RMT announces strike action on Eurostar

RAIL UNION RMT announced today that cleaners working for the Carlisle Group on their Eurostar contract will strike forty eight hours next week in a long-running dispute on a range on pay, conditions and bullying issues. RMT members voted 100% for action.

The strike will run from 21.59 hours on Thursday 17th September to 21.59 hours on Saturday 19th September.

The issues at the heart of the strike action are:

* A failure by the company to make any offer of a pay increase for 2009 and an underhand attempt to push back the pay settlement date by nine months into 2010.

Docklands Light Railway: dispute and news

Urgent update: Docklands Light Railway has sacked a member of staff for having had swine flu and an accident at work! Unlike other companies (even London Underground!), DLR management has refused to discount swine flu absences from its sickness attendance policy. RMT's DLR branch is planning to hold an emergency meeting to launch a campaign to reverse this outrageous sacking.

Regional Organiser's report: Pay and more

Dear colleagues,

LUL - TfL - Alstom - Cubic - bus workers

LUL Pay

I attended the LUL company council meeting on the 08/9/09 and discussed the pay offer. There was no improvement whatsoever on the last offer. It remains 1.5 percent this year and RPI plus 0.5 percent next year. LUL are prepared to release our reps for a meeting and I am requesting Tuesday 6th October 2009 (one day after the ASLEF reps are released) to take a sounding on where we go.

Mayor Boris Johnson to face more pressure over London Living Wage for tube cleaners at Mayor’s questions

richardLONDON MAYOR Boris Johnson will come under renewed pressure at Mayor’s Questions today (Wednesday September 9) over his failure to ensure that cleaners working for contractors on London Underground receive the London Living Wage that they are entitled to.

The issue will be raised today by Labour GLA Leader Val Shawcross as part of an on-going campaign by tube union RMT to get the cleaners the London Living Wage that they deserve.

John Knight RIP

John Knight - a lifelong union rep, activist and officer of Finsbury Park Branch - has died following being diagnosed with throat cancer only 6 weeks ago.

John spent most of his working life as a guard and driver both at Oakwood and Arnos Grove and was known for his integrity and unshakeable principles that characterise all that is good about our union. He was kind and compassionate and was well respected by all who knew him and even in his retirement years that were tragically cut short he still gave his time without reward to help youngsters in his local RAF cadet company.

RMT bus workers at London United mount protest over harassment of members

RMT BUS members at London United will be mounting a protest at the company’s London headquarters this Wednesday ( September 9) in a fightback against the victimisation and harassment of RMT members building a fighting and campaigning union organisation that has challenged the company for a fair deal on pay and working conditions.

RMT is growing fast at London United and the response of the company has been to hit back at individual members of staff with completely unfounded threats that the union will not be able to represent them if they find themselves in trouble.