The purpose of these interviews is to provide an insight into the situation and the struggles of female workers in the cleaning sector and the hotel-restaurant industry. More generally, we hope to encourage readers to think about the relationships between women's struggles and labour unions, from the perspective of emancipatory social transformation. Of course, this article does not claim to exhaust the subject, but rather elicit contributions.
The first interview features Peneda Lurdes along with Depina Maria and Gumercinda Proenca; cleaners who have waged many struggles in a cleaning company at Charles de Gaulles airport. The company is located at the Charles de Gaulle airport, hall C-D in terminal 2. I have been there for 20 years, but not with the same company. There have been 2 companies. First, Penauille, which was bought by Derichebourg and now 3S Group for 5 years. Concerning the union, we, the CNT, have established ourselves there since Gumercinda Proenca : I have worked for a little less time.
I have been there since Concerning your workplace, are most employees male or female? What about your union section? PL : It's fifty-fifty. Maybe slightly more men than women. It's also fifty-fifty in the union. Management is also mixed. What about your employment contracts? There are a lot of precarious jobs in the cleaning sector. The problem of precarity also often faces female workers more generally. What is your situation? PL : All of us have unlimited-term contracts.
There are no fixed-term contracts now in ASP. There are only unlimited-term contracts and a few part-time contracts. This situation is a result of labour struggles. If we had not struggled, we wouldn't be in this position today! Then, the FO union developped. The number of employees is about and there are 5 unions. At first, with the CGT, we actually struggled a lot; we went on strike several times.
It is actually more difficult now. ASP has implemented an effective program of divide and conquer. This is how management operates and they do it well. Workers even tend to form social groups and bonds of affinity based on ethnicity, national origin, and religion.
