After 11 years of marriage, we decided that it would be best to live separate lives. It was then that things became difficult again. I filed for divorce in 2014. The judge handling my divorce denied me due process and left me and my daughter homeless. Was this what I came to America for? Did I wonder, to live in a homeless shelter? To be on welfare? In order to pursue a better life, I decided to go clean toilets. Despite being an executive assistant for large corporations, instead, I became a Domestic Worker and was challenged by a very different fight. I soon realized that as Domestic Workers and immigrants, minorities working in the service industry, and on platforms, myself and fellow workers were being exploited. A modern form of slavery, their worker's rights were violated and they were misclassified as independent workers while companies benefited from our hard work. Workers were not even able to use their references to get better jobs. I realized that so many workers are exploited, and I wasn’t satisfied to sit on my hands and allow that to continue. I began to demand change. Our advocacy work resulted in a bill passed in California called AB 2314, which protects workers in private homes. I opted to refuse a settlement in exchange for this assembly bill so that 300,000 Domestic Workers in California can get the protection. Another bill AB5 will make it's a way to the Governor's desk to end the misclassification of employees as independent workers. On July 15, 2019, the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in all fifty states have been put forward. I sacrificed my time / unpaid time together with many others in Atlanta Georgia to come up with the 'Vision of Fairness'. We are now advocating for it to law. My experiences will be detailed in my upcoming book, 'The Awakening'. I am the founder of My Character Reference, LLC. My Character Reference allows domestic workers to control their references. The misclassification deprived workers such as myself to have access to already worked references. I am determined to use this company as a means of ending the exploitation of all workers. My clients have an opportunity to continue their training as I teach them soft skills. I was happy to train union workers on dementia and preparing them for Alzheimer's certification, which resulted in a 100% pass rate. I advocate for support in overlooked industries, especially care-giving. My journey has been tough, but it is my hope that my hard work and struggle can help make other peoples’ lives better. They have the ability to become entrepreneurs.
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