Cleaners' Strike Gets Off To Solid Start
The first cleaners' strike saw 100% solid action at Morden depot, with agency staff joining the union and the picket line, swelling its numbers to about 20. Upminster as well was 100% solid with agency staff joining the union. Ealing Common, Hainault and Cockfosters depots were all 100% solid, and Stonebridge Park and Northumberland Park depots almost solid.
On Friday morning, the only cleaners who went into work at Stratford came back out again, including the one agency staff member, deciding they'd be fools to stay and do 12 people's work. They joined the union and went home!
At Neasden, vans with papered-over windows were brought in. One Wembley agency was identified as having supplied an agency worker.
The action on the stations was less well organised than at depots, probably because cleaners are more isolated. But Euston, all the night cleaners struck and took part in a demo / publicity event outside Euston.
The poisonous role of the T&G in all this is beneath contempt. Many cleaners in the T&G were up for striking until the day before when instructed not to by their - unelected, paid - T&G organiser. The T&G sent letters to their members telling them not to strike and blaming RMT for leaving them behind! But they simultaneously spread the message that they had got assurances that Boris will grant the living wage as an excuse for not striking! RMT was willing to allow T&G members to join just for the duration of the strike, but the T&G said it wasn't an option.
T&G members didn't understand why they had been told not to take part, and felt miserable about breaking the strike. But following the first strike, lots more cleaners are clearer about the action and why and how they can join it. There is total commitment to the aims of this strike, and many non-members took RMT membership forms and said they would join.
The strike has not yet had an impact in terms of station closures or trains out of operation, but with the momentum building and next week's action being for 48 hours, there is every chance that this could kick in. Remember, a station that is not being maintained in a clean state is not a safe place to work - liquid spillages, build-up of litter and unhygienic staff accommodation can all make a station too dangerous to work in. And a train can be too dirty to drive in safety.
There also needs to be a higher-profile public and political campaign, which needs more than the few hundred leaflets printed for the first walkout. There are thousands of people across the labour movement and the public who are gagging to give their support to this strike, and yet the union is offering them no way to show that support. It should put information on the internet, appeal for donations to help run the campaign and to make hardship payments to strikers, and should organise protests that anyone can join, striker or not.
A campaigning group called Feminist Fightback held an impromptu protest action targeting TfL's bosses on Friday morning, and more protests like this would certainly be welcome.
The second, 48-hour strike is going ahead starting with shifts booking on after 1850 on the Tuesday 1 July.
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A comment ...
The first day of the cleaners' strike was incredibly positive, even though it didn't have much impact on the service.
Perhaps the emphasis we placed in the run-up to the strike on 'paralysing the system' has led people to feel that it was a failure because this didn't happen. It was always going to be difficult to stop the service with a 24h strike, and impact on the service relies on other grades taking action on safety grounds. Yes, we need to organise some action on safety grounds. But we shouldn't forget that a strike - whether or not it stops the service - is still a strike. It shows the management that cleaners are capable of defying them. For example, in depots where the action was 100% solid, management will know that it won't be so easy to take advantage in future.
Cleaners isolated on stations may have felt that the strike did not have much of an impact. But every cleaner has got to remember that they are part of an action that is much bigger than themselves. Every cleaner striking in the depots is a bolster for the strike in the stations. It's the same group of workers taking on the same companies, making management's lives a nightmare.
Cleaners have proven they are capable of doing it, now they just need to keep going until they win!
excellent initiative
it would indeed be good to build solidarity in other sections of the RMT- picket lines etc.
though I suspect in the first instance the health and safety argument needs to be used. Indeed unlcean stations do present an unsafe working- not to say travelling - environment.
Victory to the cleaners! A solodi start that shows the way.
Please pass on greetings and perhaps post an address for solidarity messages etc.
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£300 for strike fund
Students and young workers from Workers' Liberty and Education Not for Sale collected tips and did collections for the strike fund at Glastonbury (where they were working on the bars), raising about £300. The money still has to be counted and banked, but will be passed on soon!
Sacha