Domestic Worker, Beloved Leader, Mother of the Movement
January 16, 2023 marked the end of our time with an incredible woman, domestic worker, unionist, and president of the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), Myrtle Witbooi. Not only has Myrtle changed the lives of those who crossed paths with her, but she also undoubtedly changed the conditions of domestic workers in South Africa and the world.
Myrtle first became the voice of the movement in South Africa, soon after she moved from her town of Genadendal to Cape Town at age 17 to work as a domestic worker. Experiencing blatant injustice first hand, she worked on liberation plights as a woman and a domestic worker under South Africa’s apartheid. With an innate drive for social justice and intrinsic leadership skills, she started organizing workers in the garage of her employer’s house. At the time, organizing domestic workers was deemed illegal by the apartheid state. Nonetheless, Myrtle’s efforts grew nationwide when she established the South Africa Domestic Workers Union (SADWU) and joined the African National Congress resistance movement.
When you ask us, what is it that domestic workers want? The answer is simple: we want what you have, rights, like any other worker.”
In 2008, Myrtle led the efforts of an international network of domestic workers to campaign for global labor standard for domestic workers, which resulted in the International Labor Convention on Domestic Work 189 in 2011. Two years later, Myrtle was elected the first president of the newly formed International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), the first and only global union federation led by women.
Myrtle accomplished an immense task: she did not leave this world the way she found it. Myrtle has changed the world, and her legacy will continue to do so long after she has left us. In the spirit of her principles, courage, and compassion, we will honor her memory as we continue building upon her work to unite domestic workers worldwide. It has been a privilege to walk the world beside Myrtle Witbooi, to learn from her, and to have her lead our movement.
To send condolences to Myrtle’s family, please email: [email protected]
If you would like to leave a message, a prayer, a memory with Myrtle on the IDWF tribute page, use this form.
Myrtle was the most incredible worker leader I have ever met.
She would always find the right words to address and convince an audience to respect domestic workers' rights.
She was never afraid of raising her powerful voice towards anybody. A big crowd of high-rank people could not scare her.
In negotiations in the ILO she was able to compromise - but there were limits. She would never compromise on basic rights and foremost the dignity of domestic workers. You could neither fool nor bribe Myrtle.
She was not only a fighter for workers' rights, she was a loving mother and grandmother, she was a true friend. For us, having worked with her for many years, she was the compass. She would always remind us to bear in mind with everything we are doing that it must serve the workers.
I know she wouldn't want us to be in tears. Her legacy is to continue the struggle for the dignity and rights of workers around the world.
Farewell Myrtle. If you want it or not: I am in tears - like I always was when you were speaking in public. I am - and I will be - missing you.
Amandla!
Karin Pape
Farewell to our loving legend, our president, our icon my best friend, my sister, my ride and die Myrtle Witbooi
My heart is so broken it takes me a while to speak and write. I know you were not well but did not know you were going so soon. I must admit I was in denial, I also know I was not prepared to face this day but your last whatsapp to me was January 8 saying “I love you my sister, take care of the workers”. I have to be strong to continue the work we have started. We not only lost a rose from our garden but the vine that we could have never grown without.
I was lucky enough to be planted close to a marigold that protected, encouraged and helped me to grow big, strong and healthy. There is so much gain when you meet and work with someone that sees the world as you do.
Myrtle never left me behind at any time, it’s no accident that in most pictures I am beside her: in her voice she would says, stand here, Sit here we have secret signs we use to communicate wherever we go. We spend so much time together fighting for women and workers rights, we believe Respect ,Equality and Dignity is everybody's business.
We at the Jamaica Household Workers Union will miss you dearly; you have helped our union in so many ways we can’t even begin to say how. What we have once enjoyed we can never lose as all that we love deeply becomes a part of us. For only a moment you stayed, but what an imprint your footprints have left on our hearts. And what is lovely never dies, but passes into loveliness. There are many people that we meet in our lives but few will make a lasting impression in our heart and mind.
We are domestic workers we have roared and still roaring
In numbers too big to ignore
We have been down on the floor but no one was ever able to keep us down.We are now wise but it's wisdom born through pain. Yes we have paid the price but look how much we have gain
Because of you Myrtle we grow strong strong strong.
We are able to stand with anyone toe to toe.
We were bent many times but never broken. Whenever we do bend we come back strong strong strong
We are domestic workers and we are invincible and Strong.
The women lled Federation for years with almost one million members cannot be wrong.
MYRTLE LEAVES FOOTPRINT ON MILLIONS ACROSS THE WORLD
Myrtle My Friend, my champion Well done good and faithful servant. Rest in Eternal Peace
Shirley Pryce
I first met Myrtle in 2008, when Jennifer Fish brought Myrtle and Hester to the US to meet with labor leaders and other potential supporters. I was organizing in New York City at the time, and I could not be more excited to welcome them, to learn from them and to build a connection between domestic workers organizing in South Africa, and ours. And I had the honor of hosting them in my home.
From that point on Myrtle became a mentor to me, and one of our movement’s greatest inspirations. Our leaders like Juana Flores, Antonia Pena, June Barrett, Gilda Blanco, have been deeply inspired by seeing Myrtle’s leadership in action, as someone who started working as a domestic worker from the time she was a teenager. She became a model of the type of leadership and commitment we sought to build.
She had both the patience of a marathoner, and the urgency of a sprinter. She was a model for me, for how to do this work over a long period of time, while staying hopeful and focused, even in the toughest conditions.
What Myrtle taught me, — is that there’s a special kind of patience that comes from fighting through chaos.
There’s a special kind of courage that comes from facing down terror.
There’s a special kind of power that we draw from places of powerlessness, like where domestic workers live in our economy and in our democracies.
She taught all of us about the patience, the courage and the power that is required to win for domestic workers.
She broke the rules that needed to be broken, and made rules where they needed to be made, including an historic global convention on domestic work at the ILO. She lived to see the convention ratified by 35 countries, including her own.
She spent her life making sure that domestic workers would never be forgotten. And we will make sure that she is never forgotten.
We at NDWA are proud to carry her work forward alongside so many of you in IDWF — I consider it one of the greatest gifts of my life to have known her, and worked alongside her and all of you to build this global movement.
Ai-Jen Poo
Nuestra Compañera no ha muerto, estará presente en nuestros corazones,en nuestras luchas, en nuestros logros, en nuestras dificultades, en nuestras alegrías, en nuestras tristezas.
La compañera Myrtle ha sido y es la madre de las organizaciones de Trabajadoras del Hogar de Latinoamérica y el Caribe y del mundo, Ella nos ha articulado y globalizado. En el sistema de marginación y explotación en que vivimos, la compañera supo articular más allá de su propia organización: supo articular a nivel mundial. Con sus actos nos enseñó a seguir su ejemplo y continuar. Nos deja un legado maravilloso para las nuevas generaciones.
¡Gracias, compañera Myrtle! Que Dios la tenga en sus Santísimas.
Mi solidaridad y mi pésame a todas las compañeras que formamos parte de nuestra querida FITH.
