I have never been up early enough to catch the sunrise unless i haven't been to sleep from the night before. But 5am yesterday morning I attended my first crack 'o' dawn picket line. Around 30 cleaners from OCS were on strike over pay and conditions.
"Good Pay, Good Cleaning" was the favourite chant of the morning.
At present the cleaners are paid a basic rate of £6.37 per hour. They get NO sick pay, no bank holiday pay not even extra pay for night shifts. They never get a pay rise either, no matter how long they have worked for the company.
OCS is the private cleaning contractor paid £6million to keep the London-Paris 400m long highspeed train clean. With no cleaners available the company will receive massive fines.
Being in the middle of the chants, whistles, banging, dancing and singing was a brilliant experience in itself. The cleaners, who come from all over the world, came together to fight for a single cause-fair pay, fair treatment, dignity and respect.
As we picketed we received news from the other depot in Leyton that the engineers had refused to cross the picket line.
We encountered all the usual arguments from toffy nosed prats who said stuff like 'i really don't care', or 'I dont get holiday pay either', not realising that being paid £100 per hour self-employed or as boss of a company is not the same as being paid £5.52 ph with no sick pay, bank holiday pay, night shift allounace or even getting a measley annual payrise no matter how long you have worked for the company.
The grandson of the owner of OCS, who is obviously a managers, was twitching with annoyance. He said the cleaners should have accepted the deal they offerd them on Friday of £6.50 per hour. No mention of all the other demands.
SOAS Justice for Cleaners campaign and Eurostar cleaners are now arranging a joint meeting to discuss the way forward. And in October SOAS will be hosting a party to bring together cleaners and activists for a night of music, food and dancing. Please contact me for more details.
On a side note, the British Transport Police who were drafted in to make sure we didnt overstep the mark were unusually supportive. One of them was telling me how after only 10 years in the 'service' (!) he hated being on his side of the picket. And cant wait to retire in a years time. He complained about how the police are now target driven so when, for example, he used to be able to let people off for minor offences such as 'pissing up a wall', now they have to have 5 arrests or bookings per day.
In these long summer days I wish you inner peace and strength with your fast.
