Rail Gourmet and Bidvest Noonan catering and cleaning staff fight for decent pay and to end outsourcing
Elaine Brunskill, Northern region Socialist Party
Catering staff at Rail Gourmet and cleaners at Bidvest Noonan, members of the RMT transport union who work as outsourced workers at Transpennine Express (TPE), took 48 hours of strike action from 31 July.
As well as fighting for decent pay and conditions, these workers also want their jobs to be brought inhouse, to end outsourcing.
On the picket line in Newcastle there was huge anger expressed towards the outsourcing companies, and towards TPE, which is happy to outsource this work and thereby give workers worse wages and conditions than if they were directly employed.
Strikers also commented that the companies were continually wanting to “add loads of extra tasks without any extra pay”.
One of the strikers explained how they had taken strike action in 2023. Out of this strike the Rail Gourmet employers agreed to a ‘roadmap’, so that by the end of 2025 workers would be on £15 an hour. This has not happened. Anger was expressed by one striker who, to cheers from others, shouted “Hate Gourmet!”
Strikers also expressed the hope that in the future there would be more consultation from the union over pay negotiations.
We handed out copies of the Red Line, produced by RMT members in the Socialist Party, and leaflets from the National Shop Stewards Network. Both put forward the message that ‘We’re not paying for the bosses crisis’. Many of the strikers not only read the leaflets, but also put them in their pockets, hopefully to be re-read later.
The mood on the picket line was really good, and strikers we spoke to made it clear they were ‘standing together’. They were also getting loads of support from passing motorists – particularly from bus and taxi drivers, alongside vans with workers in.
We also send solidarity greetings to the other picket lines in this dispute in Carlisle, Edinburgh Waverly, Glasgow Central, Liverpool Lime and Manchester Piccadilly.
East Midlands Railways: ‘This strike is all about safety’
RMT members across East Midlands Railways were on strike on 1 August, demanding faulty trains are immediately withdrawn. Despite numerous attempts by the union, the bosses are keeping trains with dangerous faults in service.
As Keir Chewings, RMT NEC member for the Midlands, explains in an RMT video: “We didn’t choose this dispute, we spent months trying to resolve it. Our members are taking action because they believe safety must always come before performance figures.”
Red Line public meeting
We won’t pay for the bosses’ crisis: Build a real political alternative
Sunday 16 August 12 noon – 2pm
The Sheephaven Bay, 2 Mornington St, London NW1 7QD
