AROUND 700 RMT Tube cleaners working for four private contractors are to stage a series of strikes after voting by a landslide 125-to-one margin for action. Tube cleaners working for ISS, ITS, ICS and GBM, private contractors on the London Underground are engaged in a campaign of industrial action for a living wage of at least £7.20 an hour.

There are Tube cleaners who are paid at rates little more than £5.50 an hour. The RMT is also demanding 28 days’ holiday, sick pay, decent pensions and travel facilities, and an end to the practice of ‘third-party sackings’ in which cleaners can be dismissed, with no disciplinary hearing or right of appeal – a device used to get rid of union activists.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow explained “This was a massive vote for action by a group of workers who are among the most exploited and abused in London, and their anger is clear for all to see.”

“Their bosses are making huge profits at our members’ expense and wouldn’t bat an eyelid at spending more on a single meal than many of our members earn in a week.

“The previous mayor promised that cleaners on Metronet contracts would receive the London living wage as soon as they passed into TfL control, and if Boris Johnson wants to be seen as a mayor for all Londoners he will honour that pledge.

“Tubelines bosses know that paying cleaners the London living wage would barely dent their £1 million-a-week profits, and it is time they stopped hiding behind their contractors and lived up to their professed aim of ‘treating others as we would like to be treated,” Bob Crow said.

This week the government’s own inflation figures hit 3.3 percent. The RPI (Retail Price Index) hit 4.3 percent. But as last Wednesday’s Daily Mirror confirmed, the real inflation is much, much higher – with food and fuel prices rising fastest. Eggs are up 45 percent on twelve months ago, chicken is up 28 percent, butter 30 percent, milk 17 percent, gas and electricity prices by more than 11 percent, petrol by almost 17 percent and diesel by 26 percent.

Cleaners working for ISS, ITS, ICS and GBM will not book on for shifts that commence during the 24 hours between 18:50 this Thursday, June 26 and 18:49 on Friday June 27.

A second, 48-hour, strike is also scheduled for all shifts commencing between 18:50 on Tuesday July 1 and Thursday July 3.

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Remember all staff are responsible for their own safety and that of passengers. During the cleaners dispute you are strongly advised to:

• Ensure, as part of your pre-start checks, your station is fit for passenger use;
• Closely monitor the build-up of any combustible materials assessing any fire-risk as a consequence;
• Report all faults and log all report numbers in the log book;
• In the absence of your usual cleaner, closely check for valid licenses and any other necessary paperwork.