This report has been published by the journal Alda and we have brought it thanks to the Creative Commons license.

My name is Look, and I just turned 90 at this residence in Ordizia. You have been working on call for many years; I already have hardened hands, but you have tied them.

Like every day, you have stripped me again today. First with arms up, with legs up... It is now! There is no time to lose in the shower. I still have eyelashes stuck in my eyes. You see my impatience, I feel yours, you would calm me down, I know, but you can't.

You always ask me how I've spent the night, as you calm the water, at full speed. You are well aware that this will be the only time to get to know each other, to take advantage of it.

Since I lost my autonomy, few people have asked me what I want, since the muscles hardened me, it seems that my tongue also dried up. Not bad than you are here. You ask me, of course, when they give you time for that.

But today it's impossible. You've put my jersey on, faster than you want, smarter than I wanted.

Wake up, get up, shower and dress at seven in the morning. You have only ten minutes to do all that, whether dependent or not, whether or not you have mobility problems, everyone is regulated the same.

You have to be prepared to have breakfast at ten, as at 12:00 hours it touches the target. I must stay in the living room, attentive to the turn of my relatives' visits. All these jobs must be repeated with so many other users in record time until the end of the race. The window must be prepared, perhaps precarious, but slender.

In the evening they keep the mannequins and lower the shutter in the nursing home, the window loses all its splendor. If the relatives could see her! Only for you, 72 years, and for a caregiver. No nurse when the lights go off.

The day has come back to light: the marathon has started again. We're already having breakfast.

Ana (Gipuzkoa), as the breakfast you have prepared is always very good, but I would like to eat it calmly. As you often denounce, instead of being in residence we seem to be on an animal farm, they feed us as if we were ducks, in a hasty manner, because they force us to strictly observe the established times. It is established that at two hours does not arrive the time we spend with the caregivers a day. Otherwise, static, as if we were plants.

Itziar (Vitoria-Gasteiz), today I see you especially tired. It's true, you've had your chance tonight. 23 people in charge, just you to change the diapers, so we are comfortable to change the postures... It wouldn't be easy. It's seven in the morning ... Hurrah! Otherwise, the day shift should do so and recruit more people for it, so it's up to the night shift to get us all up. It is a pity that at 8 a.m. they are still sleeping. Today I'm cold. See if your boss gives you time to dry after washing your hair. With the shower they immediately send you to the cleaning and do not give you time to dry yourself! Why do you have to deal with that too? I know, you've explained to me, they don't hire cleaners in this residence. Sneezing! Well, today there has also been someone who has cooled down.

Kati (Navarra), do you dedicate me a couple more minutes today? I know you have at most ten to wake us up, shower, dress us up and take us to breakfast, but I don't have to talk to you. I know that the same thing happens to you, too. Tic-Tac, Tic-Tac Sometimes you offer me a couple more minutes, but for that you have to remove another, the timer does not forgive.

It's 12:00, Soraya (Bizkaia), the time set by the user to go to the bathroom, the most terrible time for you, I know. The most painful thing for me. You have aligned us as the pattern has commanded us. The wheelchairs form the walkway. Let the show start: One... the crane; two... the crane; three... the next! It was my turn. Tic-Tac Back to line. I don't remember when it was the day I spent four minutes in the bathroom! I know you're forced to move like we're a burden. You're right, it's cruel. In our new house we are 135 people, and the nights are especially hard, there are only two workers to serve us! Every night we see you from top to bottom on five floors, like crazy.

Begoña (Navarra), I know that it has long been the turn of 12:00 to go to the bathroom, but I have to go. “Will I tell him to urinate in the diaper or will I risk being punished?” he asks, knowing that this question has no dignified answer. They told him clearly that the time to transfer the users to the bathroom is 12:00, but outside of that someone has to go to take it, as long as it doesn't leave only the other users who are in the room. How do you do the two if you're alone?

LIVING AND SURVIVAL

Itziar Ferrón, Kati López, Begoña Agúndez and Soraya García are workers in residences and day centres in Álava, Navarra and Bizkaia, respectively. They're dedicated to surveillance. For his part, Ana Merchán works as a cook in a residence in Ordizia (Gipuzkoa). Their real testimonies are those collected here, the raw everyday reality, but they could have been from Miren or Juana, from any user. In fact, in a feminized sector in 95% of cases, the workers and users are the captives of precariousness, the precariousness of the caregivers is also of the caregivers; one when living in precarious condition, the other has to survive precarious.

Living, surviving, without the right to survive. So are the older people in many residences: sitting at rest, waiting for someone to sit next to them and reach out. Itziar is well aware of the reality, as, like her, many workers in the sector are drowned in dozens of other tasks that do not belong to the caregiver. She works in a residence in Vitoria-Gasteiz. As a state agreement, their working conditions are particularly deplorable. The time they should spend with users is spent on other tasks. The hiring of a cleaning team is avoided by paying the costs that do not reach 60 euros for the caregivers. Plurality: the entrepreneur saves money; relatives paying the fee spend money; workers and users lose dignity. Precariousness is cross-cutting, it goes through lives.

PRECARIOUSNESS FROM HOME TO THE MARKET

Soraya García is clear: when surveillance has left the homes to the regulated labor market, it has emerged with all the precarious conditions: temporality, partial days and high physical and emotional load.

Perform a dark X-ray of the situation of the sector in Bizkaia. There are many caregivers who have an imposed day of 59% or 61%, because the company has decided not to make work contracts of 100%. “Taking advantage of the aforementioned polyphony, some works are covered with others. Many have been working for 14 years with a working day of 59%. In this way, it is impossible to guarantee dignified care”.

