Fantastic Support From Staff And Public As RMT Kicks Off 48 Hour St Pancras Eurostar Cleaners Strike

Submitted by Peter on 16 February, 2012 - 15:23

Strike action by Initial cleaners at St Pancras International kicked off at 6am this morning with pickets out in force and rail union RMT reporting fantastic support from the public in the fight against poverty pay. Around seventy pickets and supporters have brought horns, drums and a carnival atmosphere to the London Eurostar terminal.

The workers have not had a pay increase for maintaining the opulent Eurostar terminal in four years and have been offered a pathetic 13 p taking them to £ 6.76 an hour, miles short of Boris Johnsons London living wage of £8.30 an hour.

RMT Demands Network Rail Investigation Into Strike-breaking Operation At St Pancras Eurostar Cleaning Company

Submitted by Peter on 15 February, 2012 - 12:22

RAIL UNION RMT today demanded an urgent Network Rail investigation into claims passed to the union by staff that the company at the heart of the St Pancras/Eurostar cleaners poverty pay dispute, Initial, is allegedly planning to utilise an “in house” agency to break the strike which is using Bulgarian and Romanian workers registered as self-employed with limited company status to avoid basic UK employment rights and to get round the agency worker regulations.

London Lesbian And Gay Switchboard Birthday Party

Submitted by Peter on 15 February, 2012 - 00:32

London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard would like to invite TfL's LGBT group members to an event we are holding to celebrate our 38th birthday, and to announce how we are expanding our services this year.

Please come and enjoy drinks, nibbles and a chance to meet some of our volunteers, celebrity patrons, and supporters at our building near Angel from 6.30pm to 9pm on March 6th, with short speeches from our patrons at 7pm.

RMT Stands Up to Bullying at Thales

Submitted by Janine on 9 February, 2012 - 16:00

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note that our LU Engineering branch reports that following our decision to challenge Thales management last year about a bullying culture at Waterloo, the company took the following actions:

  • began to investigate the complaints both formally via a grievance and informally
  • implemented regular site visits by Human Resources to encourage staff to come forward with complaints etc
  • started to implement management training.

Our branch believes that this has led to a sea change and a vast improvement in treatment.

RMT Campaign Achieves Major Pay Victory For OCS Eurostar Cleaners

Submitted by Peter on 9 February, 2012 - 11:38

RAIL UNION RMT today announced the end a pay dispute involving OCS cleaners working on the Eurostar contract after a new deal secured the union’s interim objective of getting all staff onto a minimum rate of £8 per hour by the autumn of this year.

A series of incremental increases under the package will say the minimum rate of pay rise from £7.40 an hour to £8.00 per hour by November - an increase of around 8% on the basic.