Resisting the Capitalist-Colonial System: The Women of Ibis Batignolles
The victorious subcontracted workers at Ibis Batignolles hotel in Paris. (Photo: via CGT-HPE)
On January 17, 2020, chambermaids working at Hotel Ibis Batignolles marched through Paris, marking six months of their indefinite strike. These women were striking against a decision by the Ibis chain of hotels, owned by multinational hotel group Accor, to subcontract its workers to a cleaning and catering multinational company, Elior. The protests began in July 2019, when 10 staff members who had occupational diseases were threatened with transfers for not discharging their heavy workload of cleaning the 700-room hotel at the speed of one room in 17 minutes.
The protestors called out Elior for being abusive, as it allowed Hotel Ibis to cut their wages arbitrarily, and created a “two-tier workforce” that privileged the staff over the subcontracted chambermaids. The chambermaids, as employees of the subcontractor, did not enjoy the same benefits as the staff employed at the hotel - their services were billed based on the number of rooms cleaned, unlike the staffs' services which are determined by an hourly volume. To be able to make a living, many of them were forced to work overtime in unsafe work environments. The protest also drew attention to a case of sexual assault of one of their co-workers by the former hotel manager in 2019, and the denial of the dignity of the female workforce.
On January 19, 2020, several migrants entered the lobby of Hotel Ibis Paris Bastille Opera, in Paris, and declared an occupation of the premises. Many of them were either undocumented or did not have the necessary paperwork to legally live and work in France. These individuals were members of the Gilets Noirs, a movement inspired by the anti-austerity movement called Gilets Jaunes, which works to highlight the exploitation of migrant workers and demand immigration papers for them. The protesting collective also included the twenty-odd chambermaids who had initiated the protest in July 2019. Some of the others at the lobby were from the chambermaids’ union called CGT.
Together, they all demanded an end to the exploitation of all workers at Hotel Ibis Batignolles, the reinstatement of all those who were fired during the strike, and an end to subcontracting as a practice by bringing all staff into Ibis’ direct employment. Through announcements, a press release, and impromptu speeches, the collective talked about the struggles encountered by labourers, including everything from exploitation and sexual assault to border control and erosion of dignity at the workplace.
Resisting neocolonial dominance
Through their advocacy, the collective called out the neocolonial dominance inherent in the dynamic they were trapped in. Even as France controlled their rights and freedoms, it steadily encroached on their home countries in Francophone Africa by propping up corrupt governments, engaging in harmful trade deals, and forcing their migration by creating conditions of poverty and lack of safety. As many as 300,000 undocumented migrants lived and worked in France at the time of this protest – and corporate establishments continued to profit from their labour while avoiding accountability by shifting the blame on either side of the supply chain. Aside from hotels, Elior provides cleaning, catering, and laundry services to detention centres, airports, and the security sector in France. These are the very sites where migrant labourers are detained, interrogated, judged, and deported – sites where the same migrant labourers offer their services while their employers continue to profit off their backs.
The fact of being undocumented means that migrant labourers can be both exploited and underpaid, without any accountability for either. The collective resisted capitalism and colonialism through protests, marches, shouts and chants, and daily gatherings where they assembled together, offering each other care, support, and encouragement to keep going. The protestors also demanded that Elior commit to providing necessary documents for all workers, and to commit to ending its collaboration with every site where migrants are tortured – such as detention centres, prisons, courts, and police stations.
The Accor group, which runs Ibis, Novotel, Mercure, and Sofitel, operates its properties in 110 countries, employing 280,000 people world over – the collective’s attempts to resist the power of the hotel giant required all the efforts imaginable. Fittingly, the women’s efforts left no stone unturned: Through collective work, the strike drew out women who had never participated in demonstrations ever before, to advocate for their rights. They built deep bonds and contacts with a range of other groups to create a culture of struggle entirely as a product of their agency. They came up with their own songs, such as the “Exploited Cleaners Anthem,” made pamphlets, and trained themselves to talk to the media. Their exercise of power in collaboration was a meaningful counter to the transnational capitalist edifices they resisted. Relying on strength in numbers, the collective also embedded care practices: Many came with their families, one of the protesting housekeepers had a baby during the strike, and leaned on the collective for care and support. They also drew on financial support from the union, and built a strike fund to compensate the workers for their loss of income during the strike.
After 15 months of protesting, the collective won. Accor agreed to revaluate salaries, end subcontracting, pay overtime, and provide decent working conditions. One of the protestors is now a serving member of parliament after she contested elections. The collective who took on Ibis Batignolles are a powerful reminder of what it means to lean on power with, collective action, and a pursuit of transformation for lasting change. Their advocacy and actions on ground are also a profound example of feminist foreign policy in action: Recognizing the transnational nature of labour and the racism it faces, they not only called the system in question for those who protested, but created profound ripple effects for the larger ethos.
References
https://irr.org.uk/article/justice-for-the-outsourced-hotel-ibis-chambermaids/
https://www.equaltimes.org/you-don-t-ask-for-power-you-grab
