Rail cleaners win free transport
Almost 6,000 rail cleaners working on Transport for London (TfL) operations have won free travel after years of campaigning and recent strikes. London mayor Sadiq Khan announced last week he will extend free staff travel to outsourced cleaners.
But the outsourced cleaners’ fight for pay and to be brought in-house continues. Their RMT union continues to campaign for all rail cleaners to get free travel outside of London as the rising cost of living increasingly forced cleaners to use food banks and work while sick.
But the union leadership hasn’t called any further strikes to ram through these demands. RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch said, “We’ll be stepping up our campaign for Sadiq to tackle the scourge of outsourcing in TfL, starting by bringing London’s Underground cleaners in-house.”
He added that free travel should be extended to all TfL sub-contracted workers.
Rail workers not amused by network pay disparity
Maintenance workers on the Elizabeth line in London walked out for 24 hours on Friday of last week in a dispute over pay.
Those involved are currently being paid significantly less than similar positions across the network.
Rail for London Infrastructure, which employs the workers, has offered them a pay increase of just 4 percent. But outsourced workers employed by MTR received an 8.2 percent increase and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) staff received nearly 10 percent.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said, “It cannot be right that maintenance staff doing essential work keeping the Elizabeth Line running are being short-changed.
“The employer must make a decent offer on pay that reflects the vital work our members perform in order to avoid future strike action.”
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