Wearing a hot pink T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Si Se Puede!,” Luz Maria Hernández, 29, slips on a pair of rubber gloves and goes to work. A few hours later, the two-bedroom, one-bath apartment is sparkling clean—and Hernández pockets $110.
Hernández doesn’t have to give half the fee to a cleaning contractor, because she’s one of 24 members of Si Se Puede! (“We can do it”), a women’s cleaning cooperative in Brooklyn, New York. Si Se Puede! was started in 2006 by neighborhood women with the help of a local community organization, the Center For Family Life. Rule No. 1 for this women-owned, women-run, eco-friendly (workers use only non-toxic products) cleaning co-op: Keep all the cash, except a $5 fee.
Hernandez and her colleagues are part of a cleaning model sweeping the U.S., from California’s sophisticated Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security (W.A.G.E.S.), which offers members three weeks of vacation, to Unity Housecleaners in New York. These cooperatives primarily work with immigrant women, giving them the skills to run collective businesses.
The women of Si Se Puede! have completed a three-month training, and gather weekly to discuss topics ranging from marketing to billing strategies. Three months after the training, a team of pro bono lawyers drew up co-op bylaws; each member agreed to abide by them and divide the work equally. In February 2008, when the original 15 members decided to add another nine, more than 80 women applied.
For Mexican-born Hernández, who came to the U.S. 10 years ago, joining the co-op changed her life. “I used to work 10-hour days in a factory making $4.25 an hour, always in fear of losing my job and never spending enough time with my family,” she says, through a translator. Now Hernández works only a few hours for $100. Co-op President Monica Valerio, 45, envisions it growing even more. But whatever direction it takes now, Valerio says, “I have realized my dream here in this country.”
