'I have nearly no free time due to the many hours one has to work in this type of work; it takes up so much of your time you feel a slave to it.'
For some of us, going to get our nails done is a rare little treat; for others, it’s a regular ritual, or a professional obligation. With low prices and endless design options, a quick trip to the nail salon can feel like a harmless indulgence — but it’s important to remember that your pretty set of gels comes at a very real human cost. The nail salon industry has been built on the suffering of female employees, but now, those workers are organizing to change the course of their future.
The NYNSWA is a worker-led organization that seeks to win fair wages, safe working conditions, and dignity at work for its members, and to achieve public health, environmental and racial justice by working with the community, clients, and salon owners through their #HealthDignityJustice campaign. The organization’s members are based in New York City, but many commute to salons in neighboring states, some as far as two hours away.
“We can’t be thinking about changing one salon at a time, when we’re talking about an industry with more than 30,000 nail salon workers,” she explains. “I realized we as nail salon workers needed to be organized and so I decided to dedicate myself full-time to organizing and motivating other workers so that we no longer have to stay silent because this impacts us not just economically, but also physically and mentally — and not just us individually but our families as well.
“The longer you work in a salon, the higher the risk becomes to getting sick,” explains one nail salon worker, who has been working in the business for almost 15 years. After attending NYNSWA’s know-your-rights trainings, she realized that working with the types of chemicals to which workers are often exposed was harmful to her health. “I personally have developed allergies to specific chemicals that I consistently work with, [and] the long hours sitting is really bad for my back.
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