Cleaners currently employed through ISS to clean at SOAS University in London are going on strike on the 4th and 5th of March. The strike is part of their campaign to be employed directly by SOAS on the same sick pay, holidays and pensions as others working for the university, rather than the work being outsourced. Here is the story of one of the cleaners and why he is going on strike:

My name is Luis Armando. I am from Ecuador and have been living in London for 18 years. I started working for SOAS very soon after arriving - it would be 17 years that I have worked there now. In Ecuador, I studied 5 years at the university and got a mechanical engineering degree. But I couldn’t find a job because in those days corruption and bad governance were everywhere. I needed to go abroad. I came to the UK with my wife. We had to leave Ecuador, because like everyone else we wanted to live well. We were poverty exiles.

When I arrived in London the first barrier I encountered was the language. We could not communicate so we did not know our rights. Cleaners were invisible. Communication was the first problem because we couldn’t express what we felt. Nobody asked about us.

In that time, here at SOAS the companies paid in cash, they didn’t ask for documents when they hired you. I never had a pay or holiday problem but some of my colleagues got problems: they would work and when they had to collect their pay, they would be asked for documents… some of them wouldn’t be paid for 3 months.

Eight years ago, we started to claim our rights. It was hard because some of us were scared. We needed the job; we could not speak proper English. But we started talking with some students who could speak Spanish. We told them what was going on. We started to get organised with one union, and then we joined UNISON. We learnt more about our rights in this country. And we started our campaigns. The first step was to get recognition between the cleaning company and UNISON. Getting this gave us the power to talk with our colleagues about the union, about their rights. Then we started a campaign for the London living wage. UNISON helped, and so did professors, students and other workers. It lasted nearly two years but we were successful. We used to be paid £7.40/h, now we’re getting £8.80/h.

We also protested when they did an immigration raid. And around two years ago, we started a new campaign to ask SOAS University to bring the cleaners in-house. We have only a statutory sick pay of £85 per week and we only qualify when we work full time. The pension we have is also very basic. And we have only 20 days of holidays while SOAS employees have more than 30.

We do a lot of hard work here. We bring our knowledge, our physical labour. At work, I also painted classrooms or fixed things when they were broken. They did not have to pay someone else to do it. But SOAS doesn’t want to employ us directly. I don’t think it is fair. We do not ask for anything free. We work here, we pay taxes, we give our knowledge, we help this country. We ask for basic rights: for our sick pay, pension, and holidays to be the same as the ones of the people who work at SOAS.

We did a few demonstrations, we sent letters to MPs, embassies, students. In July 2013, SOAS created a commission to investigate the best option for them. They said it would be to create their own cleaning company and to share it with other colleges. But nothing has happened since July last year. This is why we decided to start the strike. We organised it step by step. It is legal, we don’t want anyone to be fired. I am optimistic about it. We have a lot of supporters.

Sometimes I ask myself “why does SOAS say no to bringing us ‘in house’?” We feel discriminated because at SOAS, you’re supposed to find dignity and equal rights but in reality it’s not true. And it is the same for all the contractors (security, catering, maintenance etc). However, we the cleaners are the most organised. We have learnt with time.

Cleaners currently employed through ISS to clean at SOAS University in London are going on strike on the 4th and 5th of March. The strike is part of their campaign to be employed directly by SOAS on the same sick pay, holidays and pensions as others working for the university, rather than the work being outsourced. Here is the story of one of the cleaners and why he is going on strike:

My name is Lenin Escudero, I am 37 years old. I come from Ecuador and have been living in London since 2000. Back home I was a professional footballer until I got an injury at 21 and had to stop playing. I also have a degree in teaching Physical Education. I came to the UK to find a better life because at home, all doors were closed. I saw the UK as country of opportunities and equal rights. I work 15 hours a day as a cleaner, including for SOAS University where I have been working since 2003.

