EQUALITY FOR FGW CLEANING STAFF

RMTnews :: may 2008 :: www.rmt.org.uk 6 R MT is balloting all on-board catering members and guards with responsibility for high speed services employed by First Great Western following the removal buffet cars from some services. The company has also refused to guarantee job security and the quality of work of catering and on-train members. The union is now in dispute with FGW over these issues and will be conducting a ballot for strike action of customer service hosts and chefs as well as train managers and senior conductors members at FGW. Ballot papers must be returned by second post June 19 2008. Staff have concerns that the removal of buffet cars would increase lone working and place members in a vulnerable position. This is particularly the case on late night trains, where the service cuts have occurred, as catering staff could retreat to the buffet cars in case of assault or verbal abuse. The union’s parliamentary group of MPs will be shortly tabling an early day motion on the issue. P lanned strike action by than 400 train-maintenance, shunting and cleaning staff at eight First Great Western sites between Penzance, Swansea and London has been called off after the company conceded to union demands. 24-hour strike action planned for Sunday, May 18 was called off after the company dropped plans to extend the use of engineering contractors within and agreed to pay all overtime within the engineering grades at a time and quarter with effect from June 8 2008. The company also agreed to implement 35-hour week rosters and a 25 per cent increase in earnings for some of the lowest paid cleaning grade members. RMT general secretary Bob Crow congratulated members on sticking together and standing up to a management that had not previously been prepared to treat staff equally. “The vast majority of FGW engineering and cleaning staff were still being paid the flat hourly rate for their overtime, rather than the time-and-a- quarter enjoyed by other FGW staff, including train-crew and station staff,” he said. Staff at Bristol, Reading, Oxford, Penzance, Exeter, Plymouth, Swansea, and Old Oak Common in London had voted by a three-to-one margin for strike action. “Due to the steadfastness of members at FGW, these inequalities have been removed. “This once more shows what can be achieved if all grades organise and work together in one industrial union,” Bob Crow said. This month RMT also launched a charter for train maintenance depot workers to address the issues of disparity between pay rates, overtime enhancements and employment conditions. I joined the union when I first joined the railways. I work for Southeastern and it seemed the natural thing to do. Being a member of a union is a great insurance policy and joining RMT seemed the most sensible option. I belong to Hastings branch and get to meetings whenever possible. I started off as platform staff and moved on to train crew as a conductor. As an all grades union it doesn’t matter what job you do, you are a railway worker and can be protected by RMT. I am also a union learning rep and we are establishing a sign language course for train crew staff to help deaf people deal with the transport network. WHY I JOINED RMT Name: Claire Franklin Job: Conductor DEFENDING CATERING FACILITIES AT FGW RMT WINS EQUALITY FOR FIRST GREAT WESTERN TRAIN- MAINTENANCE AND CLEANING STAFF