It has been up to you to write the story of the strike in the residences of Bizkaia. In the book, feminist struggle comes from the hand of labor struggle.

Yes, that is the central issue, I have had no work to reconcile the strike with the feminist struggle. If you got a little closer when they were on strike, that looked like it. Both colleagues at the Manu Robles-Arangiz Institute and ELA trade unionists were very clear that, in their view, the strike has been historic, but not for a labour struggle. They were very clear about the value and characteristics of this strike.

What does this strike do in the feminist struggle?

There are elements that show that the feminist struggle has been a feminist struggle. For starters, 95% of the people working in the sector are women. And it's not by chance that, besides being feminized, it's a precarious sector. There is a second very important element: it is not just any sector of work. These women are dedicated to care, are caregivers or managers in the residences. The first women are charged for the work they did for free, but not for decent work.

Faced with this situation, they want to fight to improve working conditions, as do so in so many other sectors. But things start to get complicated when they realize that they're in a situation where women are. They say that during the strike the employers made it very clear to them that they do not speak to the workers, but to the women. The Negotiating Tables will again and again express their surprise at the demand for wage increases: “Your wages have always been complements. Before you didn’t charge, so now you’re happy,” they’ve heard phrases like these.

I've read that this is the story of empowerment.

Resistance to strike is difficult, it has been very hard for them, but it has also served them to get some things in their favour. Survival has given rise to a long process of empowerment, both individual and collective. Among the strikers there were highly trained women, with a great deal of awareness and training in the labor and feminist struggle. But there were also a lot of young women, newcomers to work, or who, despite being very adult women, have played a secondary role in all areas of life, that role of subject, that of conformism. The latter have also led to work: fear. Fear of going out in the street, complaining, losing your job. During the duration of the strike, what has been achieved is that the women who have become tough refer back. And then we empower ourselves in the collective.

In their testimonies, management women have repeatedly criticized the patriarchal use of power. They have materialized power in a different way. Such feminist empowerment may be thought of.

Without asking, it's something they've taken out more than once. It is curious how they have said that on many occasions they have had relations with women with power they have had with a man, because in practice they adopted a male model, and always in the worst sense. Beliefs like “You are taking care of yourself, you have few studies… what do you want?” were also among the women of the management. Speaking with the women of the leadership with sons and daughters, the strikers were astonished, as they have said in several anecdotes. Even though they were women, they didn't understand the strikers.

What has been the process of preparing the book?

The beginning was the hardest, the heaviest. In the first blow I tried to contextualize, and for that I had to understand where this strike came from. I had to go back a few decades, be with people who worked in the past, sort the whole chronological process from the 1980s through 2016. I had to understand the path to the strike, and then tell the reader in an orderly way. The reason for this strike was the fifth convention and its signature was victory. But talking about the fifth strike means that there have been four others before, and in order to locate it, I have had to understand the process I've had so far.

The second part of the book, that of the testimonies, has been hard, but it has moved me a lot. Eight women had a long interview, and I let them tell you how they went on strike. When one faces a block of eight women, the reports are strong.

Why have these eight women been elected?

I've had a very close relationship with Soraya García, a member of ELA, and it was she who chose the eight, because she knows so well many strikers. They're not chosen by opinion, they're looking at the profiles. There are women that we have mentioned before, almost all of them trade union representatives. As there are only affiliated women, they have had a much shorter trajectory in unionism, in the labor struggle and in feminism. There are also those who didn't use the word feminist for themselves. It has been played with women of different characteristics so that the reports are also different.

What has it been like to listen to them?

There has been everything. Some have been quite public on the strike and are very used to talking to the media, to putting their faces on the street… The conversations with them have been, to put it another way, more professional. Much worked on by the discourse, they know what to say and express. Others may not have that path, but what they have to say is listen to it. "Are you going to cry?" Will they get angry? Are you going to scream against the Member? I wondered. But they've talked to me from humor and with a smile, very aware of what they're saying and what they've lived. Since the calmness they have told me nice passages, but also harsh situations, such as expulsion. This surprised me: the harshness of the content and its attitude.

