ABM Cleaners

This resolution, submitted by thee Regional Council Executive, was passed at the November 2009 meeting of the Regional Council.

In the light of resolutions passed at AGMs to support our members in the cleaning grades and oppose exploitation of migrant workers and in recognition of the facts that:

1. Most of our cleaning members are from ethnic minorities.
2. The various cleaning and other companies have used immigration rules to systematically exploit those who have organised in trade unions.

Former Labour Cabinet Minister Frank Dobson has tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons in support of RMT cleaners working on the Eurostar contract at St Pancras International and their fight for pay and workplace justice.

The Commons motion has been placed on the order paper on the eve of the first of four more 24 hour strikes by the Eurostar cleaners employed by the Carlisle Group which will start at 5.30am tomorrow morning (Friday 23rd October). There will be a noisy protest in support of the Eursostar cleaners, which will include solidarity visits from striking postal workers, between 8am and 10am Friday morning (23rd October) outside St Pancras International.

To download a copy of the October 2009 edition of Monthly News, click on the link.

RAIL UNION RMT today announced a series of four 24 hour strikes by cleaners employed by the Carlisle Group on their Eurostar contract at St Pancras International in their fight for jobs and pay justice after the company failed to make any meaningful effort to resolve the dispute during extensive talks at arbitration service ACAS.

RMT and Carlisle have agreed the following statement:

Carlisle Cleaning Services and the RMT trade union have today agreed to attend meaningful negotiations hosted by ACAS this Friday in order to attempt to resolve the issues in the current industrial dispute. To allow the negotiations to take place it has been agreed to suspend the programme of strike action that was recently announced.

RAIL UNION RMT today confirmed a further six days of strike action by Eurostar cleaners working at St Pancras International for contractors the Carlisle Group in an increasingly bitter dispute over pay, the introduction of routine staff fingerprinting, redundancies and the victimisation and harassment of RMT union reps.

RMT Eurostar cleaners will strike on the following dates:

05:30 hours on Friday 2nd October 2009 and 05:29 hours on Saturday 3rd October 2009. 05:30 hours on Sunday 4th October 2009 and 05:29 hours on Monday 5th October 2009.

Click on the link to download the September issue of Monthly News.

RMT CLEANERS working on the Eurostar contract for the Carlisle Group at St Pancras International are rock solid this morning in their support for a 48 hour strike which started at 21.59 hours last night.

The cleaners - who are fighting a pay freeze, a threat of redundancies, the introduction of Orwellian finger-printing machines and the victimisation of a union rep – have mounted a noisy mass picket at St Pancras International this morning.

The picket will be between St Pancras and Kings Cross, about 100 yards down from Euston Rd. The strike is for shifts that book on between21:59 hours on Thursday 17th September 2009 and 21:59 on Saturday 19th September 2009.

The main book-on times are 08.00 and 14.00, so a good time to be there is Friday 7.30 am and 13.30 and the same on Saturday. Shift start times are 2200; 0600; 0800; 1400; 1530 so there should be pickets in place before those times, if not all day.

Carlisle gives Cleaners 14.3% more! (But only to scabs!)