Act now to stop 'obscene' ISS cleaners' jobs cull, RMT tells Mayor

Cleaners and other Tube staff to lobby GLA from 10am on Monday, January 8

AN 'OBSCENE, unnecessary and potentially dangerous' cull of more than 200 ISS cleaning jobs ordered by fat-cat London Underground contractor Tubelines must be stopped, the Tube's biggest union said today.

RMT has called an emergency lobby of the Greater London Authority at City Hall from 10am on Monday (January 8) after bosses at cleaning contractor ISS confirmed that 204 cleaners - more than a quarter of its Tubelines workforce - are to be sacked by the end of March.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow will be at the lobby and available for interview.

"Our members are stunned and absoultely furious at the scale of job losses that ISS casually let slip just before Christmas," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"It was bad enough when we were led to believe that up to 100 jobs were under threat, but the true scale of the damage Tubelines is doing to our members and their families and to London Underground is obscene, unecessary and potentially dangerous.

"Tubelines has made nearly £160 million in profits in just three years, but that is clearly not enough for them because now they want to squeeze even more profit out of the people who already do the dirtiest jobs for the lowest pay.

"We are asking the Mayor and London Underground for urgent discussions to see what can be done to force Tubelines to reverse this decision.

"There is no way that levels of station and train cleanliness can be maintained on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines with a loss of 27 per cent of the cleaning workforce.

"But there are also serious safety and security issues involved in cutting cleaning staff, not least at a time when tons of newsprint are being dumped in stations and on trains every day.

"RMT will use every means available to stop these job cuts, but it is time for the Mayor, TfL and London Undergournd to tell Tubelines that it cannot impose this massive cut," Bob Crow said.