Cleaners

Issues for Tube cleaners, and unionisation efforts

Cleaners' Strike Gets Off To Solid Start

The first cleaners' strike saw 100% solid action at Morden depot, with agency staff joining the union and the picket line, swelling its numbers to about 20. Upminster as well was 100% solid with agency staff joining the union. Ealing Common, Hainault and Cockfosters depots were all 100% solid, and...

All Grades Must Back The Cleaners

For ages, RMT has argued that it is the best union for cleaners, saying that it makes sense for all workers in the same industry to be in one union, whether or not their service has been privatised. In the same industrial union, members of all grades can support each other.

If station staff and...

Women's Work Is Never Done

While not all London Underground cleaners are women, cleaning has traditionally been perceived and undervalued as 'women's work'.

Private companies have seized on this to entrench low pay in industries where women have traditionally been concentrated, such as cleaning and catering. 70% of minimum...

Immigration and the Cleaners' Strike

Tubeworker believes that anyone in this country should have the right to live and work here. So we think it is great that cleaners are taking action, despite some intimidation about immigration status. It shows that when something is worth winning, and the organisation and the will is there, we can...

Cleaners: The Fightback Has Begun

RMT cleaners have voted by a massive 99+% for strikes, with a very creditable turnout of 40%. For comparison, this is a significantly better majority and turnout than for the LUL casualisation ballot earlier this year.

There will be a 24-hour strike starting with the night shifts on Thursday 26...

Stop Talking Down The Cleaners' Ballot

Whilst many RMT activists are working very hard to support the cleaners' strike ballot, it seems to have attracted a sniffy attitude from a small number of people in the union. This seems to involve saying that the turnout to the ballot a few years ago was so low that the union hid the results, that...

Sacked For A Hat

Just when you thought the cleaning contractors could sink no lower, ICS has sacked Hammersmith depot cleaner Michael Bonsu for wearing a hat. Not just any old hat - a hat that he got from the 'free issue' store in the depot, and which helps him to do his job safely in the absence of proper PPE from...

Cleaners' Ballot Dates Named

RMT has finally announced actual dates for balloting cleaners for strike action to demand a living wage. And about time too - the scandal of poverty pay for this grade has gone on far too long. the ballot will open on 29 May and close on 19 June.

Cleaners working for four of the Tube's cowboy...

Cleaners To Strike?

After several faltering starts, the strike for the London Living Wage for cleaners is planned to go ahead again. RMT haS not been joined by the T&G in these plans, so strong organisation will be even more vital than usual. There is a lot of work to do over the next weeks: joining cleaners up to the...

Dig Deep For The Cleaners

RMT is apparently moving closer to organising a strike of cleaners demanding better pay and conditions. Mind you, the union has been "moving towards a strike" for so long now that holding your breath is probably not a good idea.

To maximise the effectiveness of the action when it does happen, RMT...

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