ISS cleaners vote to strike: union must back them!

Posted in Tubeworker's blog on ,

ISS cleaners have voted by a huge 92% majority in favour of striking, and taking action short of strikes, in their dispute against biometric fingerprinting machines. As yet, the RMT’s leadership has not named any action.

Some ISS cleaners have now been locked out for three months for participating in a union action (refusing to use the biometric machines). They have had to fight to win decent strike pay from the union during that period. Now some senior union leaders are saying there’s no more money to fund the cleaners’ fight.

This is not good enough. Cleaners are amongst the most vulnerable workers on London Underground; RMT prides itself on being an all-grades, industrial union. It needs to fight as hard for cleaners as it does for any other grade. A union’s fundamental purpose is to enable to fight back against their employers. If that means paying strike pay, then that’s what should happen.
RMT should activate the strike ballot by calling action-short-of-strikes, then following it up with strikes around 14 October, when we hope London Underground workers may also strike again in their jobs dispute.

The union also needs to make firm commitments on protecting workers from sacking and victimisation. If ISS goes after cleaners who’ve participated in union action, the union needs to back them up, including with funding for tribunals if it comes to that.

If the ISS cleaners’ dispute is allowed to go out with a whimper, it will severely damage the confidence of cleaners, and other workers, in the union’s ability to fight. They will see it as an “I’m alright, Jack” attitude.

With a new General Secretary now in post, it’s a new era for the RMT. It would be a poor start if that era began with letting down union members at ISS.

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