TRANSPORT UNION RMT confirmed today that cleaners working for Churchill on the Tyne and Wear Metro will mount a serious escalation of their long running battle for pay and workplace justice when they begin two weeks of strike action this Friday, 12th July, in a move that coincides with the massive Durham Miners Gala in the region.

The dispute is thought to be the longest running anywhere in the UK stretching back well over a year and involving 19 days of strike action so far as the low paid cleaning staff, stuck on bare minimum wage and lousy working conditions, have mounted a brave fight for a living wage. The cleaners will have a high profile at the Miners Gala on Saturday where RMT General Secretary will issue a call from the platform for the entire trade union movement to mobilise in support of the Metro workforce.

But while the cleaners are told to put up with poverty pay it is a different story in the company board room. Churchill, working on the Metro for its client DB Regio, has doubled its profits in the past five years and has extracted nearly £7 million from the exploitation of essential cleaning staff on the most basic pay and conditions including no sick pay and none of the travel concessions rights enjoyed by other NEXUS workers.

While the company is trying to enshrine poverty pay amongst the staff who deliver vast returns for the shareholders, its own highest paid director has had a salary increase of more than 18% in the last 5 years to nearly £160,000 making a nonsense of their claims that they can’t afford a decent offer to the front-line cleaning staff.

RMT is also turning its fire on the Integrated Transport Authority, NEXUS, which, despite being under Labour control has not lifted a finger to support the cleaners. RMT is in no doubt that NEXUS could force its contractors, DB Regio, to instruct their subcontractors, Churchill, to pay a living wage if it chose to take the issue on. The hypocrisy is breath taking as on paper Labour-controlled Newcastle City Council support the Living Wage campaign.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“RMT members have shown guts and determination through a long and hard campaign with well over a year of rock-solid strike action in the fight for workplace and pay justice. We now move to a serious escalation of the dispute with a fortnight of action which shows clearly that RMT is geared up for a victory that we know is within our grasp as we continue to apply top level political support and build up the backing of the public who use the Metro services.

“ This battle is now seen as having national significance in the campaign against low pay and exploitation by greedy companies and RMT will continue to ratchet up the pressure for fairness for this important group of North East transport staff as part of our national cleaners’ campaign. That is why we will be out in force at the Durham Miners Gala on Saturday, pulling in support for the Metro cleaners from across the length and breadth of the Labour Movement at this massive annual event.

“It remains a scandal that the regional passenger organisation NEXUS, and the operating company DB Regio, have still not lifted a finger to stop this exploitation and poverty pay scandal on their own doorstep and RMT has no intention of letting them off the hook. NEXUS and the City council cannot wash their hands of this dispute and RMT is stepping up the call for them to intervene with Churchill’s to help force a solution as the fight for pay and workplace justice will continue until we win.”