 Hi everyone, I'm here today with Consuelo who was nominated as one of SOAS's most inspirational women for 2021. We're interviewing three candidates who were nominated by the SOAS community and asking them a bit about their journeys. So Consuelo, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us how you moved to London and tell us about the Justice for Cleaners movement that you're involved in? My name is Consuelo Moreno and I'm a cleaner and representative of the cleaners in SOAS. I've been working for 17 years in this university and it all began in 2006 when I began with other two peers campaigned Justice for Cleaners at that time it was called Justice for Cleaners but now it is known as the Justice for Workers campaign. I've always believed that change is possible and it's doable and makeable because we deserve better work conditions and that's how the campaign started under those values. So the Justice for Workers campaign started because we were people that worked for this uni and that basically guaranteed a protection and some healthy environment for the community but at the same time we were invisible. Our problems were not known, were not heard, the oppression that we were suffering and that's why this campaign began and that's when we also became part of unison as unionized workers and after that a lot of students just joined the cause and then academics also became aware of it and now we enjoy a lot of support from all these people. The beginning of this campaign was really hard because when we started to organize the university as long with the company that outsourced the cleaners at that time ISS responded with the deportation of eight of the cleaners at that time who were calling to a meeting without knowing what was happening and then immigration officers came in and took some and deported some people. Among those people a woman who was a pregnant of eight months. Of course this is totally unjust because for example if we got sick if we were feel ill we had to go to work otherwise you will lose that day from your wage and your salary. We also had very very short vacations and then again because our wages and our payment is lowest in all of us we had to like work over hours and more than we should be able to survive in a country as expensive as the UK and particularly in London. So having vacations that weren't long enough it was really detrimental for us and to see our families because of course we had to work so long and so much during our normal period that we didn't see them enough and then not having enough vacations to see them was also like detrimental. This is why our main objective was always to get an in-house contract. A lot of people thought that this was going to be impossible but we remain constant and we didn't allow ourselves to get defeated in this. It was a really long campaign for the objective to get an in-house contract. We were the first university that was against the outsourcing of labour and this was a lot of work with the help of the community in long campaigns, occupations, protests, etc and we finally managed to get the in-house contract in August 2018 being apparently the only one university in the UK that managed to end the outsourcing scheme in all of its departments so that included food, the cleaners and all the other workers. The most important thing about this victory of the campaign is that not only we demonstrated that it is possible that we could do it but that change is attainable and of course the campaign has worked as an inspiration for a lot of different working sites. Some of them have already managed to get an in-house contract like King's College London, Goldsmith University but we still remain as an inspiration for other units who are constantly on the struggle to also get an in-house contract and to all the other of course labour sites that continue to fight for this. That's so amazing to hear. I can tell that I can see why you've been nominated for this opportunity. I can see how inspirational you must be to so many people and both the SOAS community and further. I'd be interested to hear what you wanted to do when you were younger growing up particularly as a migrant. I think your experience must be very interesting. It was really a normal childhood, very common with a very united parents and loving parents. I had a dad who also used to participate in in unions back in my home country. He told me a lot about when someone proposed something and when you want to achieve something you can always get it with perseverance. As an adolescent as a teenager it was also like very normal. I managed to finish my secondary school and even took some semesters in law school back in my home country. That's amazing to hear. So as you know this is for international women's day so I'd love to hear have you faced any barriers specifically as a woman in your field? Basically in the struggle really I only have to be grateful for all the support I have received so far from the students, men and women in SOAS and the academics and basically all of the community that have supported this campaign. More than barriers what we have encountered is a lot of support from the community even from newspapers like The Guardian who published what was happening and how the campaign was relevant and that helped a lot in giving us more space. So it was like a lot of support rather than barriers. On the other side the only barrier that I have faced not much as in my gender as a woman but rather as the leader of this campaign has been from management who have basically opposed many of the demands that we have proposed to them. So I guess our final question is I know we've heard a lot about your leadership for the justice for workers movement and it's so admirable to see what you've been doing so of all the moments what are you most proud of achieving? I feel very proud as a woman to have been able to contribute yet some change into the SOAS community to get better terms and benefits and conditions of the workplace. Even beyond my womanhood being an immigrant I feel very proud of being able to come to a play to a country like the UK from a country like Colombia and being able to basically support and give a bit of my own into this community. It's all about just taking a seed and planting that seed of the struggle into all of the students that have helped and that have supported this campaign. I do wish that when these students finish their university journeys and they have to go into their workplace they continue to carry this seed of the struggle and experience into their own workplaces and that this translates into them being better people. Absolutely I think that's a great place to end it then thank you so much for talking to me today it's been a genuine honor and I know that I don't speak for myself when I say that everyone at the SOAS community is so grateful for all that you've done so thank you so much. Okay bye.