NATIONAL CLEANERS’ STRIKE

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 ::january 2023 :: RMTnews 13 Union calls for contracted-out cleaners to be taken in-house NATIONAL CLEANERS’ STRIKE RMT members working as contracted out cleaners throughout the transport network have voted for industrial action for the first time and will strike on December 22 23, and 31. Over 1,000 outsourced cleaners working for the likes of Churchill, Atalian Servest and Mitie are taking strike action and rail companies who use contracted out cleaning providers such as Avanti West Coast, GWR, LNER and TransPennine Express will be affected. Cleaners are demanding £15 an hour, company sick pay, decent holidays and good pensions from contractors - some of whom are raking in profits of over £100 million. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that it was an historic result and congratulated cleaner members across the transport network.  "Cleaners are an integral part of our railways and it is a national disgrace that many languish on the minimum wage, with no company sick or holiday pay, when they were rightly considered heroes during Covid. "These companies are raking in millions of pounds worth of profit, and it is high time they handed over a chunk of that money to their hard-working staff rather than rewarding greedy shareholders. "Ultimately all contracted out services should be brought back in-house and we will fight tooth and nail for pay justice for our people in this industrial campaign. “It is scandalous that multi- million pound companies are making hand over fist profits while not paying cleaners properly.  “RMT will fight every step of the way to end the super- exploitation of contracted out cleaners and will not rest until these greedy companies pay up,” he said. Days of protest action have also been called for Atalian cleaners on GWR and Avanti at their London headquarters. As well as Atalian cleaners on LNER and Bidvest Noonan at their York headquarters. Mitie cleaners will also be protesting Transpennine Express and Atalian on Avanti West Coast together with Bidvest Noonan (Alstom TPE) in Manchester. R MT’s National Dispute Fund received a generous £10,000 boost this month from RMT volunteers at Glastonbury Festival working for the Workers’ Beer Company Battersea & Wandsworth Trades Council has run Workers’ Beer Company as a not-for-profit venture since 1986, helping grass roots organisations including trade unions, fundraise whilst having fun. In July 2022, 65 RMT members, their families, friends and a very special retired BR Gold Card holder, Maureen Sheridan, spent a week working at Glastonbury to fundraise for their own campaigns. Maureen, now in her early 70s, started work as a railway Cleaner at Streatham Hill depot. She was training to become a guard, when her Station Manager noticed her Irish School Leaving Certificate and put her forward for a clerical role at Gypsy Hill, near Crystal Palace in south London. Maureen went on to become a British Rail Trainer, delivering courses to shunters, guards and clerical officers at King Cross before moving to BR Intercity at Euston. She travelled the network developing and delivering training courses, eventually becoming a BR Management Grade (MS3). Maureen left the railway at privatisation but remains a great supporter of rail workers and the passengers she loved working with. Maureen has passed on her enthusiasm for the railway to her son, Will Sheridan who is an RMT member as a guard at Southern Trains. MAUREEN’S £10K FOR DISPUTE FUND