Everyone Deserves Equal Rights | Doris | Zack Polanski

0:00One of the proudest moments in my political career so far is working with a union called United Voices of the world. Back in 2021, there was a strike of care workers at a care home in Barnett. They were striking over the fact that they weren't getting decent pay and decent working conditions. This was a group of largely migrant workers. Now, the care home, who had very, very wealthy owners, decided to reward these people who had been working throughout the pandemic, keeping us all safe or keeping our loved ones safe while so many of us were at home. rather than rewarding them with the pay they deserved they gave them slices of pizza and to add insult to injury it was cold pizza so i turned up on the picket line alongside many campaigners and most importantly the workers themselves various tv companies came along and we won they won they are now some of the highest paid care workers in london organizing works trade unions work and i'm so proud of the work the united voices of the world do to platform workers and not speak for them, but speak with them.

1:04So with that same tradition, today United Voices of the World have asked any of their workers if they want to come chat to me and I'm really, really proud to speak to a hotel supervisor. I'd like to introduce you to Doris.

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2:06So, Doris, you're a supervisor at a hotel that's in Canary Wharf that has been on strike alongside a group of cleaners who are all migrants and all women. Yes. If I can go back to the beginning, what was the problem? Like, why did you start talking to the union? Here is where I started. The company said they lost a lot of their business. The company was sold to an American company, and then that company took over, and then we worked with them just for nine months, and they came up with the idea that they're going to cut the hour to flex hours, and we signed a new contract for flex hours. What makes me and myself feel like we will rob our rights is when we are told that our photo is going to be removed.

2:55It is when I came furious, I said no. And when I say no, they say we have to have consultation meetings. How did you feel when the managers said that they were going to cut your hours? I feel like somebody had spoiled water in my body. I was like frozen. And I said, no, it's not going to happen to me. I'm not going to agree for you to take my right away. I'm going to look for support. When I start looking for help and one of my friends introduced me to UVW, And it's when I joined the union. Was everyone upset or were some people like, I'm just going to carry on? Everyone was upset, but I think they were scared to speak out.

3:38But I spoke out. I said, no, I'm not going to do it. That's amazing. I wish everyone had that fire. And how long have you been working at the hotel? Over 30 years. A long, long time. Yeah, a long, long time. Are the people that you work with, have they been largely the same people for 30 years or are they new people? Most of the people, they were all employees for a long time. So you had a meeting with one of the bosses of the hotel. Yeah. How was that? When we went to the meeting, he was reading the figure that was not right. And he said the amount of the work we were saying the team is doing is not right because the number is this.

4:20I said, no, if you go to your, I connect your system, you can see the amount of the work, the cleaner they are doing. And then it was like it wasn't, you didn't believe it. And how long is the shift? Eight hours. Eight hours. And is that, how many days a week do you work? Five days a week. Okay. And how is the work? Like is it, I'm guessing it's hard work. It is hard work because it's kind of manual, yeah. And it went from 14 rooms to 28? Yeah, because the company we were working before, they were doing 14 rooms, but the new company take over, they increase the amount of the room. And so you were getting the same pay, but you're having to do double the amount?

5:04Yeah, double job. That's outrageous. And when they first told you that, did they tell you in person? Was it an email or a letter? Or like, how did they tell you, we want you to do double the amount of work now for the same amount of money? Oh no, it's just when the company take over, they say we don't do this amount, the room change will be changed. So we are told the same day they take over the company, the amount of the room is going to be increased. It's not a great first introduction. Hello, by the way, here's twice for work. It was scary. Yeah, I imagine so. Yeah. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but was it scary when you first reached out to the union?

5:41Because presumably you're worried about what the consequences might be. I think it was terrified that to be told that your right is going to be taken away. It was kind of scared how you're going to live because this is your life. If your house has been taken and maybe you don't have enough money to support, like myself, I can say to pay the mortgage and the other staff to pay maybe their rent, it was really scared. But the support we get from the union, I can't explain, it was amazing. And when you first reached out to the union, did you go to their office or did they come to you or where did you have a first meeting?

6:20The first one, I fill the form online and join and be a member and take time for them to come and they answer me. I think when they read my story, because my story is that I work with this company for 30 years and somebody take over the company and come in to take my rights. That is only my hour and put flags. So when they read my story, they come back to me. they said we can support you and this is how I came about it. Am I right in thinking this was the first strike of hotel cleaners in Britain for I can't remember how many years? They say over 40-something years. Myself I was shocked. They said it was the first one strike and if they asked me to do it again I would do it again.

7:01It was an amazing day for the strike. Since 1977, so a long time. And when you first spoke to the management at the hotel and said, we are now working with a union, I was going to say, were they happy? I imagine they weren't happy, but how did they react? I think they were not happy, but because they already made their decision to cut hours, then they said, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to agree. I refused to agree. They didn't have anything to say. They said, go ahead. But I think they were not taking me serious. And then did you have meetings with the union and the management or was this a letter?

7:40Or how did you communicate? We have the meeting with the CEO, the final meeting that we went in with Petroli and it was bang, bang, bang, bang. That give my team, give my people the rights. You'll have enough money to pay these people what they demanded. So the meeting was really tense, but it was a well meeting because we won our demand. I would say UVW are not shy. They're quite confident in people's rights. Yeah, they were fighting for people's rights. They were fighting for a right and they were not shy to say. And they were saying the truth that, how come you say you have a lot of money and you can't pay these few people and you reduce the hours.

