CLEANERS UNITED IN YORK

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2024 :: RMTnews 10 C leaners spoke out against their super exploitation on the rail network and promised to fight back at their national organising conference in York. Delegates from several contracted-out firms expressed frustration at a lack of sick pay, company holiday pay and the need for a strong industrial response from RMT. Kicking off the event and giving an overview of where the Justice for Cleaners campaign stands, Senior Assistant general secretary Eddie Dempsey said: “We've been through a whole series of battles.  “We've been through battles of a combined nature in Churchill's. We’ve been through a massive fight when we tried to bring all the contracts together.  “There have been some victories, we've had some defeats, we've ran out of steam in some places.  “But the one thing I want to be keen to do is to make sure that we're learning as we go.  “And the best way to learn how to fight, on behalf of the workers is in the ring”. He went on to highlight successes cleaners had had before Covid when they took direct action and coordinated with directly employed staff on Great Western Railway. But when the government moved away from the franchise model and took on more direct control of the companies, the situation changed. “The people in charge of settling deals with us were no longer the private companies, with their own profit margins and their own public image to protect. “The decision-making was shifted to the Department of Transport,” he said. During the national strike which cleaning grades were part of, outsourced companies were having any loss of money underwritten when their employees walked out. “As long as the cleaning company could demonstrate that they had a plan to mitigate the impact of our strike action, they could get paid, including bringing in agency labour in a way that was illegal to break our strikes. “They weren't losing any money. And the train and rail companies weren't losing any money either…because the government was indemnifying them. “Strike action works when we are able to inflict damage on the employer, where we're able to make them lose profits. “That's when they have to settle, and so our leverage was taken away, at a time by a government, that was prepared to support the employers against the workers and use taxpayers’ money to make sure they don't lose a penny, and that's a significant and important change,” he said. Mr Dempsey concluded that the only way for cleaners to advance their cause for better pay, company sick pay and decent holidays was organisation and increased density. He said: “You are not paid CLEANERS UNITED IN YORK