This article examines the debates over the meaning of ‘worker’ in
Workers' Awaaz, a female domestic workers' group in New York City,
at three moments in the organization's history.Workers' Awaaz set
itself apart from other South Asian groups through its focus on low-wage workers and
by attempting to institute an organizing, rather than activist or service model.
However, I argue that an infrastructure that divided workers from other membership
along lines of occupation and income prevented Workers' Awaaz from engaging
in mass-based organizing due to its reinscription of roles of service provider and
client. By examining the shifting construction of worker, I hope to illustrate the
debates and processes occurring within new organizational forms in the South Asian
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