An Interview with Raquel Martínez Buján and Chiara Buratti, led by Faith Dzanta (European Alternatives)
How do migration, women and labor rights intersect in Venice and across Europe? In a conversation with two figures engaged in labor activism, we explore the key challenges tourism and domestic workers face and the evolving future of labor movements.
Raquel Martínez Buján, a professor and expert on domestic labor in Spain, and Chiara Buratti, a representative of the grassroots union ADL Cobas in Venice, share their insights into the struggles and strategies of workers in these sectors.
Professor Buján, what strategies have emerged in Spain to combat exploitation in domestic work? And considering that domestic labor is often undervalued and migrant women face significant discrimination in both domestic and tourism sectors, what radical strategies can improve their conditions?
In Spain, the struggle for domestic labor rights, which is closely tied to care work, has unfolded through two key avenues. First, feminist movements, especially associations of migrant domestic workers from Latin America, have been instrumental. They’ve organized cooperatives, non-profit worker-run collectives, to push for fairer conditions. These cooperatives have gained significant ground, particularly in cities like Barcelona and in the Basque Country, where programs have been developed to support care workers.
Secondly, legislation has been shaped by the strength of these movements. Thanks to the self-organization and the ability of migrant women to mobilize within feminist and labor networks, visibility has been brought to their working conditions. Without their efforts, much of the progress we’ve seen, like the legal recognition of their rights, would not have happened.
Chiara, moving to Venice, given the city’s reliance on seasonal migrant labor, are traditional union strategies enough to combat exploitation, or do we need more radical approaches? How can workers and activists collaborate to address both labor exploitation and environmental destruction?
The tourism industry in Venice is a tough battleground. The majority of the workforce is women and migrants, and they are subjected to seasonal contracts and low wages. Unions, especially grassroots ones like ADL Cobas, have worked to unite these workers across different hotels and service sectors. The issue isn’t just the traditional struggles of labor rights, it’s that workers are deliberately isolated. Employers create schedules that ensure workers never meet, making it hard to organize or even discuss their rights.
One of our successful strategies has been organizing workers from different hotels but under the same subcontractor, giving us a collective strength. When workers go on strike together, it forces employers to negotiate, especially in sectors like cleaning services, where disruption is immediately felt.
We’ve also used public denunciations to draw attention to exploitative practices. Venice’s luxury hotels project an image of opulence, but behind that facade, workers are paid per room cleaned rather than per hour. Publicly exposing these practices has forced negotiations. It’s clear that while traditional union strategies still play a role, we need radical actions like coordinated strikes and alliances with activist groups to push back against corporate exploitation.
In the context of rising inequalities and increased precarity for women and migrants, what role should academia and trade unions play in resisting the systems of exploitation in both tourism and domestic labor? What strategies are proving effective in defending vulnerable workers in today’s climate?
RMB: In Spain, traditional unions have been closely associated with industrial and service work, but they’ve failed to represent women in domestic labor, particularly migrant women. These unions remain rooted in outdated structures, not reflecting the changing dynamics of labor under capitalism. The real force has come from social movements, especially migrant women themselves, who have organized outside of these traditional frameworks.
Academia, however, must not remain distant from these struggles. The role of researchers and academics is to work directly with these movements, incorporating their needs and experiences into research. For too long, academia has been a conservative institution, often complicit in the very exploitation we study. Change will only come if we recognize these workers as partners in the research process, not just subjects to be studied.
CB: I agree with Professor Buján, there is a disconnect between academia and the real struggles on the ground. Here in Venice, the university itself has become part of the corporate tourism complex. Academic programs now cater to the hospitality industry, training students to fit into exploitative systems rather than challenging them. Unions, workers, and academics need to work together to challenge the power structures behind these industries.
At ADL Cobas, we’ve worked closely with grassroots movements and local activists to link labor and environmental struggles. In Venice, we partnered with climate activists from the No Grandi Navi movement, bringing together workers and environmentalists in a shared fight. These collaborations are essential for pushing back against corporate exploitation in all its forms.
To close, what message would you like to share with workers in these sectors about their rights and power?
CB: The most important thing is to organize. Workers must find spaces to support each other, demand that unions and social movements provide the tools to collectively resist. Individual efforts can’t lead to the radical change we need, only through solidarity and collective action can we challenge the power of employers and institutions.
RMB: Indeed, self-organization and cooperation are essential. Without these, change is impossible. In Spain, the progress we’ve seen in domestic labor has come from the self-managed efforts of migrant women. It’s their ability to unite, along with political will, that has made change possible. Their capacity to unite, coupled with political will, has been instrumental in driving change.
Raquel Martínez Buján is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Communication Sciences at the University of A Coruña, where she also directs the ESOMI team specialising in the analysis of social inequalities. Her research work focuses on exploring long-term care and its political resolution. Recently, she has specialised in studying the community as a space for care, evaluating community-based public initiatives and exploring the potentialities and tensions that arise from this sphere.
Chiara Buratti (1988) is an anthropologist and political activist. She’s been living in Venice since 2011, where she is active in the front lines of several grassroots organizations. Among these are the Italian base trade unions Associazione per i Diritti dei Lavoratori (ADL Cobas) and Assemblea Sociale per la Casa (ASC). The latter campaigns for the right to housing in Venice by providing legal as well as material support to residential communities. Through ADL Cobas, she supports the organization of the struggles of women workers in the tourism sector.
Faith Yayra Dzanta is a BA graduate in Languages, Literature, and Cultural Communication and an MA graduate in Comparative International Relations. Passionate about the use of efficient communication to facilitate positive social change, she’s covered different communication roles with international organizations, youth associations, CSOs, and international institutions. She’s worked with EA to support communication activities.