Churchill Cleaners – Fight For Fifteen

Justice for Cleaners – Fight for £15

 

 

BBC radio interview about the Churchill Cleaners dispute

 

 

RMT’s Churchill cleaners launch historic strike and hold mass rally outside Parliament

Pickets out in force across the Southeast

Hundreds of RMT members working for Churchill cleaning trains and stations across four contracts in the Southeast launched a historic strike. Turnout on the picket lines was fantastic, with pickets at Kings Cross Station, Eurostar Temple Mills, Brighton Station, Hastings, St Pancras Station, Kings Lynn Station, Victoria Station, Cannon Street, Dartford, East Croydon, Kings Cross, Brighton, Dover Priory, Grove Park, Ramsgate and many more besides.

Growing support in Parliament

Hundreds came into London on coaches and trains to attend a mass rally outside the Houses of Parliament where they were joined by a host of MPs including Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour MPs Ian Lavery, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Grahame Morris, Andy McDonald, Kim Johnson, Rachel Hopkins, Nadia Whittome, Tony Lloyd, Chair of RMT’s Parliamentary Group Ian Mearns and Shadow Transport Minister Sam Tarry. Messages of support were sent from many other MPs on social media. 24 MPs have also signed a motion in Parliament supporting the Churchill cleaners’ campaign: Fair pay and conditions for rail cleaners - Early Day Motions - UK Parliament

Marching on Go-Ahead’s HQ

After the rally, the Churchill cleaners marched on the Headquarters of the Go-Ahead Group who control the franchise on the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise for a short rally demanding that Go-Ahead meet our reps.

Rising profile

The strike was covered in London’s business paper City AM: Rail cleaners take the streets in biggest strike ever (cityam.com) and the campaign has also featured in the Morning Star: Hundreds of cleaners to strike for pay justice on London railways | Morning Star (morningstaronline.co.uk) and rail industry paper RailNews: Striking rail cleaners protest outside Parliament | Railnews | Today's news for Tomorrow's railway as well as several regional papers. Messages of support were sent from the Communication Workers’ Union, the People’s Assembly Against Austerity and many other organisations. Congratulations to every RMT member who took part in this historic strike, the largest ever involving rail cleaners. It’s just the start. This campaign is going to get bigger.

 

 

 

RMT members working for Churchill on Govia Thameslink Railways, HS1, Southeastern Railways and Eurostar are taking strike action to win justice for cleaners.
You are essential workers – You’ve done your duty throughout the Covid crisis. Now you deserve justice.

• Your union is fighting to win you justice in the workplace.
• We’re fighting for £15 an hour because you deserve it.
• We’re fighting for proper sick pay and help with travel to work.

On this page you will find resources for the ballot campaign – share them with your colleagues.

Now is a great time to sign up your colleagues. They won’t be able to vote in the ballot, but they will make the action we take stronger.

Tell them to join RMT today here: https://www.rmt.org.uk/about/join-rmt/