support of other allied organizations, this became PINAY’s first successful organizing campaign.
In 1995, PINAY was at the forefront of the Flor Contemplacion campaign in Montreal that saw the mobilization of Filipinos all over the world against the Philippine government’s lack of protection and support for its overseas workers. The execution of Flor Contemplacion gave rise to a strong grassroots movement in the Philippines to fight for the rights of migrant labourers, and the founding of Migrante International, a global alliance of organizations committed to advocating on behalf of Filipinos living and working abroad, as well as to advance the struggle in achieving genuine national democracy in the Philippines. At this time, PINAY became an organizational member of Migrante International, a relationship that remains to this day.
This period also saw a flowering of artistic and cultural activities; PINAY began to share its members stories more publically and had established a theatre troupe. PINAY members wrote and produced a play called, “Kababaihang Pilipina, Noon, Ngayon at Bukas” that was performed by members and based on their own experiences. The play sold-out a number of performances and ushered in a new form of resistance through artistic expression at PINAY. In addition to the arts, the late-90s also saw PINAY become more militant in its position, as the overall situation of oppression facing Filipino domestic workers worsened around the world. Montreal was no exception, and PINAY launched the Melca Salvador campaign nationally and internationally in 1998. Melca Salvador had been fired for being pregnant while working as a live-in caregiver and was unable to find another caregiving job. This prevented her from completing the requirements needed to apply for permanent residency and in 1998 she and her son were facing deportation. PINAY’s members rallied in support of Melca and began to hold regular demonstrations to bring awareness to the situation. The Melca Salvador campaign raised questions about the Live-in Caregiver Program as a discriminatory and anti-woman program that would not accommodate for reasonable changes to a woman’s life situation or acknowledge the rights of her son, having been born in Canada. The campaign made national news and had garnered support from the wider public; eventually it was won in 2001. This was a big success for PINAY, as Melca and her son were granted permanent residency, and there was an increase of awareness on the issues facing migrant workers and caregivers across Canada.
The early 2000s and onward saw an increase in advocacy work for caregivers by PINAY. As an organization, PINAY collaborated with partners in various universities and institutions by participating in research and creating strong relationships outside of the Filipino community. In 2001, PINAY joined other women’s groups in Montreal to address their common issues, leading to PINAY’s involvement in the founding of the March 8th Committee of Women of Diverse Origins (WDO). Today, WDO is an alliance of progressive groups of women dedicated to addressing issues of war, violence, education, housing, discrimination, fundamentalism , human rights, etc. that stand against the social-economic systems of capitalism and patriarchy that continue to exploit and oppress women.
In 2003, PINAY launched the campaign to include domestic workers in the Labour Standards, which included entitlement to minimum wage and overtime pay after the 8 hour work day. Members of PINAY travelled to speak at the National Assembly of Quebec, drawing upon their own experiences to discuss the position of domestic workers, whom remained an exception to the minimum labour standards. Winning this campaign helped many caregivers get paid for their overtime hours of work, and saw a need within PINAY to have a means to provide legal information to members. PINAY applied for accreditation as a community organization at the McGill Faculty of Law and later on in 2006 as a partner organization with McGill University’s Pro bono Students Canada (PBSC) program in order to establish a legal information clinic. The legal information clinic remains one of the primary means of teaching caregivers about their rights and a place for study on the experiences of domestic workers in Quebec.
PINAY also collaborated with professors at the McGill University School of Social Work, producing a report in 2008 on the health of domestic workers. The publication led to the launching of a new campaign, jointly supported by the Immigrant Workers Center and Project Genesis that is focused on including domestic workers in provincial health and occupational safety regulations. To date, this campaign is ongoing, as domestic workers remain excluded from CSST coverage in Quebec.
More recently, in 2014-2015, PINAY participated in a project with Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM) researchers on labour exploitation and the Live-In Caregiver Program, which was focused on the ‘live-in’ requirement of the program. The results of the research were launched in January 2015. In 2014-2015, PINAY’s involvement in the arts has continued through Sining Laya, a group dedicated to activist art in the Montreal Filipino community.
PINAY continues to address the challenges and issues of migrant women workers. We remain committed to educating, organizing and mobilizing domestic workers to defend their rights and to raise awareness on the roots of forced migration from the Philippines. We continue to form alliances with individuals and groups that are also dedicated to improving the working and living conditions of migrants, women and their families. For over two decades, PINAY has brought together caregivers and their supporters in the struggle to improve the working and living conditions of domestic workers
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