Don't Let Kellys Go to Hell

Abstract

This chapter aims to make the most of the lessons learned due to the Spanish cleaning ladies' crisis in order to bring useful recommendations abroad. Spain has been the cradle of Las Kellys, a cleaning women union turned into a social movement that has disclosed the outsourcing-driven precariousness that preys on thousands of women. This chapter uses those maids' struggle for dignity at work to expose how oppression hides even in very highly developed countries. Oppression may crouch behind a gender gap or sit in a manager's desk when a job applicant is discriminated against by her nationality or gender. And, of course, oppression may appear in the digital plane as it engulfs labor dignity everywhere. Apropos of global events, this chapter will focus on how the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the maids' lives and on their brave stand against rising discrimination, aggravated vulnerability, and belittled human rights. Finally, this chapter gathers the opinions of two vet Kellys about their situation in order to better illustrate its content.