8:33And did you have to go on a picket line where you stood outside the hotel or did they give in to the demands quite quickly? We did a strike. Okay. Yeah, and the first before we had the strike, it was scary. But the day we went for a strike, I remember it was on Saturday. The amount of support we received from the UVW, United Voice of the World, every member came to support us, and it was amazing. If you ask me to read again, sorry, I can't do it again, but it was really nice. We make a lot of noise and we say we need our 40 hours back. We need our workload to be reduced. That was our demand. And there's a cost of living crisis in this country and people have really felt their bills are going up, their rent is going up.

9:31How has that affected you? that was make me myself say how can you cut my 40 hours when I have to pay the the billy when I have to pay the mortgage when I have to feed my my two daughter this is what make me say no I need help this is what make me join the the union because I was no member of the union before and I look for help and I find united voice of the world and I really get the help How did your daughters feel about all of this? Did they think you'd gone mad or were they excited? No, I think they were happy kind of because I say to the company, I'm not going to fight for myself, I'm going to fight for the team.

10:11So they were kind of, yes, mom, I know you do it. They were like supportive. And when we won, we knew you were going to win it. And where do you find your courage? Because to talk about this must feel risky because it's a job that you rely on and you're criticizing the people you work for quite rightly. And they've now given you what you want. But do you worry about speaking out? I don't think I'm worried about speaking out because there are some people there, there are immigrants there who really need their demand. And maybe if it's taken up for you, I think you need to speak out. For me, I'm not scared because I was asking, I was demanding, my right was taken away and I was furious.

10:58I was not happy and I said I'm not going to give up. So it was basically about defending your rights and other people's rights too. Yeah. And then my podcast is usually a political interview, but you're not a politician. So I'm not going to ask you very deep political questions, but I'm interested in your own experience. Like, how do you feel about the government in this country at the moment? And do you feel supported by the government? I'm not a politician, but why I vote the part I vote for the first time, because they say they will remove zero hours. And the zero hours, they were not removed.

11:34They put it in flex hour. Rather than removing zero hours, they come with the idea of something, say flex, because this is where my problem started. So many things that they say they don't do, they just say it so they can win the vote. There are so many things going wrong. But as I say, I'm no politician, but I support somebody who say I'm going to do it and see it is done. And what's the problem with zero hours contracts? Like if someone doesn't know exactly what this is about? zero hours like tomorrow you're not sure if you're gonna get the the job it's like they will they will say you work today and tomorrow maybe they know but if you are family and you have you have responsibility and you you're in zero hours it's hard to live for tomorrow because they don't know what is going to happen tomorrow and so um and what would you like to see more presumably just regular hours where someone knows how much they're working and i mean it seems quite basic now i'm saying it out loud to know what you're getting paid for and how many hours you're doing and that seems fairer yeah i think that's and the company not to take advantage to the immigrant right do you think that immigrants are sometimes taking advantage of in this country i think what happened to to us i think so thank you it's okay take your time you've been great you know you've got so much more to say but i think i have so much

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14:24canary was quite security yeah and it's really oppressive too do you want do you want to tell me about that day yeah the day started we started at canary off and it was um i mean it was a long queue we thought they're gonna stop us because as soon as we reached the hotel we find the police they were waiting but we are not bringing the problem and then the music started and it was amazing this was so amazing because they went inside because we're not supposed to go in as we were working that day and the manager came in say you need to stop this and then I told them we need our demand what kind of music was going on it's mixed because we are immigrants it was mixed songs so I can remember it was nice yeah.

15:13I've learned some fun dances on UVW Strikes before. Yeah nice music yeah. And this was a group of entirely women making these demands how did it feel to to be in a group of women making making these demands and winning? We feel like we are women in power and we were empowered by one of our union Isabella like go girls fight for it and Isabella said don't give up and you fight and this is Isabella who works at the union who's always amazing what do you think it's about Isabella that's such a wonderful quality she was there fighting for us but we have Gabrielle as well that was not sleeping day and night coming say guys we're going to strike let's meet there's our plan and we make the plan and we are really going for six weeks strike and the day that we meet the CEO, we have Petrol who was banging the table, say, give them the demand.

16:16So it's all the team, Isabella. She's a woman like me. So that's why I talk much about her, but she stands for us, honestly. I was at a protest with some hospital workers actually in South London and with Petros as well. And I've seen him when someone who's a CEO or an executive when he's standing with people standing for their rights it's an amazing thing to see to to not be scared of power but for people to know their rights and to know that we're more powerful when we're together than one single person no matter how wealthy they are or no matter how powerful they think they are we're all so much more powerful together yeah when you're a team you can win as long as you stay strong stay together you win and do you feel like you're closer together now because you've been through this experience together yeah we are i can say we are family and now we are we are find another family united voice of the world i just wanted to say a huge thank you um for coming in today i realize it must be a strange experience to be doing a political podcast but uh i think what you've done is brilliant i think it's brave and i think it'll show a lot of bravery to to other people um so thank you very much for for coming on no thank Thank you so much.

17:26No, thank you so much for coming and for spending time. Thank you so much, Zach. No, no, my pleasure, Doris. Honestly, my daughter's still going to be excited. Yeah, thank you. My pleasure.

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