My name is Magaly Quesada and I work as a cleaner at La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls' School in South London where I've been for the past 10 years.

My colleagues and I have decided to strike for 40 days and 40 nights. I believe this will be the longest school cleaners strike in UK history and it will be the first strike in La Retraite's 140 year history. 

None of us wanted to have to take this action, but we really have been left without a choice. We can no longer tolerate being treated as second class.  

All my 25 colleagues and I - all of whom are migrants - are asking for is the same sick pay scheme that all the roughly 150 mainly White and non-migrant teachers and support staff already have.

Currently we do not get paid a penny when we take a sick day whilst everyone else gets their wages paid in full.

Not having sick pay leaves us with an impossible choice to make: either come to work when ill and get sicker and make your colleagues sick, or stay home, lose your wages, fall behind on your rent, and risk eviction or going hungry. 

No one should have to make this choice, particularly in the middle of a pandemic when not having sick pay can literally cost lives.

La Retraite claims to practice a Catholic Ethos to "Act Justly - treating everyone equally and with justice" and to be "deeply rooted in Gospel values and the teachings of the Catholic Church”

Obviously, however, Dominic Malins, the Head of La Retraite, doesn't consider us migrant cleaners worthy of Just or Equal treatment.

Is it because we're cleaners, or migrants, or perhaps because we're trade unionists and members of United Voices of the World? Who knows.

But what I do know is that that we are proud of who we are, where we come from, what we do, and are proud of our trade union; we deserve to be treated as Equals. 

We are even having to fight to recover a month's worth of stolen wages which you can watch a short film on here

Please donate to our strike fund if you can, which you can do here. Every penny will make a huge difference. 

We hope that by signing this petition, you will help us show Dominic Malins, the Head of La Retraite, that cleaners are worthy of being treated as Equals and with Justice.

Thank you