TUBE CLEANERS FIGHT FOR WORKPLACE JUSTICE

R MT members and their supporters protested in London last month against the treatment by outsourcing companies - especially new mega contractor ABM - of cleaners across the London transport network. The protests outside City Hall and ABM headquarters named and shamed the people responsible for the poor treatment of cleaners and called for a change. RMT is demanding that cleaners be directly employed by TfL and that they, like their colleagues, receive free travel, decent sick pay and improved wages reflecting the often anti- social hours which they work. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that cleaners were an integral part of the transport team in London and it was disgusting that they are being treated like second class citizens by these outsourcing companies. “These workers deserve workplace justice and that can best be achieved by bringing their functions directly in-house. “The London Mayor needs to act now as ABM is already busy ripping up the sick pay policy of workers who transferred to it from outsourcing company “Vinci”,” he said. Activists from more than 60 unions in around 40 countries also rallied to City Hall on the same day to discuss the Mayor of London's approach of 'productive engagement' with trade unions. Public transport workers and activists from around the world were in London as part of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) urban transport committee who are building the ITF's Our Public Transport programme. Our Public Transport is actively campaigning in dozens of countries for public transport based on public ownership, public investment, secure jobs and union rights for workers in public and private employers. Speakers at the event included RMT general secretary Mick Cash and Val Shawcross, deputy mayor of London. ITF general secretary Steve Cotton said that due to strong urbanisation and a key role in fighting climate change, public transport was growing, and would continue to grow considerably in the years to come. "We must ensure that this happens in a way that serves the interests of workers as well as the users and society at large. “That can only happen if we are able to keep, or bring back, public transport under democratic control,” he said. TUBE CLEANERS FIGHT FOR WORKPLACE JUSTICE RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2018 :: RMTnews 7