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From The Socialist newspaper, 19 October 2016
London Underground cleaners protest pay cut
Joseph (second from right) at the protest photo Pete Mason (Click to enlarge)
Joseph Mambuliya, London Underground cleaner and RMT member
London Underground (LU) cleaners protested outside the London mayor's office on 13 October. Our pay and conditions are being attacked by the private contractors employed by London Underground. The RMT is demanding that Sadiq Khan brings cleaning back in house.
Station cleaners are losing £3,400 a year because their working week has been cut from six days to five days. Yet they have been told to clean up to four stations a day. Before they were cleaning one or two.
In-house LU staff get sick pay and free travel. Cleaners are employed by contractors and get no sick pay and have to pay, not only when they travel to work and back, but also between stations to carry out their duties. This can cost £100 a month. The contractors often short pay the staff, and harass and bully them. The RMT is fighting to unionise the cleaners and demands a £10 an hour minimum wage.
At the protest I made the point that every night the cleaners in the depots work really hard to get the trains immaculately clean for the city stockbrokers, so they can travel in them without soiling their five thousand pound suits.
The cleaners are also having to help customers, because the ticket offices have been closed and station staff are busy helping customers on the tickets machines. We hope the mayor will listen to the plight of the cleaners, end the contracting out of cleaning staff and bring them back in house.
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
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In The Socialist 19 October 2016:
Socialist Party news and analysis
Teachers working 60 hours need strikes, not studies
Health campaigns demonstrate together in 'one fight'
NHS cancer and dementia drugs 'unaffordable'
What we think
No backtracks, no compromises: we must fight for real democracy in the Labour Party
TUSC discusses new tasks after Corbyn victory
Workplace news and analysis
Sheffield bin striker slams privatised refuse bosses
Newsquest strike: Bosses realise 'contraints' of scab labour
London Underground cleaners protest pay cut
Support the 'Kinsley 3' cleaners in pay fight
International socialist news and analysis
Syria: horror deepens in Aleppo
Socialist history
Aberfan: a disaster that should never have happened
Suez 1956: the decline of British imperialism and rise of the colonial revolution
Black History Month
The radical life of Paul Robeson
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Butterfields housing victory: "We showed that if you stick together and fight you can win"
Can you donate to the Socialism 2016 appeal?
Cheshire and Merseyside: Huge NHS cuts and privatisation planned
Devon: Campaigning against community hospitals closures
Bristol: Millions of pounds of "horrifically unpalatable" cuts
Socialist readers' comments and reviews
Moving, funny and inspiring tribute to working class heroism
Film review: Deepwater Horizon
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