Spain: hotel cleaning ladies organize themselves and establish the ‘Las Kellys’ association

Since the start of what is being hailed as one of Spain’s best tourist summers ever, female hotel cleaning room staff have criticized deteriorating working conditions, including excessively long working days, extremely intensive work rates, activities that are too challenging, precarious employment contracts, salaries being ratcheted downwards. Starting out life from a page on Facebook, the movement has developed into an association that is now staking its claims right in front of the hotel lobbies.
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These female workers believe they are scorned by their bosses and little heard by the trade unions. Hospitality cleaning staff have founded their own association to defend their own interests. They call themselves ‘Las Kellys’ as a short version of ‘Las que limpian’, (in Spanish those who clean). Las Kellys started life as a simple Facebook group with participants sharing their negative work experiences and frustrations. The group has since become an association thanks to those who decided they

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