I used to work even more, 7 days a week, 16-18 hours a day, now I don't work weekends any more. Monday-Friday I start working at three in the morning. I clean offices in central London from 3am to 5:45am, then start at SOAS University from 6am to 4:30 pm where I do clean-up work of classrooms, bathrooms and communal areas and move furniture. In the evening I work at the HSBC bank as a cleaner from 5:30pm to 8:30pm.

It has been very hard. One of the weakest points in my life is the lack of time I could spend with my family. By the time I arrive at home at 8pm, my kids have to go to bed. It has affected me a lot that I have spent so little time communicating with them. It is not because I don't want to, it is because the lack of time. At the end of the day we try to manage to continue living because we don't have any other option. I am the only one working, as my wife looks after our three kids. I don't work these long hours to save up money, I just work to survive, to feed my family. I would like to cut the hours, but I can't because the income is very important for my family and also we have family back home that I am supporting: my parents and my wife's parents. But the few moments I have, I try to spend a lot of time with the children and my wife.

When the children were little, they would ask me, 'why do you not spend more time at home with us? Why do you work too much? Why do you not find another job? Why can't you be a footballer?' They questioned why I work as a cleaner. So I have explained to them about that. I would have liked to work in my field (physical education) but I would need to study again to re-qualify and I can't take time off to study again to do that when I have to make a living.

I have also brought the children with me sometimes to another cleaning job and showed them what I did. And I explained to them, 'I do cleaning now, but I don't want you to do this job, I want you to do something better. I want you to study hard.' It is not a bad profession, but it is not well paid.

The children know about the campaign I have been involved in with the other cleaners at SOAS. They know what we are fighting for.

I don't feel we have fair pay and conditions. At the beginning I thought we had equal conditions, but then I would met other staff from the university, and when they were sick they would be able to take the time off they needed. But when got an injury I had a risk to lose my flat because of the low sick pay.

It was in 2003. I had an accident: chairs fell on my feet and I lost three of my toenails. I was unable to work for three weeks, and only received Statutory Sick Pay of £84 pounds per week, which was not enough to pay my rent and to make ends meet. I could not provide food for my family and I was even at risk to be evicted from my house because I couldn’t pay my rent. I had to take a loan from the bank to cover my expenses. It was very stressful for me and my family. The doctor had given me a full month for Disability, but I had to return to work while still not been fully recovered from the accident.

If had the same sick pay as other workers at SOAS, I could have taken the time off I needed to fully recover and I would not suffer from economic difficulties such as struggling to pay my expenses. Thank God that I haven’t had any other accident since then. I would not want to go through that bad experience again, because with the Statutory Sick Pay no one can survive.

At one point we went 3 months without pay for some of our work. This was while working for the previous company the cleaning was outsourced to. So what happened is that out of 30 cleaners, 12 cleaners left and that's what they wanted it seemed, because as soon as they left the vacancies weren't filled.

The people who were left had no other option but to seek advice. That is why we went to Unison. We told them about the situation and they organised a meeting. There were 30 cleaners with the same situation between the two SOAS campuses. We asked them for help to get the 3 month’s salary but then this led to them explaining to us about the London living wage, so in 2006 we started to campaign for this and for union recognition and also to be brought back in house.

I come from a background where all my family are politically involved. My mother was in the top of the party, she was involved with. Around the time when I was born, she had to hide because of her political involvement. But I was the only one never involved in any political things in Ecuador. I only liked football. So I grew up with this, but I didn't know how to do it myself.

It just started here because they wanted to cut my hours. I worked 8 hours and they wanted to cut them to 5 and a half. So I went to seek advice from the union and I was told that they couldn't just do that. I started to challenge the situation, without knowing the law. And then we started to organise. The people appointed me as a union representative and I have been one for almost 7 years. I took a lot of courses as a union rep and I have a lot of experience in the campaign now, speak publicly about these issues and feel more confident. I speak publicly about these issues.

