From the Streets to the Corridors of Power

<p>&quot;If you go together and if you fight for it, then you are visible.&quot;</p><p>Over the last four episodes of this series, we&#39;ve heard about the daily struggles, exhaustion, the invisibility, and the structures that keep these burdens in place. In our final episode, we ask cleaners themselves what resistance looks like.</p><p>From “Justice for Janitors” across the Atlantic, to the Cleaners Parliament in the Netherlands,this episode traces the rise of worker-led organising—and shows how cleaners are turning isolation into solidarity, and silence into a demand for justice that can no longer be ignored.</p><p>In this episode, we hear from:🗣️<strong>Khadija Hiati</strong>, who started as a cleaner and went on to serve as President of the Dutch Cleaners&#39; Parliament from 2011 to 2024. She describes the shock of being disrespected on her very first day—and why she decided to fight back, becoming a trailblazer for women with migration backgrounds.</p><p>🔥<strong>Herrie Hoogenboom</strong>, a veteran union organiser in the Netherlands who helped shape the Cleaners&#39; Parliament campaign. He explains why the movement &quot;radicalised&quot; his views on politics, why they called it a &quot;parliament&quot; to give workers dignity, and how they organised sit-ins, strikes, and a historic demonstration of 800 undocumented workers.</p><p>🇺🇸🇲🇽<strong>Valery Alzaga</strong>, who brought the legendary Justice for Janitors (J4J) organising model from the United States to Europe. She shares the non-negotiable principles of the campaign: workers must lead the decisions, unions must research their opposition better than they know themselves, and when the &quot;nice way&quot; fails, escalation is justified.</p><p>🇩🇪 <strong>Zeynep Bicici</strong> (returning from Episode 4), President of UNI Europa Property Services, on Germany&#39;s &quot;uprising of the invisibles&quot;—the strike where women dared to make themselves visible and demand proper pay and respect.</p><p><em>🎧 Unsung Cleaners</em> is a podcast by UNI Europa, co-funded by the European Commission. The show is produced by <strong>Seden Anlar</strong>. Interviews and narration by <strong>Gail Rego</strong>. Project coordination and interpretation by <strong>Alessia Mora</strong> and <strong>Mark Bergfeld</strong>. Special thanks to all the cleaners and union organisers who shared their stories and to dubbers Seden Anlar and Alessia Mora.</p><p><br></p>