An ignored but active union

On January 25, 2015, the creation of a union for domestic workers was announced in Beirut. In an atmosphere teeming with excitement, more than 200 women who work in Lebanese homes — including nationals of Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Ethiopia — called for their basic rights to be respected. This union gives rise to huge hopes. “We are going to have more power to negotiate our working and living conditions,” says Rosa, a community leader for Nepalese domestic workers. (Rosa, like several other domestic workers interviewed for this article, requested that only her first name be used.) This determined and cheerful woman who has been in Lebanon for 11 years has a lot to tell about the way domestic workers are treated: she considers herself one of the “lucky ones,” despite the fact that she was locked in her employer’s house throughout her first two years in the country.