Between the sack and the sanction
The agency manager
breaks into a phoney smile and sits down opposite me. Maryam barely
looks up from her plate and phone.
“So, X, how are you
liking it here?” she says to me in a heavy, lilting, Eastern
European accent.
“Yeah it's, it's
great” I half stammer.
I mean really what am I
supposed to say to that? It's like a work camp. That's what other
room attendants have called it and I haven't even barely started yet.
A recent study by a
major UK union found that out of 100 housekeepers they surveyed, 84
said they used painkillers every day before coming to work.
I smile brightly.
Gina's own smile falls
but her eyes stay on mine. “Because, you see, your English, it's
very good. Why do you not do another work? Hmmm?”
Hot black burning coal
pupils of suspicion are boring into me.
Keep smiling...
I shrug. “I, I think
this is fine for me”.
“You could do, a,
reception work? Or..?” Trailing voice, steely eyes...
“I just like to get
the work done and get out. It's easy”.
Such obvious bullshit.
“Because you've done
this before yes? Cleaning houses”.
I nod, “Uh huh”. No
lie there. “You know, this is harder, much harder, but, it suits
me”.
“And, you're using
the gloves, yes?”
“Oh, er, yeah yeah”.
I f-ing hate gloves. I
can't use them.
“Ok”. A lingering
look. “Ok X. If you need anything, let me know”. And with that
she gets up and leaves.
The implication in that
little interaction, is that this job is for people who can't speak
English. This job is for people who are not 'educated'. This job is
for people who are vulnerable. It's got a price tag because you have,
and you'll accept poverty wages because you haven't earned the right
to earn more. You can be like a machine. If you can't communicate,
all the better, we just want your body. And you won't talk back,
literally.
Are they the lucky ones?
I look up at the pin board of the Works Council or whatever it is, in the canteen. It's the typical body that hotels and other business will set up to keep unions out. There'll be staff jaunts and charity fundraisers, a suggestions box and employee of the week, and maybe even a Which Animal Are You? - Melinda is a Dolphin! (snap of dolphin with a young woman's face) for example. There's snap after snap of people in matching t-shirts with smiling faces and thumbs up. I shake my head.
“Who gets to go on these
trips?” I ask Maryam.
“Not us” she says.
“It's people from the Admin, or reception. They don't ask us from
housekeeping”.
....a party that you actually pay for yourself
It's common for the big
hotels, despite their soaring profits, the fact that London has the
most expensive hotel rooms in Europe, after Geneva and Paris, to
actually make staff pay for their own social events, such as the
staff Christmas party. Usually this comes out of a 'restructuring'
of the Service Charge. One major hotel right now is taking 30% out of Food and Beverage
(F&B) and Kitchen department employees' service charge, to pay for National Insurance Contribitions, equipment, admin and a 'social fund'.
There's no transparency about how this is all calculated. I thought we were already paying NI? Is this a tax dodge? Why are workers paying for their own equipment? Do we get to take it with us if we leave? Why are we paying for our own socials - what if we can't make it or we don't drink? Feels like a deeply anti-social move on the part of the company...
“Do you get a
Christmas bonus?' I ask Maryam. She snorts. “No. You can win
employee of the Month, and you can get £30 for that. But no, there's
no bonus”.
Think I'd rather have a pay rise actually...
I look around the
canteen. The quiet eating. The steady TV.
The London hotel
business is booming. PwC consultants estimate occupancy rates in
London will hit a 20-year high of 84 per cent this year. The average
room rate is now £144 per night. An estimated 6,000 new rooms are
set to open in the near future — taking the hotel business' estate
in the capital up to 136,000 rooms.
All....those....rooms...
Meanwhile, since 2010,
London homelessness has increased by 79% according to the Department
for Communities and Local Government. Rent hikes, the housing benefit
cap, benefit sanctions and the Bedroom Tax have shown thousands of
people the door, out of their communities and into the peripheries or
even over the edge. Those on the streets could be us. Out of the 742
officially recorded rough sleepers in the Capital, 46 per cent are UK
nationals; 10 per cent are Polish nationals and 11 per cent are
Romanians. According to their figures, the number of homeless people
in London in 2013-14 also included 134 Irish people, 413 Africans and
107 Portuguese, and six people from the Australasian continent.
We're so afraid in
here. In this parallel universe, just a corridor away from the soft
carpets, piped music and meals that cost as much as a week's food for
us. Life on minimum wage and zero hours, is like being caught in a
crossfire; we're caught between the sack and the sanction. And the
space to breathe is getting tighter and tighter. Where can you go?
