BIDVEST CLEANERS TAKE 48-HOUR STRIKE ACTION

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march/april 2024 :: RMTnews 9 RMT members working for Bidvest Noonan on Alstom NTL and TPE contracts took strike action recently in Glasgow and Manchester. The cleaners are taking action over pay and working conditions having rejected the latest offer from the company. The RMT members will also be taking industrial action short of strike by not undertaking any biological hazard cleaning. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that it was always a major step to take strike action when trying to agree a negotiated settlement. "But for some of the lowest paid workers on the railway network, it is even more of a sacrifice. "Bidvest Noonan need to understand that our determination and support for our members will continue for as long as it takes to reach a deal,” he said. T his year’s young members conference included a workshop run by LU Fleet Functional Council rep Rhys Harmer dealing with how to organise at the workplace and how to plan for ballots for industrial action. Delegates came up with ideas on what an organised workplace looked like including issues such as democracy, unity and workers having a voice in work. This can be improved with high levels of membership, reps being accountable to their members and information being available to members regularly. Following on from a discussion on what practical things activists and reps can do to organise their workplace, the group discussed four real workplaces; an engineering depot, outsourced cleaners, station grades and an oil rig on what issues there would be locally and how to deal with them. Rhys Harmer said that it led on to a discussion on how to win a workplace ballot. “There were great, fresh ideas that opened up debate and difference of how to approach the workplace issues we see on a day-to-day basis,” he said. directly responsible for the industrial relations environment in those contracts,” he said. Other speakers to address conference included SOAS professor of economics Costas Lapavitsas and Stop The War organiser Grace Roisin. Professor Lapavitsas cited statistics showing declines in manufacturing and a rise in services jobs over the past four decades. “I’ve been in this country for 45 years and I’ve never known it in a worse situation. “Basically, growth has been going down every decade and the worst decade was the 2010s, an appalling decade – and this one is shaping up to be worse. It’s obvious that Britain needs shaking from below. “Trade unions are the only part of society that seems to have some life in it. The top is plugged in immobility and it needs to be shaken and it needs radical proposals from below,” he said. And Ms Roisin praised RMT for its stance against Israel’s war on Gaza where the union has spoken on Palestine solidarity platforms. Delegates at conference also debated motions on diverse topics such as a graduate membership rate where they want “a new membership rate titled ‘apprentice/graduate’ that is the same as RMT’s lower membership rate. Conference also elected a new chair in Sarah Cundy and vice chair Freddie Seale. ORGANISING THE WORKPLACE BIDVEST CLEANERS TAKE 48-HOUR STRIKE ACTION STRIKE: Members at Manchester Traincare Centre, Longsight who work on the Alstom Northern Trains and Transpennine Trains contracts