cleaners

Canada: support workers strike at New Brunswick Community College

500 workers, including lab technicians and canteen, security and cleaning staff, are currently striking over pay.

The workers, members of local 1251 of the public service union have been striking since January 10th; pay negotiations broke down at the end of November and no new negiotiations were scheduled.

Migrant workers win Northampton strike

A group of Eastern European workers who were being denied the wages they were owed have been paid in full following strike action.

The mainly Polish workers employed by cleaning company Glenn Management to clean offices on the Moulton Park industrial estate, Northampton, had not been paid properly for around four months. However after only one day's strike action they were paid the money that they were owed.

Tube cleaners claim massive pay victory

Tube cleaners working for contractors to Metronet are to receive substantial pay rises when Transport for London takes over the failed privateer’s contracts, marking a huge victory for a two-year campaign by London Underground’s biggest union.

RMT today revealed that Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has agreed that the London Living Wage of £7.20 an hour will become the minimum for some 900 cleaners on former Metronet contracts from the moment TfL take charge of them.

For some cleaners paid only the minimum legal wage of £5.85 it will mean an increase of at least £1.35 an hour - well over 20%.

New Zealand: 800 Hospital cleaners locked out after strike

Locked out workers at Middlemore Hospital

Around 800 workers contracted to Spotless Services Ltd have been locked out of their kitchen, orderly and cleaning jobs today at 13 public hospitals across New Zealand after they attempted to start industrial action.

The action involved striking for 55 minutes of every hour, 24 hours a day in a struggle for better wages and conditions.

France: Strike over at Gare d'Austerlitz

Gare d'Austerlitz

Night-train cleaners at the Gare d'Austerlitz rail station in Paris have ended their strike after negotiations with management.

After a month of weekly one-day strikes the cleaners, employed by contractor TSI, at the Gare d'Austerlitz have returned to work.

Hospital cleaners stage walk out

Cleaners and catering staff at a hospital in Neath, Wales, staged a 24-hour strike in protest yesterday at what they say is a decrease in working hours.

Staff at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, contracted by OCS Ltd, say they have been told their hours are to be cut. Officials from trade union Unison said the 140 staff affected are angry and added an independent report recommended hours should in fact be increased. But a spokesperson for OCS denied there had been a cut in working hours.

Houston janitors reach deal to end strike

Strike banner

Houston janitors ended a month long strike today against the city's five major cleaning companies after reaching a tentative agreement that will guarantee higher wages, more work hours and medical benefits.

Houston janitors ended a month long strike today against the city's five major cleaning companies after reaching a tentative agreement that will guarantee higher wages, more work hours and medical benefits.

Janitors' civil disobedience ends in police brutality

Police attack peaceful protesters in Houston

A march by janitors in Houston, Texas, was attacked by police on 16 November leaving four inured and 44 arressted.

Taken from Houston Justice for Janitors

Reports on struggle railway cleaners in Italy, 2002

Reports and leaflets on a strike of thousands of cleaning at the state-owned railway in Italy in 2002 which involved rail blockades, slowdowns and strikes.

Documents on cleaners' strikes in Paris and Milan, 2002

Leaflets and information on strikes of cleaning workers in Paris and Milan.

Houston janitors take strike across the country

Houston janitors are seeking national support.

The strikers have travelled to Chicago, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Washington to rally support from other janitors, in what the union organisers have called a "national escalation plan".

The Houston strike is entering it's second week, with around 1,700 janitors on strike. They are demanding a wage increase from $5.30 an hour to $8.50, and health insurance from their employers. The janitors are employed by several different companies, and are organised in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

London cleaners demand living wage

Goldman Sachs is the latest firm to be targetted by the campaign.

The Justice for Cleaners campaign reaches Goldman Sachs, where "hidden workers" are paid only £6.20 an hour.

Cleaners at Goldman Sachs have joined the T&G's Justice for Cleaners campaign, and are demanding higher wages. Goldman Sachs, a leading investment bank, will pay it's full time staff an average of £293,000 this year in bonuses alone.

1,700 janitors on strike in Houston

The janitors are demanding higher wages

Janitors from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) went on strike last week asking for a pay rise to $8.50 an hour and health insurance.

The janitors work for several companies, and have been calling for janitors across the city to join their strike. The janitors are targetting ABM Janitorial Services, GCA Services, OneSource, Sanitors Services of Texas and Pritchard Industries Southwest.

1999-2000: The US university living wage campaign

Howard Zinn speaks, with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in background

Howard Zinn's brief history of the joint campaign between American university students and staff to win a living wage for all campus employees.

Against a background of several victories in workplace organisation in the US – notably for California cleaners, Boeing workers and Los Angeles health employees - a movement of students and university staff began coming together.

Three day strike at Whipps Cross Hospital

Whipps Cross

This week there was an escalation in the long running dispute betweeen cleaners, porters and switchboard staff, and their private employers at Whipps Cross Hospital in East London.

By yesterday lunchtime approximately forty workers were on the picket line for the first of three days of strike action involving around 200 members of staff, members of Unison. They are striking to gain "Agenda for Change" levels of wages, agreed three years ago but ignored by Rentokil Initial since they were due to come into force earlier this year.

London: Hospital porters and cleaners on strike

Whipps Cross Hospital

Porters, cleaners and switchboard staff employed by Rentokil Initial, based at Whipps Cross Hospital in East London, have been on strike since 21st July.

An agreement over pay and conditions was made in 2003, due to come into force in April 2006, several other East London hospitals agreed to the deal, only Rentokil at Whipps Cross has failed to honour it. The pay award is roughly equivalent to a £2 per hour raise, for staff who in some cases earn as little as £5.52 per hour, the agreement also included increases in leave entitlement.

Strike wave hits US universities

Janitors at the University of Miami have been on hunger strike for more than two weeks, and were joined by seven students from the university last Monday.

The hunger strike is over anti-union practices by their employer UNICCO, the University's cleaning contractor.

Canary Wharf cleaners to ballot for strike action

Cleaners at some of Britain's leading banks and financial institutions are to vote on strike action after a long-running campaign to make bosses improve working conditions and pay them a living wage.

The cleaners' union T&G announced the ballot - which will begin on Monday - at a rally today (Friday) in London's Canary Wharf, where the invisible army of 850 cleaners help to maintain some of the world's costliest real estate while being paid a pittance.

Tube cleaners shafted by Blue Diamond

A £20 million contract to clean London Underground stations has been terminated after it was revealed hundreds of cleaners had been underpaid.

Blue Diamond, Britain's largest independent cleaning firm, had been paying about 400 workers £5.05 per hour instead of the agreed £5.50. The three year contract, which started in October last year, was for cleaning the District, Circle, Metropolitan, Hammersmith and City and East London lines.

House of Commons cleaners to strike again

Cleaners at the House of Commons plan to strike for a second time in a bitter dispute over low pay and poor working conditions

The action follows a breakdown in negotiations with the parliamentary authorities to increase the wages of cleaners from £5.20 an hour to £6.70. The adult minimum wage is £5.05 an hour.

The strike means MPs and peers will face picket lines as they go to work tomorrow.

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