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C leaners working for Churchill’s on the Tyne and Wear Metro took seven days strike action last month as part their battle for pay and workplace justice. The latest strike follows on from rock-solid strikes last year and in January which have put pressure on Churchill’s, DB Regio and the Labour- dominated transport authority NEXUS. The seven day transport cleaners strike coincided with a march and rally in Newcastle against the cuts and RMT members from across the country attended including from Scotland and Kent. The cleaners’ battle, part of national RMT fight for justice for transport cleaners, is over an attempt by the highly-profitable company to impose zero per cent pay awards on a workforce already on the bare minimum wage. Churchill’s, working for its client DB Regio, has doubled its profits in the past five years and has extracted nearly £7 million from the exploitation of essential cleaning staff on the most basic pay and conditions including no sick pay, no pensions and none of the travel concessions rights enjoyed by other NEXUS workers. While the company is trying to enshrine poverty pay to staff who deliver vast returns to shareholders, its own highest paid director has had a salary increase of more than 18 per cent in the last five years to nearly £160,000 making a nonsense of their claims that they can’t afford a decent offer to the front-line cleaning staff. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that members had shown their determination in the fight for workplace and pay justice which is now one of the longest running current disputes in the country. “This battle is now seen as having national significance in the campaign against low pay and exploitation by greedy companies and RMT will continue to ratchet up the pressure for fairness for this important group of North East transport staff as part of our national cleaners’ campaign. “I want to pay tribute to RMT members on Tyne and Wear Metro who have shown rock solid unity and courage in the industrial and community campaign to end this exploitation by a company whose Boardroom is awash with cash and whose top bosses are raking it in at our members’ expense. “This dispute in a mirror- image of all that wrong in this country with greedy company bosses on one side and low paid cleaners providing essential public services on the other - forced to strike to protect and improve their standards of living and their working conditions,” he said. RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2013 :: RMTnews 6 C leaners working on the Churchill’s contract on Arriva Trains Wales, some of the worst paid staff in the whole transport industry, have voted for strike a fight for pay and workplace justice. In line with union policy of justice for cleaners, a pay claim for an increase in pay and improved terms and conditions was submitted to the company but was met with a total refusal by Churchill’s to offer any form of pay award. In addition, Churchill’s has shown total disregard for any kind of meaningful industrial relations with this union through their failure to attend subsequent pre-arranged meetings and their cynical attempts to fund a pay award through redundancies. RMT has made it absolutely clear any pay award will not be at the expense of members’ employment. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that it was an attempt by a highly-profitable company to impose poverty pay on a workforce already on the bare minimum wage and to try to bully staff into accepting job cuts in the faint hope that it might mean a few more pence on the hourly rate. “Churchill’s, working for Arriva Trains Wales with the train operators approval, has doubled its profits in the past five years and has extracted nearly £7 million from the exploitation of essential cleaning staff on the most basic pay and conditions. “While the company is trying to enshrine poverty pay amongst the staff who deliver vast returns for the shareholders, its own highest paid director has had a salary increase of more than 18 per cent in the last five years to nearly £160,000 making a nonsense of their claims that they can’t afford a decent offer to the front-line cleaning staff,” he said. TYNE AND WEAR METRO CLEANERS STRIKE ARRIVA TRAINS WALES CLEANERS VOTE TO STRIKE