“One puts up with the fact that transport is like this”: Unionized Domestic Workers crossing Medellín

Abstract

There are more than 700.000 paid domestic workers in Colombia. Since the 80’s, with the massive urbanization process in Latin America, most of them went from being “in-house” to “external” workers, commuting daily from their homes to their work sites located in their employers’ houses. This shift exponentially augmented their commuting times, without transportation planners adjusting the situation. The history of UTRASD (the Afro-Colombian domestic workers’ union created in Medellín) evidences how, despite its success in the recognition of labor rights in the national arena, in the local space they are far from exercising their right to mobility. Based on qualitative fieldwork, I will use the traditional social movement’s theory to evidence how 1) the absence of political opportunities, 2) the limited financial and human resources, and 3) the creation of particular frames of meaning, have limited UTRASD from fighting for quality mobility in Medellín.