The campaign was eventually successful in achieving the living wage and union recognition, but not being brought in house and we are still fighting for this and for dignified treatment. Here is another example why:

In 2012, I was working with my co-worker in the bathrooms on the first floor when my manager called me and asked us to go to the first floor to clean the male bathrooms. He gave us the order that from the next day, I would have to begin to clean tops, around toilets and walls and floors. I expressed my concerns regarding why we had to do a job that we have never done before. We have never done 'deep cleaning'. I have not been trained to do 'deep cleaning' so I was not able to do it. The issue was that the person normally doing this job was on holiday and had not been replaced, so the job was not done. Moreover, those toilets had not been cleaned properly for a long time, so the bathrooms were shabby. Despite this, my manger wanted us to clean them properly. This difficult work was added on top of our other daily duties.  But I was not going to receive any pay for the extra work.

My manager said that he saw no problem for me to do what I was asked to do, but I told him I wouldn't do it because it didn't not seem reasonable that he was increasing my workload when the issue was that the cleaner, who was on holiday should have been replaced. The next day I was suspended on the grounds that I didn’t want to follow reasonable instructions from my manager.

At this time we had raised a grievance against the Company, because they were not following the agreements made between Unison and the company. They knew I was one of the people behind the grievance. I think that is why they came here and asked me to do the extra job cleaning the bathroom etc. They knew I was going to say no, so they could say you didn't follow instructions, and could suspend me.

I was suspended for two months, but they didn't expect that people were behind me. Unison organised a demonstration together with the student union (UCU) and the union for the academics and because of the pressure, I got my job back. So instead of getting me to stop, I am more determined to continue the campaign because I know people are behind me.

At the beginning the other staff and students didn't understand about the campaign because they saw our work conditions as legal. And it is legal to outsource the work. But if you are outsourced, you only get the statutory sick pay, holidays and pension. And we don't think it is fair that we don't have the conditions of the other SOAS employees, especially because we are working for an educational institution that is teaching every day about equality and human rights.

They say that 'At SOAS everyone is treated equally and with dignity' and that is not true because the cleaners are not treated equally. So we started to raise our voice and people started to understand it. Because in the beginning some of them thought, 'well you work for an external company, why are you complaining to SOAS?' But SOAS is the main boss, it is still their responsibility. If they want to hire a cleaning company, they should hire one with equal work conditions because otherwise it doesn't make sense that their policies say that there is equality for everyone who work under the same roof.

We do an important job so why should we be treated differently, we are human beings. We have more risk of getting sick than anyone. Because we work moving furniture, we work with chemicals, we work in contact with bacteria every single day, so why we don't have the right to get sick pay? Over Christmas they turned off the heating in the building while we had to clean. We had to work in below ten degree temperature. And when we get old after working 20 or 30 years in this job, there is only statutory pension and how can you survive on that?

I also believe it is important for the outside world to know about this. Because this is not only a problem here, it is a problem everywhere people are working for outsourced cleaning companies. Maybe you don't hear about it in other places because they are like us in 2006 when we didn't know yet how to organise and they are afraid to speak out. Because as soon as you start to speak out you are victimised by the cleaning company. They don't victimise you directly, no they say 'no, this is still dirty' or if you are sitting down, they tell you ‘no, you can’t sit down.’ And at the end of the day you get scared. But we have to continue fighting.

The campaign is fair because we are fighting for equality and for justice. And we believe that everyone at this University needs to be treated with the same terms and conditions.  We don't believe in second class workers, especially not at this university. These are some of the reasons why I am going on strike for equal sick pay, holidays, pension, and for dignity and respect.

