French ex-chambermaid vows to represent ‘invisible’ workers if elected MP

Rachel Keke, a former hotel cleaner who led the fight for better working conditions in a major Paris hotel chain in 2021, is through to the second round of France’s parliamentary elections. If she wins her seat on Sunday, she'll be one of few working-class MPs, and she counts on using her experience to better defend workers' rights.

Rachel Keke says she "knows nothing about politics" but a lot about defending the rights of the low-paid workers who keep France going. AFP - JOEL SAGET

Keke, 48, is running on a ticket with the left-wing Nupes alliance in the 7^th constituency of Chevilly-Larue, in Paris's south-eastern suburbs.

She came out on top in last Sunday’s first round, winning 37.22 percent of the vote – ahead of former sports minister Roxana Maracineanu from President Macron’s Ensemble! coalition.

“I’m very happy; I’m going to dance in the assembly if I win,” she told RFI over the phone amid a frantic week of campaigning.

Her main challenge is getting people to vote. More than 52 percent failed to turn out last Sunday.

“I have a great team, but it’ll be a battle – going door-to-door, to the markets, in front of schools and shopping centres," she says.

"We have to get them out in big numbers for us to win the seat in the National Assembly.”

Rachel Keke (third from left) with her campaign team in the Val-de-Marne, south-east of Paris © RFI/Sylvie Koffi

The fight for workers' rights

Keke admits she "knows nothing about politics”, but she’s no stranger to struggles.

Born into a working-class family in Cote d’Ivoire, she lost her mother aged 12 and helped raise her younger brothers and sisters.

She arrived in France in 2000 with her five children, working first in hairdressing then in the hotel industry – each time long hours for low pay.  She obtained French nationality in 2015.

She was one of around 20 chambermaids – mostly from sub-Saharan Africa – who battled for better pay and working conditions at an Ibis hotel in north-west Paris.

In May 2021, after 22 months of strike and industrial action, she and her fellow workers won their fight against the global hotel giant Accor, which owns the Ibis brand.

They obtained both a pay increase and the right to be paid by the hour, not per room.

• Two-year struggle pays off for sub-contracted hotel workers in Paris

The women were supported by the CGT union and several MPs from the far-left France Unbowed (LFI), led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Keke hadn’t banked on heading into politics but says she was “inspired” by the politicians who came to see them and then relayed their struggle in parliament.

She was also struck by the fact the majority of MPs “ignored us and took no interest”.

Rachel Keke at a France Unbowed meeting © Screengrab l'insoumission.fr

Part of Mélenchon’s strategy is to push forward new faces that reflect France's diverse population, and LFI convinced her to run for election.

“We’re not far from her being a symbol of our political struggle – quite literally,” local LFI official Hadi Issahnane said. “She naturally embodies it.”

The invisible ones

Keke counts on bringing her fighting spirit to the National Assembly and to represent the interests of workers in trades like the hotel industry, cleaning, hospitals, refuse collection, shops, carehomes and security.

“During the Covid crisis we noticed frontline jobs, they are usually invisible and don't get recognition,” she says. “But these people helped save lives.”

She also knows from experience that the invisibility of low-paid jobs, notably in the hotel industry, makes women more vulnerable to harassment, even rape.

“There are rapes, assaults, and harassment against women, and when women break their silence to denounce what’s happened, it goes nowhere. We have to address that."

Durant la campagne, je continue de soutenir les luttes sociales. Aujourd’hui, des soignants de Nephrocare manifestaient devant la préfecture de Créteil pour de meilleures conditions de travail.
Ce sont ces voix oubliées que je souhaite porter à l’Assemblée ! #NUPES pic.twitter.com/Squdx9BzXT

— Rachel Keke (@KekeRachel) June 13, 2022

Keke says that unlike the vast majority of MPs who make laws but are far removed from the real world, she knows what she's talking about.

“I’m part of that, we live underground, out of sight. MPs are doing politics but they don’t understand the people who are suffering.”

If elected, she hopes to join forces with Stephane Ravacley, a baker who went on hunger strike in eastern France to protest the planned deportation of his young Guinean apprentice.

Ravacley is also running on a Nupes ticket in Besançon and came out on top in the first round.

She hopes they can bring “the real situations we’re living though to the National Assembly so we can decide on concrete laws”.

No 'unworthy' job

Keke says politicians have to understand that without these essential workers “France stops”.

“We’re not asking for billions but a decent wage to be able to live," she says. "So with Nupes we’re calling for an increase in the minimum wage to €1,500 and why not more, by blocking prices.”

Asked on TV this week whether she was irritated when referred to as “the chambermaid" she said: “Not at all, I’m proud".

💬 "Il n'y a pas de sous-métier"

Pour Rachel Keke, femme de chambre et candidate Nupes qualifiée au second tour des législatives dans la 7e circonscription du Val-de-Marne, "c'est une fierté" d'être identifiée comme femme de ménage ⤵ pic.twitter.com/GGLJJoHjxT

— BFMTV (@BFMTV) June 13, 2022

“No job is unworthy. Being a chambermaid, a security agent or whatever is an honour. Without [clean] rooms there’s no hotel industry, no tourism in France. Our trade is important.”

Keke has taken 20 days' leave from her job as a hotel governess to give the campaign her all.

Whether she wins her seat on 19 June or not, she'll be "back at work in the hotel on the 20th".

Follow France's parliamentary elections here