We are talking about a fight that has been won. What would you say were the keys to victory?

One, the origin of the strike. Behind this trade union there is a powerful trade union that, decades ago, decided to play in the sector of the Bizkaia managers. The task of the trade unions is taken seriously and a complete structure is given. Hence the agreements and punctual struggles, while the workers are trained and prepared. The creation of this network of union representatives, of women in Bizkaia, is no coincidence. What the union has achieved is that by the time the strike comes, dozens of trade union representatives from all over Bizkaia will be met together.

On the other hand, they were able to socialize the theme. For them, it was important to communicate that it was not a simple struggle about working conditions, to make society understand that it was about care. They have made a great effort to socialize the issue, saying through the media: “You have nothing to say about all this? Here are your old ones, tomorrow you will be here.” How are we working on this issue as if it were a problem for some workers? This is a problem for society.

Furthermore, it has been understood that the problems of all workplaces are part of the same conflict. As they have reported, there was a time when fights were limited to their place of work, and it was thought that if the problems of the residence itself were solved everything was going well. It has been possible to change this conviction and to make it understood that the workplace of each has the same problems as the other. Beyond their workplace, workers have become aware of the entire province. “In Bizkaia we have the same problems throughout the sector because we are women and we are working on care, and we all have to deal with it together,” they said. That has an incredible strength.

Privatization has helped to understand that the problem goes beyond the factory itself.

Public institutions are reinforcing their tendency to privatization, to delegate services, to neglect the working conditions of workers. In the conflict, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia has stated that the problem is between employers and workers, who have no "responsibility". But the responsibility in this case lies with the Provincial Council of Bizkaia. Strikers have learned that their labor conflict is not a concrete fact of the residence where they work. They know that their situation is the result of a model of society. Care work has been cancelled, in the hands of women, and the offices, in the hands of companies with a single business objective.

You mentioned the socialisation of the issue. The book can also contribute to this.

Some may think that everything you count on is interesting, if you're Biscayan, because it talks about a local conflict. But it has nothing to do with that, I would say that the issue is entirely universal. It has elements for all of us to feel challenged, it talks about us. Because it does not talk about a sector that manufactures machines, but about a sector dedicated to surveillance.

In the strike called under the latter convention, strikers have obtained the support of the residents ' relatives.

In 2016, an association of family members of residents was established for the first time in history. They want their family members to be fine, but at the same time they protect workers significantly. If we go back a few decades ago, not so many years ago, these workers were insulted in the parishes, demonstrations and concentrations that were taking place. They've been called criminals or cruel. The workers accused them of abandoning vulnerable people and told them that the elderly are not well cared for without the quality of their work. That has not been internalized until today.

He says that the feminist character of the struggle has influenced the union. How has it influenced the trade union and trade unionism?

An ELA member told me that after this strike the way to call the union has changed and the word feminist has been added to it. That means a lot. From what I've been told, ALS had opened that path. Not for nothing, it also works with other feminized sectors, as 45% of union members are women. The trade union was taking that adjective, but I think the explosion has occurred on this strike.

I can only ask questions about unionism. For example, if you are going to change the model of trade unionism. We're used to seeing masculinized sectors and their problems, but with the home strike we've seen 378 days for women on the street, fighting as men for their rights. And they're not the only ones, we're seeing many others in recent times. It is no coincidence that these are sectors related to surveillance.

Speaking of other feminized sectors, how would you say that the strike has influenced them?

My interlocutors have told me that women from other sectors have approached, often saying “why we have not done so”. You also heard the word envy, seeing what you have been able to do. Then you have to see what that can bring.

What you have received is an unfinished struggle, because the agreement is until 2020. How do you see your future?

As the conventions are renewed, I would say that strikers are used to entering the next round of the wheel. They know that another will come, even if they do not know what is going to happen, whether there is going to be a conflict or whether there is going to be an agreement that is going to have to fight a lot. They recognize that doing such a strike is very hard and difficult, but if they have to do it again, they are very clear that they will. I haven't interviewed anybody behind me. I was told it was time to rest, but I see them wanting. However, it is too early to know exactly what they are in.