Workers' Liberty

The tube cleaners’ strike was suspended last week but the struggle being fought out is very far from being over. In fact there is a constant and ongoing series of attacks from the cleaning companies, especially an escalating use of immigration controls to threaten
and to remove workers from the scene.

Just yesterday morning, friends of some workers in the company Initial reported to the union that paper checks are happening, beginning with the “Mobile Cleaning Team” group of workers who do the deep cleaning of stations in the middle of the night.

At the same time, there is increasingly a sense that tube cleaners in the RMT are forcing retreats and making ground. These companies, who profit from trying to impose non-stop, intensifying exploitation on hundreds of thousands of cleaners throughout the world, are facing new levels of fight back in London.

Over the last months, more and more workers have entered into the struggle actively, and all the grades of workers in the RMT union have, to some degree, found ways of aligning their struggles, coordinating action, and proving some of the potential strengths of industrial unionism. See here for an analysis of the dispute so far from an RMT activist. Other cleaners have advanced their own disputes: Eurostar cleaners have voted unanimously on a 100% turnout to take strike action this Monday, a possibly unprecedented ballot result. Low-paid workers who put up the posters on the underground have just won a pay rise through strike action.

Solidarity from many sections of the labour movement and from the anti-capitalist movement has been constant. Last week cleaners and a broad range of activists under the “Justice for Tube Cleaners” banner planned two further actions for Thursday 21st - the latest in a series of direct actions, fundraisers, petitions, public meetings and strike support.

Last week’s meeting and actions brought together activists representing organisations and activist networks who have not often organised together. Increasing numbers of people are seeing what’s at stake and feeling inspired by what’s been achieved already, against undoubtedly unscrupulous bosses. These bosses, the Border Agency and their immigration dogs, are unsurprisingly turning nastier - but were not and are not prepared for the scale of resistance, the depth of feeling and determination - that goes far beyond the bare demands that they are being forced to concede now. They are scared and they should be.

This fight has been led and will be won mainly through the actions of cleaners themselves. But for the overwhelmingly young solidarity activists who have got involved so far, this struggle represents some real hope for change in general, and has been an opportunity to advance the collective struggle for freedom, justice and equality, alongside a group of workers with vast experience who have shared this through inspiring analysis in speeches and exemplary bravery in action.

Here are two reports of the Justice 4 Tube Cleaners actions last Thursday which were kept on to maintain pressure on the companies while the strikes are off.

There will be a meeting on Monday 1st September in central London to plan further solidarity activity. Equally please get in touch if you’d like to get involved in the meantime. With attacks coming all the time, there will be smaller mobilisations and activity that won’t necessarily be sent round lists every time:

justice4tubecleaners@googlemail.com
07947 331 053

*** Activists picket cleaning company GBM in protest at deportation of tube cleaners
By Kirsty Paton

Over 30 activists chanting "GBM, hear us say! No deporting from today" protested outside the offices of GBM cleaning company in London Bridge on Thursday 21 August. GBM have been implicated in the deportation of two of the tube cleaners who have been involved in the recent campaign of strike action for a living wage.

This is the latest in a dirty campaign by the cleaning companies to take advantage of the vulnerable status of many of the cleaners who are forced to work for poverty wages, with bullying and harrassment rife and the threat of sackings if they stand up and demand their rights.

An investigation carried out by Socialist Worker reveals that three cleaners employed by GBM were met by immigration officers when they turned up for work last month. Two have already been deported back to Nigeria and the Congo, another is in detention awaiting deportation to Sierra Leone. We are trying to find out the identity of these workers so that we can take up their case with the Home Office.

A delegation from the protest went into the offices to speak to the managers and demand why they are deporting workers who have committed no crime apart from standing up for their rights. GBM insisted that they were only cooperating with the Home Office who had contacted them. But questions have to be asked such as why this happened leading up to the planned strike action against companies like GBM. Activists also demanded why GBM has refused to meet with RMT reps to discuss their dispute.

You could see from their faces that these managers aren't used to having to explain themselves and justify their outrageous treatment of the cleaners they employ. Well now their shady operations are out in the open and we intend to keep the pressure up. We ended our picket shouting: "Its a fact, we'll be back!".

Justice 4 tube cleaners was set up to offer support to tube cleaners and their strike for a living wage. Now the cleaners have a new battle on their hands - to demand that migrant workers are given full rights to work and live in the UK. As one of the strikers put it at a recent meeting: " We clean the capital, we are treated like rubbish ourselves, we demand that every cleaner on the tube get papers so that we can end the abuse of these companies. They are all corrupt .. they have the money, they could afford to treat us with dignity and respect...".

