My first memory of Héctor Figueroa is from November 3, 2003. He was standing in the doorway of his New York City union hall, where we were all gathered for the first domestic workers convention. He wore glasses, a purple union T-shirt, khaki pants and, importantly, a joyful, soft smile. The sight of hundreds of women workers organizing—nannies, house cleaners and care workers from across New York and around the world—moved him visibly.
Hector Figueroa
Héctor Figueroa was president of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, the nation’s largest property services workers’ union.
Héctor, who died of a heart attack on July 11 at age 57, was at the time secretary-treasurer of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, the nation’s largest property services workers’ union. He took the job after leading a successful organizing campaign in his native Puerto Rico. In 2012, he became the group’s president; under his leadership, the union grew by more than 50,000 members and helped enact dozens of reforms to benefit working people at the state and local levels.
The 2003 domestic workers convention in New York City was the beginning of a seven-year campaign to establish a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in New York State. We didn’t know it at the time, but this meeting was the beginning of a long and important relationship between the domestic workers movement and SEIU 32BJ.
Héctor’s union, which represents the doormen who often work in the same buildings as domestic workers, offered us domestic workers space for our inaugural convention and we became close allies as the campaign took off. Over the years, the doormen would help spread the word to the domestic workers in their buildings about upcoming meetings or events.
Over time we came to understand Héctor’s unique ability to see organizing opportunities and forge authentic alliances, and he forged one with us.
That November afternoon, he watched as workers sat together around tables, sharing their stories in several languages, listening to each other through interpretation equipment. They told of sexual violence, wage theft, and abuses that brought many in the room to tears. Bonds between workers were forged that continue to this day.
Over time we came to understand Héctor’s unique ability to see organizing opportunities and forge authentic alliances, and he forged one with us. Wherever working people were hurting, he was ready to organize. From immigrant rights to taxi workers, he believed in the power of everyday people, when organized, to change everything.
A few years into our New York Bill of Rights campaign, Héctor joined a meeting we organized in Albany to meet with the Speaker of the State Assembly, in which he both helped us push the conversation forward and followed our lead. We eventually passed the New York Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in 2010; every domestic worker leader in that campaign knows the role that the doormens’ union played.
On July 15, 2019, 80 years after the exclusion of domestic workers from New Deal labor laws, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Senator Kamala Harris introduced the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Act in Congress. It was a milestone moment. We have taken our fight from the local to the highest level of the United States government — all along, like Héctor, believing in the power of everyday people.
I am heartbroken that Héctor is no longer with us. It was too soon, he was too young, and I still want him to see us win — for workers, for immigrants, for Puerto Rico and on everything. But I also know that as long as we are organizing, he will be with us, a patron saint of sorts, looking out for us and clearing the way, as always. And because we won’t stop, he will always be near.
This column was produced for the Progressive Media Project, which is run by The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.