Hundreds of contracted out cleaners working on trains across the country will take strike action on Friday and Saturday this week.
RMT members working as cleaners for the likes of Churchill, Bidvest Noonan, and Atalian Servest are demanding £15 an hour, company sick pay, decent holidays and good pensions from contractors who are raking in profits worth millions of pounds.
The train companies that will be affected are Avanti West Coast, GWR, Northern, GTR and South East Trains.
Cleaners working on the Network Rail High Speed contract will also be taking part in the stoppage.
The union is determined to see justice done for contracted out cleaners, who are some of the most exploited railway workers in the country.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Contracting out on the railways is one of the most perverse and exploitative practices in the industry.
“It is leading to our members in the cleaning grades barely scraping by on poverty wages and appalling terms and conditions.
“RMT is calling time on these multimillion-pound contractors. They now need to pay up and use their generous dividends and profits and invest in their workforce.
“Ultimately the train companies and the government must step in, to end outsourcing and bring train cleaners in house, paying them properly and giving them decent holidays and sick pay.
“Our members are fully prepared take whatever industrial action is required to get justice in the workplace and a decent life for them and their families.”
