Episode 17: Dawn Gearhart

In this seventeenth episode of Black Work Talk, our guest today is Dawn Gearhart. Dawn is the Director of Gig Economy Organizing for the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Dawn is leading efforts to organize workers who utilize an app to connect with potential clients desiring domestic work services. Prior to joining NDWA, Dawn organized taxi drivers and gig workers in Seattle. NDWA have just entered into an agreement with the Handy Company to launch a pilot program to improve the quality of work for domestic workers who find work online. Given the rising importance of apps in connecting workers and clients and attempts of many firms that control the apps to resist efforts to build worker power, this effort of NDWA (and other NDWA efforts) is extremely important.

For more information on NDWA’s pilot project with Handy, see

• https://www.gigworkeradvocates.org/handy
• https://onlabor.org/ndwa-handy-pilot-major-gains-for-workers-long-excluded-from-labor-laws-protections/

For additional information on the gig worker organizing at NDWA, see

• https://www.gigworkeradvocates.org/