News

Many UNI affiliated trade unions in the USA, Australia, Hong-Kong, India and across Europe are supporting the actions today which are taking place at 36 international airports, national railway stations and across cities.



Activities include:



• Flowers and chocolates to be presented to passengers to pass on to Cleaners at their destination airports or railway stations, with a short message about Respect for Cleaners attached



• Film-making and flash-mobbing



• Leafleting



• Choirs and dancing



• In the UK special attention will also be given to Cleaners on strike in the Law Courts, at Manchester Airport and at RAF bases.



There are millions of Cleaners around the world. 90% of them are women, 40% of them are immigrant workers, all of them are low paid, part-time, casualised and demand respect for the job that they do.



Society needs and expects clean hospitals, schools, airports, travel, eating places, offices and other work places. In many of these places there is a daily battle against infections and disease. Cleaners are in the front line in this daily battle. But they often do not earn enough to live on, their hours are often twilight and late night. To most of us they are invisible.



As part of the campaign we have produced a Cleaners Charter that after the 17th June we will send to all Companies that employ Cleaners and ask them to sign up for Respect. We want companies to end 'the race to the bottom' where companies award or bid for contracts purely on the basis of lower and lower costs. This results in poorer services and even poorer cleaners. The Charter also asks companies to commit to training, to better equipment, to replacing equipment and to paying a living wage. We want day time working for Cleaners and we want them all treated with Respect by their employers.



Actions will take place at airports including the following -



Heathrow UK, Schopel Holland, Brussels, Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona,, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Melbourne, Sydney, New York



And on National Railways in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Switzerland



For further information and contacts ring call:





NIgel Flanagan, Senior Organiser UNI Global Union 0041792757641

nigel.flanagan@uniglobalunion.org



Laila Castaldo, Policy Officer UNI Europa 0032496929776

laila.castaldo@uniglobalunion.org