Justice 4 tube cleaners will continue to organise soldiarity actions in support of the tube cleaners. Although the strike this week was suspended after an offer by Metronet to pay a living wage to cleaners on on the tube of £7.45 from September, TubeLines (who run the Northern, Piccadilly and Jubille Lines) have only offered an increase of 60p an hour - rightly seen as an insult by the cleaners. There has still been no movement on the question of third party sackings. The use of immigration law and deportations to intimidate the strikers has not yet been discussed in the negotiations between the cleaning companies and the RMT.

RMT activists who have lead the cleaners dispute are determined to take up these issues. They will be fighting to ensure that the RMT leadership launches a mass campaign to get papers for cleaners on the tube network. The full strength of the RMT must be mobilised to stop the threat of sackings and deportations through walkouts and strike action in defence of their brothers and sisters who have so bravely stood up for their rights.

Contact GBM in protest:
HEAD OFFICE

George House
75-83 Borough High Street
London
SE1 1NH

Telephone : 020 7089 6600
email : info@gbmssg.co.uk

*** Activists block the Bakerloo line to demand the reinstatement of sacked union rep at Stonebridge Park, by Robin Sivapalan

Later, in the evening, another group of activists met to protest the sacking of one of the RMT reps at Stonebridge Park depot. With impressive solidarity from RMT members in the area we made a plan to stop the Bakerloo line temporarily to demand our brother’s reinstatement and to shame ISS for their conduct, which has also involved suspending activists without pay and threatening hundreds with letters about their immigration status. We boarded the train that was due to terminate at Stonebridge before going to be cleaned overnight.

The cleaners at Stonebridge have been one of the strongest groups in the strike so far, with well-attended upbeat pickets and a history of fighting some of the most brutal employment practices and conditions on the underground, through unofficial walk-outs that have previously caused management to back-down. Now, despite their rep continuing to organise and encourage workers, they feel prey to an increased rate of victimisation and harassment; practices that the union has prevented management introducing so far, may come in with force. Meanwhile, the rep, a man of rare selflessness, dignity and fight has been without pay since early July and black-listed among the cleaning companies.

A public meeting of the Brent Trades Council a few weeks ago heard of the noxious cocktail of chemicals that cleaners are forced to use in deep-cleaning work which, before privatisation, was only given to well-paid and highly trained engineering workers. Management are trying to increase from four hours to seven hours an unbearable stint under a train, wearing a gas mask, which already debilitates cleaners forcing them to stay-off work sick and unpaid.

ISS managers think they are working with slaves or beasts of burden. They have been shown time and again by the workers that this will not be tolerated, but immigration controls have given them a new and lethal weapon to attack this group of organised workers.

Our aim in stopping the Bakerloo line was also to highlight these practices and to help force an end to them. We spoke through a megaphone as the train pulled up to the platform at Stonebridge. Passengers were mostly receptive, encouraging - and above all listening. It must be remembered that as the Bakerloo line proceeds westbound from Maida Vale to Wembley Central, the life expectancy of residents plummets by over 20 years. Stonebridge is a working-class area, where most people understand poverty and would be inspired by attempts to fight the companies, the government and the police who make daily life a struggle. Indeed the local MP failed to turn out to the Brent Trades Council meeting, because she couldn’t be in the room with “illegal workers”. Such an erstwhile Black trade unionist has no place representing people in Brent, the most diverse borough in London, where new generations of migrants have fought year after year in unity with previous generations of migrants.

While activists spoke to passengers along the platform, one man dominated the scene, talking about his personal suffering as a self-employed manual worker and his inability to cope under the strain of the current economic hardship. The train driver was the only really hostile presence, fifteen minutes of his well-paid time being the only thing on his mind; he tore up the leaflet and made clear he couldn’t give a damn. I’m guessing he’s in the ASLEF union but he was not willing to do anything other than attempt to bark orders.

Everyone else accepted leaflets, read them and one passenger came up to shake our hands and express that it was important that we were doing what we were doing. This was the overwhelming sentiment, where people understood that the only proportionate response to the casual upending of workers’ lives is to hit these inhuman companies and their ability to function as normal. While making it clear to passengers that we weren’t wanting to hold them up, we did want the message to go to the line operator that the stoppage was due to ISS.

We left as the British Transport Police were called, according to our plan, but two activists were unaccounted for. In the delay the BTP arrived as we were rounding the corner and one further activist stopped when the police called, meaning the rest felt compelled to hang back in solidarity. Under the threat of arrest, names and addresses were given and the BTP may choose to issue a caution for breaking rail bye-laws in obstructing the rail and for disorderly conduct. Whether the BTP choose to proceed will be a political decision to go on the offensive or to avoid the publicity of dragging activists through the courts, with the Drax protestors’ case just having been referred to the CPS.

Activists met with the sacked rep at the Stonebridge Hotel later, where workers already knew from the publicity of the Brent Trades Council meeting what the issue was. Some stayed late into the night at the invitation of the pub workers to discuss the potential ways of dealing with this victimisation, through individual options to collective political action on immigration.