CLEANERS
working on the St Pancras station and Eurostar contracts for high-profile
facilities company Interserve are “rock solid and determined” on picket lines
at the station, organised by the RMT transport union last Friday morning in a
fight over jobs and workplace justice.
The
cleaner’s downed tools at 5am on 1st August in 24 hours of high-profile
action in the heart of London designed to shame the company, and those who hire
them at the top of Eurostar and St Pancras International, into reversing their
savage cuts plans.
RMT
had demanded that morning that Interserve call off immediately a campaign of
intimidation and bullying targeted at union members who have overwhelmingly
voted for the strike action.
Like
many contract cleaners, the Eurostar contract is subject to regular tender with
cut-throat cleaning contractors competing to win the work.
Staff
get transferred from one contractor to another like pieces of meat, but the
business model of the companies is all the same – hacking back on pay and conditions
to maximise profit while offering the workforce as little as possible.
Interserve
won the St Pancras/Eurostar contract from Network Rail in exactly this fashion
– through a massive cut in the price for the work.
In
order to protect the company profits and hand-outs to shareholders Interserve
have imposed 30 per cent job cuts on their cleaning workers. This means massive pressure on the staff
making up for the people who have been cut.
Staff
are also sick of the workplace culture - continual aggression and bullying from
the employers who expect the same standards of work and output, but with a
third fewer staff.
As RMT says “They call it efficiency – we call
it harassment.”
As
a result staff have had enough and are making a stand by taking 24-hour strike
action from 5am today. The workforce
already suffer from low pay, no sick pay and get only the statutory minimum
from our employer, but they are not prepared to be intimidated anymore.
The
workloads that Interserve is imposing are too much and will not be tolerated in
the culture of bullying and harassment that is rife at the prestigious
Eurostar, St Pancras International terminal.
The
RMT union demands are simple:
• An agreement with our union on staffing
levels at St Pancras/Eurostar;
• A fair and reasonable workload for cleaners
at St Pancras/Eurostar;
• To be treated with dignity and respect.
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