RMT press release, issued today

RMT TUBE cleaners fighting against poverty pay are to lobby the mayor of London’s questions at the London Assembly tomorrow (Wednesday), demanding to know when they will begin to receive the London Living Wage.

Cleaners and their supporters will lobby City Hall from 09:30 tomorrow (Wednesday).

RMT regional organiser Brian Whitehead will be available for interview.

The mayor last week reaffirmed his backing for the London Living Wage, which he also increased to £7.45 per hour, but cleaners working for contractors ICS, ISS, ITS and GBM on the Underground network are still being paid rates as low as £5.50.

At mayor’s questions tomorrow Brent and Harrow London Assembly member Navin Shah will ask: “Does the mayor support the living wage for London Underground Contract Cleaners?”

Fifty MPs from across the political spectrum – including former transport ministers Karen Buck and Glenda Jackson – have signed an early day motion condemning the employers for paying little more than £5.50 an hour and urging the mayor to ensure that contract cleaners are paid the London living wage (text and link below).

“There are hundreds of cleaners working on the world’s most prestigious metro system being paid a pittance on contracts that the mayor is ultimately responsible for, and they need a living wage now, not jam tomorrow,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

“When cleaners took strike action earlier this month we had the shameful spectacle of employers who have made millions on their backs resorting to gangster tactics to try to intimidate them back to work, when all they want is a living wage.

“Metronet is now under the mayor’s direct control, and three of its cleaning contracts are being renegotiated right now, but so far there has been not one word about the London Living Wage.

“Tubelines contracts have been renegotiated since our campaign began and aren’t up again until 2012, and the mayor cannot seriously think our members on Tubelines contracts should wait another four years for a living wage.

“The mayor acknowledges that £7.45 is the minimum it is possible to live on in the capital, and he has the responsibility to ensure that the Tube’s cleaners get it now,” Bob Crow said.

ends

Note to editors: Some 700 RMT cleaners working for cleaning subcontractors ISS, ITS, ICS and GBM have taken strike action twice in their campaign for a living wage: a 48-hour strike between July 1 and 3, and an earlier 24-hour stoppage on July 25 and 26.

The cleaners' demands also include 28 days' holiday, sick pay, decent pensions and travel facilities, and an end to the barbaric practice of 'third-party sackings' in which cleaners can be dismissed, with no disciplinary hearing or right of appeal, at the behest parties other than the employer - a device used to get rid of union activists.

Early Day Motion 1872 Tabled by John McDonnell and signed by 50 MPs to July 15

CONDITIONS FOR CLEANERS EMPLOYED ON LONDON UNDERGROUND

That this House fully supports the 700 cleaners on London Underground who are members of the RMT union, who have voted by a margin of 125-to-one to take strike action for the London living wage and improved working conditions, including decent sick pay, pensions, holiday entitlement and travel facilities; notes that the action also seeks to end the disgraceful practice of third-party sackings in which cleaners can be dismissed, with no disciplinary hearing or right of appeal, at the behest of parties other than the employer; is appalled that these vulnerable workers who do such an essential job for London must get by on rates of pay of little more than £5.50 an hour; believes that such exploitation brings shame on London as it prepares for the 2012 Olympics; further notes that the cleaners are employed by contractors ISS, ITS, ICS and GBM who are subcontracted to Metronet and Tube Lines to undertake cleaning for London Underground; therefore believes that Transport for London (TfL) has a clear responsibility to assist in resolving this dispute; calls on the Mayor of London to honour the pledge of the previous Mayor that cleaners on Metronet contracts would receive the London living wage as soon as they passed under TfL control, and to bring pressure on Tube Lines also to pay the living wage; condemns the intimidation of cleaners by employers in this dispute; and urges cleaning bosses instead to direct their energies to reaching a just, negotiated statement.