“Rub rub, it must shine!” highlights in 4 episodes the combat of exploited chambermaids, who will decide to revolt. Fiction or true story?
Rub rub, it must shine ! is a mini-series events produced by Marion Vernoux, broadcast on Wednesdays February 19 and 26 at 9:10 p.m. on France 2. Composed of 4 episodes of 52 minutes, it is also available in preview on the France.TV platform recently. The scenario immerses us in the difficult daily newspaper of Solange, Michèle and their colleagues housekeepers from the “Nowhere” hotel in Lille. Crushed by infernal rates and mistreated by their employer, an unscrupulous subcontractor, they decide to go on strike to claim better working conditions and recognition of their rights.
To support them in this struggle, they can count on Fanny, a recently separated lawyer living in the neighborhood, who offers them his help to impress her son. Over the episodes, the fight of these invisible and precarious women, often from immigration, will gain momentum. Carried by the force of the collective despite the difficulties, they will stand up to their management to obtain social advances.
With an impeccable casting led by Eye Haïdara, Émilie Caen and Karole Rocher, the series pays a vibrant tribute to these shadow workers, essential to a considerable part of the economy. In a tone of social comedy, but without succeeding in his words, Rub rubb Also addresses themes not so often present in consumer fictions: precariousness, racism, social struggles, sorority …
Rub rubbinspired by a true story
But the interest of the series goes beyond fiction. The scenario of Rub rub, it must shine ! is directly inspired by a true story: the chambermaid strike of the Ibis Batignolles hotel, in Paris, which lasted 22 months between 2019 and 2021. As in the series, around twenty employees, mainly from Africa, then mobilized against their subcontractor STN and the Accor group, to denounce their degraded working conditions.
Supported by the CGT-HPE, they claimed salary increases, a drop in rates, better outfits, the abuse of abusive changes … complaints will also be filed for hidden work. Despite the precariousness and the cost of this long struggle, they will camp in their positions for more than a year and a half, with a strike stake in front of the hotel. Their emblematic mobilization has received wide support, political figures as simple citizens.
If the fiction moves away from many points of reality, the Happy End also took place in Batignolles. After a mediation supervised by the labor inspectorate, a memorandum of understanding will finally be found and signed on May 25, 2021. If the integration within the hotel could not be obtained by cleaning women, those -It will obtain the reduction of rates of 3.5 to 3 bedrooms per hour, a break of 30 minutes, the passage of seven full -time people, but also of the employee revaluations from 250 to 500 euros, a basket bonus meal at 7 , 30 euros and an increase in qualifications.