Granada floor waitresses have said enough. His reality is drawn exhausting as his stories are known, such as Belén Castañeda. At 54, he is 17 as a flat waitress in hotels in the city of the Alhambra. His body no longer endures the rhythm, being in charge of two children and a dependent husband in a high degree, but stands. “I have osteoarthritis, lumbar problems, shattered dolls and yet I have to continue working because there is no other option,” he explains.
During his career he has seen how working conditions have worsened: outsourcing of services, more rooms per day -calling 2 euros per room -less salary and less rights. “Before we had eight hours to do our homework, now we have to clean rooms in less than 20 minutes. And if the client leaves the room at 12, at 12:30 there is already another waiting,” says this worker.
Day after day, Bethlehem and many others are forced to assume “strenuous” working conditions, which go through eternal days, low wages and injuries that are not always enough to be low or, worse, that can be withdrawn because some are disabling. Tired of the disdain with which they are treated from the hotels in which they work cleaning and fixing the rooms and stays, they have been planted before the employer to claim measures that reverse their situation. They will do it first from Granada, but they aspire to make their wick pledge throughout Spain.
While the employer defends that the situation “is not so serious”, the Government opens to assess that certain professions, among which the floor waitresses would be, can retire before they turn 67 without being penalized. To achieve their objectives and gathered in the Assembly, they have launched a manifesto in which they denounce the conditions of exploitation in the sector: low wages, precarious contracts, abusive work rhythms and physical wear that leaves them with sequelae before reaching the retirement age.
Central manifestation in Granada
He knows well what he’s talking about, since Belén has gone through several hotels and in all he has found the same pattern: “They see us as invisible. In hotels, the face is given and the waiters, but without us, there is no hotel.” Despite the difficulties, he has always fought against precariousness, denouncing hidden before the Labor Inspection, which has made him suffer reprisals. “If you complain, they put you in the blacklist. But you have to report because this work is killing us.”
They demand, among other measures, early retirement without penalty in the pensions they receive for withdrawing before stipulated by law, compliance with the hospitality agreement, the end of outsourcing and guarantee that their rest days are respected. They point out that while hotels increase their benefits, they continue to suffer unassumable workloads that seriously affect their health.
To make visible their fight, they have joined in the Trade Union Coordination of Workers of Andalusia (CSTA) And they have summoned mobilizations, with a central demonstration in Granada on May 31, in addition to previous concentrations in different parts of the province. “They are squeezing us and, if we don’t go out, nobody listens to us,” they say. The next April 10 will be planted before the headquarters of the hospitality employer of Granada to warn them that this will be the first of many actions that will not stop until their reality improves.
Exhausted and exhausted
Toñi Milla also has 54 years and three decades of experience in the sector. Every morning, before leaving home, you must take a drug cocktail to relieve the pain of your hands, affected by the breakage of the carpal tunnel in both and osteoarthritis. “I get up with my hands asleep, fans. I find it hard to start, but you have to continue,” he says. In their experience, few reach the retirement age without having passed before disabling diseases. “Only 5% of the waiters of floor in Spain arrive at 65. We retire before, but because of illness,” he denounces.
Working conditions have changed dramatically since it started working. “Before we were hired by the hotel, now everything is managed by external companies. We have lowered the hours of contract and have uploaded the number of rooms,” he explains. Today, some workers have to clean up to 16 or 17 rooms in a four -hour day, which forces them to stay longer without being paid for it. “They are squeezing us. And if we protect, they tell us that we are not going to get anything. Well, staying at home we do not get anything,” he says.
Precariousness is not just the veteran thing. Valentina Álvarez is 27 years old and already drags chronic back pain. He has been working in hotels for almost a decade and has seen how the trend is to hire young women, many of them migrants, hoping that they will end up without complaining. “I thought it was strong, but I’ve been at this hotel only and I already have back pain that doesn’t take me away,” he says. In their company, workers clean the bathrooms One of her companions is low because, literally, she could not stand up after a working day.
In recent years, he has seen dozens of companions through the hotel. “They hire young women or with family charges because they know they are not going to complain. We change the shifts without prior notice, they raise the workload and if we protect, they tell us that we are young and that we should not complain.” For her, the fight is essential: “If we don’t fight, nothing will change. They treat us as if we were machines, but we are people. Nobody can endure this rhythm up to 67 years.”
The employer denies precariousness
From the Federation of Hospitality of Granada, its general secretary, Juanma López, denies that the situation is so serious. “It is not good to generalize,” he says. Defends that “companies scrupulously comply with the collective agreement” and that “the workload is reasonable.” It also argues that “the business benefit should not be correlated with the discomfort of workers” because “wages and conditions are regulated by collective bargaining.”
López insists that all hospitality cannot be responsible for the bad practices of some companies since there are hotels where the conditions are good. However, it acknowledges that there are establishments where the outsourcing precarizes the conditions, although it defends that, in any case, the hospitality agreement must be fulfilled. It also values the effort of the employer in the last agreement for matching the conditions of the floor waitresses with those of other workers in the sector, such as receptionists and room waiters.
Despite this, the workers do not see significant improvements in their day to day. The difference between what the employers’ and the reality of floor waitresses says is evident: while some talk about compliance with the agreement, others tell how work rhythms are destroying them. The struggle for early retirement without penalty in pensions is only part of a major problem: to be able to work without its health deteriorating irreversibly. “It is impossible to reach 67 years in this work. We do not arrive. And those who do it, are broken,” says Toñi Milla.
The Government values early retirements
However, for some time, the central government values the possibility that floor waitresses can retire in advance without suffering penalties in their pensions. “Our own patterns recognize us that they prefer it because we cost them money being low and if we are usually injured, they have to hire more people,” Valentina explains. However, he emphasizes that they would suffer so many casualties “if they gave good conditions.”
From the Ministries of Social Security and Labor this issue has been addressed, although without concrete advances. In the first one a negotiating table with the unions is kept open to assess this possibility and in the case of the second, its headline, Yolanda Díaz, assumes that the penalties must be “corrected” in certain professions in which “You can’t do more” When an advanced age is reached.
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