Cleaners currently employed through ISS to clean at SOAS University in London are going on strike on the 4th and 5th of March. The strike is part of their campaign to be employed directly by SOAS on the same sick pay, holidays and pensions as others working for the university, rather than the work being outsourced. Here is the story of one of the cleaners and why she is going on strike:

My name is Consuelo Moreno. I am Colombian and I arrived in London in January of 2002. I came to the UK with my husband and my daughter. I wanted to work to be able to support my family and I was looking for better opportunities for my daughter.  Back home, I started studying law but didn’t have the chance to finish my degree. I am currently working for three different cleaning companies, in three different places. I have to do so in order to survive. I wake up at 2.50 in the morning. I work from 4am to 9am in my first job, from 11 to 1pm in my second job. Then I go home, clean my own house and do some cooking. From 3 pm to 5 pm I see my husband. My daughter comes home at 4.45 but then I have to leave at 5 pm to do another job from 6 pm to 8 am. Then I go back home and we all eat together. When I have time, I like watching movies, going on the seaside, dance salsa.

This is my experience working as outsourced cleaner at SOAS.

In January 2004 I began working at SOAS as a cleaner for 5 hours per day. In August of 2005, another company took of over the cleaning services at SOAS and it was at that time when all the problems began. The new management wanted to reduce my working hours by 2 hours per day. I refused to accept this reduction and then I began to be victim of workplace harassment and intimidation. I felt deeply stressed and began to feel fear every day I went to work. It was like a living nightmare.

A friend of mine who knew about my situation advised me to go and talk with UNISON. I went to see the SOAS UNISON representative and he helped me to initiate a grievance procedure against my manager for his attempt to unilaterally reduce my salary and workplace harassment. It was a success. They did not reduce my working hours and they stopped harassing me. However, new problems emerged.

We began to have problems with payment to the extent that some colleagues did not receive any pay for 3 months. UNISON once again intervened and the company paid the salaries very quickly.

In 2006, I was elected as worker representative and I began, with my co-representatives, to actively organise our workplace. We formed the Justice for Cleaners SOAS’ campaign. We started to demand union recognition, the London Living Wage, and equal pension, holiday and sick pay to those working directly for the university. In 2008, we achieved 2 of the demands, union recognition and the London Living Wage.

Despite winning the London Living Wage and union recognition, this represented only a partial gain since we were still working under inferior and less favourable conditions than those are employed directly by the university. Moreover, we still suffer from injustice and exploitation. We were continually working to improve our working conditions.

In 2009, immigration officers raided SOAS and nine of our colleagues were deported due to their immigration status, including pregnant women.

These are only a few of the many problems that we face here at SOAS. Despite this, I would like to express that I am proud of being with my co-workers fighting for dignity and respect. Since 2011, we began to demand to be brought in-house. I am proud of leading the Justice for Cleaners Campaign alongside my co-workers to bring to an end the two tier workforce, to stop being treated differently from those working directly for the university, to stop being outsourced workers.

During this time, we have planned demonstration, meetings, forums, referendums and finally we began the legal procedure to go on strike. The ballot result is possible one of the most important in British trade unionism with 100% voting YES for strike action.  I would like to tell you as a result of my experience as a cleaner and UNISON representative, I am going to strike to receive the same equal working conditions as those working directly for the University.

We clean at a public institution, but still our working conditions are not fair. We are not directly employed by the university and our rights are different from the ones of people who work directly for SOAS. They have more holidays, a better pension and sick pay. There is also a lot of injustice and favouritism, especially when holidays are assigned. We want to be respected for your job because we do it with respect and honesty.

I am going to strike because I believe that it is inhumane to do not receive a decent sick pay. We are being forced to work while being ill or psychically injured.  Three years ago, I injured my ankle. Since then, I went through several treatments and my doctors advised me that the only way to recover from the injury was to undergo surgery.  However, this would require me to take 5 months off work and I would only receive statutory sick pay which would only be £87.70 a week. I would be unable to provide for my family. I therefore continued working and my condition worsened. But there is nothing I can do at the moment apart from taking more painkillers to bear with the pain.

I am really proud of the way we were able to get organised. I am also proud of the support we get from students, staff and academics at SOAS. We are not afraid any more.