Who can you turn to?
The news ticker-tape on
the big screen streams by, repeating: “Terror Alert”.
Found out about your blog via a tweet from @paulmasonnews.
ReplyDeleteI don't really use hotels much, but when I do, I feel terrible when I see the tired looking domestic staff. I always keep my room clean and tidy up as much as I can when I leave.
I really wish you and your colleagues well and hope that you are successful in getting them to unionise.
Please keep up with the blog too. It's such an important thing you are doing here - giving a voice to the invisible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ2KYpKFaLk
DeleteHope not Hate!
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiL-XsdVRZw
DeleteHowever, according to some authors in the 20th-century, capitalism also accompanied a variety of political formations quite distinct from liberal democracies, including fascist regimes, absolute monarchies and single-party states.[48] Democratic peace theory asserts that democracies seldom fight other democracies, but others suggest this may be because of political similarity or stability, rather than because they are "democratic" or "capitalist". Critics argue that though economic growth under capitalism has led to democracy, it may not do so in the future as authoritarian régimes have been able to manage economic growth using some of capitalism's competitive principles[84][85] without making concessions to greater political freedom.[86][87]
DeleteAfter the First and Second Opium Wars (1839–60) by Britain and France and the completion of the British conquest of India by 1858 and the French conquest of Africa, Polynesia and Indochina by 1887, vast populations of Asia became consumers of European exports. Europeans colonized areas of Africa and the Pacific islands. Colonisation by Europeans, notably of Africa by the British and French, yielded valuable natural resources such as rubber, diamonds and coal and helped fuel trade and investment between the European imperial powers, their colonies and the United States:
DeleteThe inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea, the various products of the whole earth, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep. Militarism and imperialism of racial and cultural rivalries were little more than the amusements of his daily newspaper. What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of man was that age which came to an end in August 1914.[69]
From the 1870s to the early 1920s, the global financial system was mainly tied to the gold standard.[70][71] The United Kingdom first formally adopted this standard in 1821. Soon to follow were Canada in 1853, Newfoundland in 1865, the United States and Germany (de jure) in 1873. New technologies, such as the telegraph, the transatlantic cable, the radiotelephone, the steamship and railways allowed goods and information to move around the world to an unprecedented degree.[72]
Contemporary capitalist societies developed in the West from 1950 to the present and this type of system continues throughout the world—relevant examples started in the United States after the 1950s, France after the 1960s, Spain after the 1970s, Poland after 2015, and others. At this stage most capitalist markets are considered[by whom?] developed and characterized by developed private and public markets for equity and debt, a high standard of living (as characterized by the World Bank and the IMF), large institutional investors and a well-funded banking system.
DeletePolitical scientists Torben Iversen and David Soskice see democracy and capitalism as mutually supportive.[88] Robert Dahl argued in On Democracy that capitalism was beneficial for democracy because economic growth and a large middle class were good for democracy.[89] He also argued that a market economy provided a substitute for government control of the economy, which reduces the risks of tyranny and authoritarianism.[89]
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Capitalist_System
DeleteOuch!
Notable differences between the Russian 1901 original and the American 1911 imitation include the replacement of the Russian Empire's black eagle with a money bag, the Russian tsar and tsarina with a more generic trio monarch and state leaders in suits, two of the three Orthodox clergy with a Catholic cardinal and a Protestant minister, and the Russian Empire army with a more generic group of soldiers; no revolutionary stanza is present. In both pictures, a fallen child or child worker symbolizes the plight of the workers.[3] Another shared element is a red flag raised amongst the workers, symbolizing the emergence of the socialist movement.[10]
DeleteThat's a red flag!
