Off the Rails

by New Worker correspondent

Last week Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London announced that another 800 sub-contracted cleaners working on Transport for London sites would become entitled to free transport on TfL services. They work on MTR Crossrail and on London Overground operations. They now join 5,000 sub-contracted cleaners at TfL who have secured the same rights. These came only after long struggles.
    Given the high bus and tube fares in London, this is a major development for low paid workers who often need to live long distances from their workplaces.
    When London’s bus services were privatised in 1994-5 this move brought considerable hardship to bus drivers as many had taken advantage of free public transport offered by the then London Transport to live in John Betjeman’s Metroland and take a free tube to their central London depot. Having lost their status they had to stump for long journeys to work, a wrong that still grates.
    But to return to the present RMT general secretary Mick Lynch welcomed the move saying: “This is another step in the right direction by the Mayor of London and we’re calling on him to extend it to all TfL sub-contracted workers. Sadiq Khan’s welcome action stands in stark contrast to the Tories who earlier in the week forced legislation through the House of Commons that would remove these workers’ right to strike. Instead of attacking cleaners, the Tories should be following the Mayor’s lead and ensuring all rail cleaners have free travel”.
    He added that: “The Mayor needs to do more too. Labour nationally has committed to oversee the biggest wave of insourcing of public services for a generation when it’s elected. London’s Mayor is already in power, so 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.” Such a touching faith in the Labour Party.
    RMT has launched a petition making just such demands: this can be found at: https://www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/bring-london-s-tube-cleaners-in-house.
    This has been a long running dispute. Last June RMT denounced TfL officials for renewing a £450 million contract in March in secret using Chair’s Action between meetings. When it was belatedly discovered Mick Lynch attacked the decision which he said: “This is deeply shocking and raises serious questions about TfL officials and the functioning of the Board. Who is running TfL?” he asked: “The democratically elected Mayor who is chair of TfL or the Commissioner of TFL who the Mayor appoints? It appears to us that unelected officers are now in charge of the capital’s transport system”.
    Last Friday night maintenance workers on the new Elizabeth Line held a 24 hour strike action. Rail for London Infrastructure which employs the workers, offered four per cent but workers at MTR – the outsourced part of the Elizabeth Line – received an 8.2 per cent increase this year and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) staff got almost ten per cent. Mick 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.”
    However TSSA members also involved in the dispute over pay and pensions suspended striking on the same day saying “Discussions with the company have been significant and serious” but warning that: “The company should take note however, that we reserve the right to reissue our notice to take action at any time with 14 days’ notice.”