ABM Cleaners

We note the views expressed by our representatives at our meeting on 8 October, and reaffirm the following industrial action, instructing our Victoria line driver members to:

1. NOT to recognise the imposed sensitive edge door procedure and to work the previous safer instruction. i.e. go back to the carriage concerned and physically check the cause of activation.
2. NOT to sign for the new Defective In Service Instruction (D.I.S.I.) handbook and not to recognise this as a condition of service and to work to the previous D.I.S.I. book.
   

"While Mayor Boris Johnson is basking in the spotlight at the Tory Party conference he is light years away from the harsh realities of life faced by the cleaners" - Bob Crow

TRANSPORT union RMT, along with supporters from the community, will be stepping up the demand next week that Mayor Boris Johnson increases the London living wage to £10 per hour, benefiting cleaners and other low-paid workers.

Campaigners will demonstrate outside the GLA Headquarters on Wednesday 17th October at 0900 hours, to call for better pay and conditions for transport cleaners.

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We have set up a Facebook Page for the RMT National Campaign for Cleaners. Like the page to show your support and keep up to date with campaign news.

Noting that Tube Lines' cleaning contract with ISS expires on 31 March 2013, we resolve that the union will run a high-profile campaign for the contract to be brought in-house.

We therefore instruct the General Secretary to:

• produce a leaflet for both members and the public urging support for this
• produce a petition (both printed and online) to Tube Lines' owner, TfL
• organise leafleting sessions and protest actions
• arrange a meeting with supportive GLA members and TfL Board members
• raise this issue at the next meeting of our Parliamentary group
  

A London Underground cleaner pulled a child to safety from a railway line just moments after a driver hit their trains emergency brakes and prevented what could have been a fatal incident.

The eight year old boy was pulled to safety from the Jubilee Line tracks at Stanmore just moments after a train was brought to an emergency stop by the driver a few feet away.

From London Transport Region's Executive Member Janine Booth

BRANCH SPHERES OF INFLUENCE
The agreed spheres of influence are attached on a separate sheet.

Council of Executives decision, 4 September:

We note the report from our Regional Organiser regarding spheres of influence of branches within London Transport region. We endorse the report and instruct the General Secretary to ensure its implementation.

We note that RMT currently has at least eight ongoing disputes with cleaning employers with ‘live’ ballot mandates, with issues heading towards disputes in other companies as well. We aim to hold co-ordinated strike action to pursue these disputes, perhaps a 48-hour strike in October or November.

We instruct the General Secretary to obtain as a matter of urgency reports from all relevant lead officers as to the feasibility of this in the disputes with companies for which they have responsibility, and to place responses in front of us as they are received, and in any case within 21 days.

From General Secretary Bob Crow

The above matter has been considered again by the General Grades Committee and has taken the following decision:-

We note the report from our Regional Organiser and correspondence from our Branch Secretary. We congratulate our members for the action they have taken so far, and instruct the General Secretary to conduct a new ballot for strike action and industrial action short of strike action, in pursuit of our demands for agreements (with implementation dates) on the issues of:

• a substantial pay rise to at least the London Living Wage
• sick pay
• overtime rate
• allocation of overtime
• days in lieu
• better roster system
• weekly working hours
• uniform issue
  

We note the reply from Initial, that this is a group wide initiative from Initial Facilities to implement the Kronos Time and Attendance System into all contracts by end of 2012, with both biometric and telephone systems in operation. We also note the views of our representatives, who strongly oppose this move, rightly seeing it as an attack on their civil liberties and a weapon for management to use to victimise our members.

We therefore instruct the General Secretary to:
1. Urgently contact Initial management demanding a meeting to discuss our objections.

LOW-PAID CLEANERS on the prestigious East Coast mainline working for ISS are to strike for 24 hours on September 10 after voting by a huge 98 per cent margin for action against an employer that has offered no pay rise for three years.

They will be joined on strike by cleaners working for the same scrooge sub-contractor on London Midland, where a 24-hour stoppage has already been held at depots in Bletchley, Northampton and King’s Heath.

In both disputes ISS has failed to respond to calls for a living wage for workers who play a key role in maintaining rail services.