Ana Merchán agrees. They are ‘wild’ for them. “The moment a vacancy arises, they ask you to immediately approach the phone call. You get paid that extraordinary day, of course, but without leaving the Social Security, at least in some residences,” he says. To this we must add that the law establishes a 67% working day as a requirement for quoting all day and that most residential contracts are less than 60%. We must bear in mind that the care sector is totally feminized. Most of them are over 55 years of age who, having spent their whole lives working, will not be entitled to a dignified retirement at the time of retirement.

LABOUR POVERTY

“I work to be poor. I am 35 years old, two children, and I am not economically independent,” says Itziar Ferrón. In Álava the annual gross wage is 998 euros (they have State Convention), as long as you are lucky to have a 100% working day. Soraya joins him. “I am independent of the economy, but once I was told that our salary was complementary to what my husband had, it would be impossible for a head of household to have such a low wage.” It is clear why. “They don’t see the workers, they see the women.”

Ana Merchán is beyond: “They don’t consider the care of the job, if we did something, for example screws, it would be something else, but we all do is clean it, just take care of it,” ironically says. Yes, it's ironic because they're forced to work like they're going to make screws.

Ferron has also had to listen to them. “They ask us to be patient with our colleagues, arguing that they are not accustomed to caring.”

Merchán wanted to recall what Mikel Agirrezabala, president of ALLES, said in the General Meetings of Gipuzkoa: “Even if the wages were higher, in the sector there would always be more female caregivers than men, because we men don’t care so much that a woman takes care of us, but women are annoyed that a man washes them.” Soraya is familiar with the author of this statement. Remember an anecdote. “In Bizkaia, while we were engaged in negotiation, at a meeting that man took his foals and told us in the face: from here comes the money for negotiation.”

SURVEILLANCE: PUBLIC SERVICE?

Talking about investment in the surveillance sector in this way shows that this sector is not regarded as a public service. This is reflected in the fact that in many cases, as in the Itziar residence, contracts are made via ETT. “What used to be the brick business has now become the care business. It’s incredibly profitable: everyone is directing public service to the private, starting the business but with public money, it’s perfect,” he says. The quality of care is not an important variable, as they unanimously denounce. Garcia adds that public residences are disappearing and also the OPE. “It’s a way to pop the public system.”

ETT also leads us directly to talk about the politics of fear. There are no controls on working hours, but no one dares to denounce them for fear that they will not be called again. Ana is also aware of the concern generated by waiting for a call. “You’re the last to enter, so you have to be available 24 hours a day. They tell you, but, of course, you're not paid for being on call all day long." Many workers are not compensated for work assistance, because with the wages they receive they cannot afford the expenses, but they have no alternative; they always wait for them to be called in the hope that they will one day offer them a better day.

EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL

They're also trying to make them feel guilty every time there's a strike, again, making emotional blackmail. Ana knows that well. “I remember that when the strike started, a colleague told me every day that he was grieved by the elders. I told him that we had to sympathize with him all year round, because of the little vigilance they endured. Today he is also on strike,” he proudly says. Soraya has also referred to the need for recognition of the value of his work.

“We have to be very clear that we are workers, that we do not take care of for love; for love yes, for love no. We are professionals and this is our profession.” However, you have heard everything about striking. They're often told they're cruel. “Do it at least for humanity. It seems that we have gone from caring for our families to caring for society, that is the role of women.”

We have also been told about Classicism. “Caregivers are in the pyramid at the bottom, not only in society, but also in the sector: the doctor is at the top of the pyramid, the nurses below and then, much lower, the caregivers. Then came the answer: "No! The last one is the cleaner.” The nuance comes. “It is true that if there are cleaning personnel, it is the last in the center, what happens is that in most cases cleaning is subcontracted directly,” says García.

NEW PROFILES

Another element to bear in mind is that the profile of users has changed radically in recent years, but residences have not adapted to this. “Today, almost anyone who accesses the residences enters the wheelchair and with their head lost,” says Kati.

The average age has risen to around 90 years. Dementia is also general. There are also younger users, but with high levels of drug dependence. “Because there is no place in the public, they are destined to the private, so in the same space they bring together people with different profiles and needs, a drug-dependent of 55 years, 90 years and another with dementia problems”. There is not enough staff to run groups according to needs.

ALL ONE

Soraya is clear that relatives also have to intervene. “They have a social function in this conflict; we must rise up, we must demand dignified care. We talk about caring for your mother, your father, how are you not going to fight with us for public and dignified care? It’s impossible not to go hand in hand,” he says firmly. In this regard, he stressed the role of the association of relatives Babes Abertzaleak in the conflict in Bizkaia, since his copy was fundamental.

Take care of me (at least) for two hours!

ALS has just measured the times and ratios (number of caregivers per person) dedicated to the care of the elderly to propose improvements in the quality of care. Look at me (at least) for two hours has chosen the motto of the campaign, to show that today, every user is not given an average of two hours. The study carried out by country has left us hard figures: In Bizkaia, only 60 minutes a day are devoted to each elderly person, in Álava and Navarra 88, and in Gipuzkoa 92.

The demands are basic: dedicate at least two hours a day to each user. The concrete demands are that caregivers be at least two hours per person, that there is a nurse 24 hours, that there is 53% more cleaning personnel and that there is a cook for 50 residents.

In Bizkaia, for example, in the kitchen there is only one person capable of producing 150 menus, besides special menus: for those who have diabetes, hypocaloric... Moreover, it should be taken into account that for the first time the categories of cleaning, nursing and cooking have been considered, at least quantified, since currently no ratios have been established in these sectors.