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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2022 :: RMTnews 8 RMT has welcomed the news that heroic cleaners on London’s tube network will receive free travel on Transport for London services from April. Following a long campaign fought by the union, London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced that the cleaners, who are outsourced to US company ABM, will finally get the free travel given to directly employed Transport for London staff. The mayor has also asked TfL to look into making sure the cleaners get sick pay and to assess whether they can finally be brought in-house in April 2023. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch warmly welcomed the news which was a victory for RMT campaigning and a big step forward in the union’s campaign to win justice for London’s tube cleaners. “For years, we’ve been pointing to the rank injustices in the way these heroic cleaners are treated and we’ve fought to get them a better deal. “What Sadiq Khan has done here is exactly what a Labour Mayor should do and we’ll be redoubling our efforts now to make sure we finally put an end to the scourge of outsourced Tube cleaning and get cleaners brought in-house in April,” he said. RMT has fought a long, hard campaign for London’s 2,000 outsourced tube cleaners to get better pay and conditions and for TfL to bring them into direct employment, winning support from across the labour movement. When RMT assistant general secretary John Leach was London regional organiser he met Mayor Khan soon after he was elected in 2016 and told him that RMT would never rest until we had equality and justice for all contractors including cleaners. “We told him the need for staff travel to be provided to all as well as good wages and pensions and sick pay. “The provision of staff travel for all is a great step in the right direction and the hard work of our ABM cleaner activists and supporters in RMT has delivered- the fight goes on,” he said. TUBE CLEANERS’ TRAVEL WIN! After a long union campaign over 2,000 outsourced tube cleaners win free travel