I am going to strike to receive a decent pension because after working for so many years, and very long shifts, we deserve to receive a decent pension when we retired and not live below the poverty line.

I am going to strike for dignity and respect for of all outsourced and vulnerable workers.

I think that migrants bring a lot to the UK society. Our contribution is positive. We pay taxes, we bring money to the capital of this country, we do jobs that are important for the economy.

For the future, I hope that all workers will be organised and able to fight for equality and justice because everyone deserves to be respected. We should all have equal rights and dignity.

Cleaners currently employed through ISS to clean at SOAS University in London are going on strike on the 4th and 5th of March. The strike is part of their campaign to be employed directly by SOAS on the same sick pay, holidays and pensions as others working for the university, rather than the work being outsourced. Here is the story of one of the cleaners and why she is going on strike:

My name is Marta Rey. I am 55 and I came from Colombia in 1995. I had a good job in Colombia. I was a travel agent and owned my own agency, but when I came to the UK, I got a job as a cleaner. I would like to tell you about one of my experiences working for cleaning companies contracted to clean SOAS University.

I started working for SOAS eight years ago. I used to work eight hours a day, sometimes ten hours or even more. My job was like a marathon.  There was a building I had to clean on my own. I only had one hour to clean six levels, including the toilets, kitchen and gallery. Nowadays, four people are cleaning this building and they have two hours to do the job. I was running all the time.

As a result of this, on the 6th of February 2007, I tripped with a Hoover and fell on the cemented floor. I hurt my forehead, nose and mouth and suffered cuts to my upper lip as well as slightly breaking my two front teeth. I made my way to the manager’s office. He made a report of the accident but didn’t offer any help. He told me that I was free to go but didn’t take me to the hospital.

I was in a state of shock as well as bleeding from the mouth but I left the building on my own. I made my way from Russell Square to King’s College Hospital. I am still wondering how I was able to get there by myself because I cannot remember whether I took a bus or a taxi. I only remember watching my daughter walk through the Accident and Emergency room to make me company.

At the hospital, I was given a 10 day sickness leave, which was validated by my GP the next day. The cleaning company never reimbursed me the money that I had to spend at the dentist in order to fix my teeth. But I got the biggest surprise when I received my payment later on that month: the 10 days of validated sickness leave had been taken off my pay. They discounted £278. The manager first said that it was because he lost the paper from the GP. But I went back to the GP to ask for a copy, which I was charged £15 for and gave it to the manager. But I still have not been paid the money taken off my salary.

After the accident I had to attend many more appointments with my GP due to the strong headaches and the pain in both my ears that I was getting as a consequence of the impact when I fell on my face. The hours I had to attend my GP were also discounted from my monthly pay.

As a result of this, I ask myself: Dignity at SOAS? Maybe, but not for us the cleaners that have to suffer continuous abuse from our employers without SOAS caring much though they both benefit from our hard work. It is not just about me. There are a lot of people like me but they don’t say anything. There are people who have been working without contract. There is also much favouritism, especially when it comes to holidays or longer time off to go to your home country.

That’s why we don’t want to work for subcontracted companies. We want to work directly for SOAS University. Companies don’t care about us. We are just a number, nothing more. They don’t appreciate our work. We deserve better conditions, especially because we work very hard. Imagine SOAS without cleaners! It would be a sanitary emergency! With all the rubbish inside and the toilets dirty!

I have worked very hard here, I had to clean, but that’s no matter. Now my children have their life in the UK and they are happy and progressing here. I didn’t lose my time here. However, I still want the work I do to be respected and for us cleaners to have our dignity.

This is why I am going on strike on the 4 and 5 March 2014. I am going on strike for sick leave paid in times needed, I am going on strike for a fair holiday to spend more time with my family, I am going on strike for a decent pension so that when I retire I can survive without the need of other persons.

Photo: Marta (on the left) together with Fanny, Migrant Voice volunteer