RMT press release, issued today

OVER 700 RMT members working for four cleaning subcontractors on London Underground are to strike for a third time in their campaign to win the London living wage.

Workers at ISS, ITS, ICS and GBM, who despite statements from London Mayor Boris Johnson are still paid nearly £2 an hour below the LLW of £7.45, will not book on for shifts that commence between 05:30 on Thursday August 21 and 05:29 on Saturday August 23.

"Last month the mayor said that he would see to it that all cleaners on Metronet contracts would be paid the London living wage by August at the latest, but there is still no sign even of that happening," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"Only 24 hours after he made that pledge Mayor Johnson said it would apply only to cleaners in companies currently renegotiating contracts with Metronet, and that would leave workers on the ITS contract, as well as all cleaners on Tube Lines contracts still on poverty pay.

"It is not good enough for the mayor to hide behind contract negotiations, for Tube Lines to pretend that what its cleaning subcontractors pay their cleaners is nothing to do with them, and for the contractors to claim that they can't afford to pay.

"If the mayor is going to fund the London living wage for some Tube cleaners he can fund it for all of them, and he can't seriously suggest that cleaners doing the same job can be paid £2 an hour less for up to four more years.

"If poverty pay is unacceptable on some Metronet cleaning contracts it is unacceptable on all Tube cleaning contracts, including Tubelines and including ITS.

"It is all very well the mayor talking about the London Living Wage, but our members can't live on jam tomorrow, they need a living wage, sick pay, pensions and decent holidays now.

"It is a sad spectacle when a whole bunch of companies that have been raking it in at our members' expense try to hide behind each other.

"Behind the scenes some of these supposedly respectable employers have been hounding and victimising people who have decided to make a dignified stand for a fair wage and trying to terrorise people out of joining the union," Bob Crow said

ends

Note to editors: Some 700 RMT cleaners working for cleaning subcontractors ISS, ITS, ICS and GBM have already 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 June 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.

More than 50 Labour, Lib Dem and Tory MPs, including former transport ministers Glenda Jackson and Karen Buck, have so far backed a Commons motion supporting the cleaners, condemning the employers and urging the mayor to ensure that contract cleaners are paid the London living wage

Early Day Motion 1872
Tabled by John McDonnell and signed by 50 MPs by the summer recess.

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.

For the full list of signatories click here