DeleteProminent critiques of capitalism allege that it is inherently exploitative,[197][198][199] alienating,[200] unstable,[201][202] unsustainable,[203][204][205] and economically inefficient[206][207][208]—and that it creates massive economic inequality,[209][210] commodifies people,[211][212] degrades the environment,[203][213] is undemocratic,[214][215][216][217] embeds uneven and underdevelopment between nation states,[218][219][220][221] and leads to an erosion of human rights[222] because of its incentivization of imperialist expansion and war.[223][224][225][226]
DeleteJason Hickel and Dylan Sullivan contend that inequality has always and will continue to exist under capitalism because capital accumulation requires access to cheap labor, and lots of it, as without it the system would collapse.[232][233]
Deletehttps://youtu.be/0oZ8OVkQi80?si=D9pXgSFKorxi6aX4
Deletehttps://youtu.be/N95w--yH55o?si=OEP6AuuGyi_flvrd
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/09/capitalism-and-the-death-of-conservatism
DeleteJonathan Freedland’s “How Brexit caused the strange death of British conservatism” (8 June) is an extraordinary headline because the conservatism of Edmund Burke and Michael Oakeshott died long ago during Thatcher’s time under the influence of the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Chicago school economists, when Farage was himself a Tory. So now, while the Brexit party may “rail against” a hated elite, their unexplained substantial funding implies reliance on an elite’s money, possibly even the same elite that funds the Tory party. And while its philosophy may be “slash and burn”, the Tory cabinet’s (many now standing for leader) cuts to health, social care, including care for disabled people, and education make them the destroyers. With such alternatives, voting Labour is the best option.
DeleteHi. This chimes with much of my experience over the last 35 years in London. I've been lucky enough to get well paid jobs most of my life, but when I go for a temp role the gulf is deep and the suspicion you are held in is horrifying. You are treated as cattle. Yet this is the experience of the thousands of powerless who make London work. The idea of organising representation is guaranteed to get you a place on the secret blacklist that London businesses share. Well done. This is great work, and I dont say that lightly. Would you consider Tweeting these blog posts if you don't already?
ReplyDeleteDuring their 1942 evacuation from the Soviet Union to the Near East, soldiers of the Polish Second Corps had, at an Iranian railway station, purchased a Syrian brown bear cub. He travelled with them on the Polish troop-transport ship Kościuszko and subsequently accompanied them to Egypt and to the Italian campaign. In Italy he helped shift ammunition crates and became a celebrity with visiting Allied generals and statesmen.
DeleteIn order to bring him to Italy, as regimental mascots and pets were not allowed onboard transport ships, the bear was formally enrolled as Private Wojciech Perski (his surname being the Polish adjective meaning "Persian"; Wojtek is the diminutive for Wojciech).
I mean, if they were treating you like this, then I wouldn't be so concerned!
Hi there Mark and Zach, thanks so much for your kind comments. I don't have a twitter account, I am not so great at twitter but, I will do it, I will set one up. New blogpost is also coming soon - by Friday. I have been very exhausted. Thanks. All the best, X
ReplyDeleteReally enjoy the blog. I am a member of the Mary Quaile Club. Mary was an Irish woman who came to Manchester in 1908, worked in a cafe and organised her fellow workers into a union. She worked all her life in her union and other progressive campaigns and was one of the first women to be appointed to the TUC council. We are researching her life for a play and a pamphlet. They will both link up with present day campaigns for better conditons for low paid workers. See our blog lipsticksocialist.wordpress.com Keep up the good work! xLipstick socialist
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rwkgoodman.com/info-hub/shorthand_story/asbestos-contaminated-talc-where-are-we-now/
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85Qu9FGEQBI
DeleteAmazing! Would love to read it. Please keep me in the loop on it. Big Up Mary Quaile and her legacy!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuybHGIB2K0
ReplyDeleteWow, are they really his cattle?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCYobBjA1kk
Delete"I look up at the pin board of the Works Council or whatever it is, in the canteen. It's the typical body that hotels and other business will set up to keep unions out. There'll be staff jaunts and charity fundraisers, a suggestions box and employee of the week, and maybe even a Which Animal Are You? - Melinda is a Dolphin! (snap of dolphin with a young woman's face) for example. There's snap after snap of people in matching t-shirts with smiling faces and thumbs up. I shake my head."
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OESzZ8EhEbs