French MP, Rachel Keke: “From the Paris chambermaid strike, I learned the power of collective struggle”

French MP, Rachel Keke: “From the Paris chambermaid strike, I learned the power of collective struggle”

Rachel Keke during a session of ‘questions to the government’ at the French National Assembly, on 12 July 2022 in Paris.

(ACABAPRESS/Alamy Stock photo)

In June 2022, Rachel Keke, 48, became a French deputy (MP) with the New Ecological and Social People’s Union (Nouvelle Union Populaire Écologique et Sociale, NUPES). She describes herself as representing the “voice of the voiceless”. As a woman of Ivorian origin without a degree, Keke’s journey into politics has been anything but straightforward.

Her story begins in Abobo, Côte d’Ivoire. Following the death of her mother, Keke was forced to quit school at the age of 12 to look after her five siblings. While her father wanted her to continue her studies, Keke quickly realised that she would have to choose between preparing meals and going to school. She chose to sacrifice her own schooling to care for her brothers and sisters.

Rachel Keke arrived in France at the age of 26 following the 1999 Ivorian coup d’état. After working various jobs, including as a hairdresser, cashier and nursing assistant, in 2003 she began working as a housekeeper at the Ibis Batignolles hotel in Paris. From 2019 to 2021, Keke went on strike alongside her fellow chambermaids to protest their poor working conditions and low pay. She received the support of several deputies from the political party La France Insoumise (LFI), who later encouraged her to run in the 2022 legislative election.

Keke was elected with more than 37 per cent of the vote in June 2022 representing the Val-de-Marne department in the Paris region. Equal Times met with her in November 2022 in Paris.

 

You were elected to the National Assembly on 19 June. How do you feel in your new position? Why did you want to get involved in politics?

I feel good in my new position. Being an MP has given me insight into how politics works. Above all, I am discovering how the government works in relation to the population. It pains me greatly to see a government with so little regard for the people.

This government [elected in May 2022 and headed by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, editor’s note] is completely disconnected from reality. They have repeatedly claim that everything we in the opposition say is a lie. But we are the ones who see what is happening on the ground and that is the reality we are trying to bring into the National Assembly.

During your campaign, you said that you wanted to be a “voice for the voiceless”. Who are the voiceless?

I am thinking above all of essential workers, those who worked during the health crisis, who risked their lives and who receive no recognition today.

They include the Uber Eats delivery workers who are asking for regularised status while Uber is turning its back on them. They were the ones who delivered food while most people were scared to leave their homes and go shopping.

I am also thinking of cleaning ladies, bus drivers, nursing assistants, restaurant workers and construction workers. These jobs are mainly done by women and people with immigration backgrounds who are underpaid and mistreated.

I want to represent all of the essential workers before the National Assembly, to be a voice for the voiceless in the face of this out-of-touch government.

What are you specifically proposing to help these workers?

I am proposing a minimum wage of €1,600. I also want the same treatment for subcontractors and internal employees.

For example, the employees of the Ibis hotel in Batignolles are entitled to €7 of food per day. As chambermaids employed by a subcontracting company, this was not afforded to us.

We achieved a victory and today “subcontractors” have the same rights as “internal” workers. Without our struggle, this victory would never have happened.

What stands out for you from the strike that you led for two years at Hotel Ibis Batignolles?

I learned the power of collective struggle. No one is going to give it to you. The bosses aren’t going to hand you a raise on a golden plate. The experience shaped me. I have immense respect for my fellow workers. No one listens to them.

Several MPs from La France Insoumise (LFI, left) showed their support by joining us on the picket line. This touched me and I said to myself: “If we win our strike, I’m going to join the LFI and go to picket lines to support those who are fighting, to let them know that if we were able to hold out so can they”.

Have you visited the cleaning ladies of the National Assembly as you promised during your campaign? If so, what did you take away from those meetings?

Yes, I met with them. They congratulated me but above all they asked me for help. The women who clean the National Assembly are also mistreated as subcontracted workers.

I am working with some of my colleagues to ensure that they are directly employed by the Assembly. That would be a great victory. They deserve respect and dignity.

You have also championed platform workers. Last October, you stood with them at a demonstration in Paris. Do you identify with their struggle?

Yes, the platform workers feel they have been treated like rubbish. They have no papers and their employers don’t care. They are there to be used and once they are no longer useful they are simply thrown away. We have to fight for them.

The young people in our working-class neighbourhoods don’t have work. Even the ones who get an education can’t find employment afterwards, so they are forced to do these jobs. Young people are exploited and it’s deplorable.

In your view, what are the most important social justice battles to be waged in France and in Europe?

We need trade unions representing all workers, in France and throughout Europe. Without them workers don’t have the power they need to go on strike and demand their rights.

But we need good unions, not unions that are on the side of the employers. During the Ibis strike, we had corrupt trade unionists come to ‘break’ the picket line. They called the husbands of the women at their homes so they would pressure the women to end the strike. Some of the women were afraid of their husbands and stopped coming to the picket line. These kinds of trade unionists are undermining the labour movement and we have to get rid of them.

As a female immigrant with no formal education, how does your background inform your political activism?

Having a degree is important but not having one is not a handicap. We all have innate intelligence and we are never finished learning. I learned a lot participating in the collective struggle.

I tell young people that going to school is a good thing but if they are unable to continue their studies they shouldn’t lose hope.

It’s also time for women to join the fight. Women have a sixth sense and are very intelligent. There is a lot that they understand. When it comes to violence against women, for example, all women must stand together. Men must not be allowed to take advantage of our bodies, to think that they belong to them. It’s time we worked collectively to push back against everyone who treats women like dirt. They deserve respect and dignity.

This article has been translated from French by Brandon Johnson