Cleaning staff are being paid less than London's living wage and are calling for rate of £12.50 an hour
London Underground cleaners have mounted a two-day strike in protest at being paid below the capital's living wage.
The staff cleaners are also paid well below the rate offered to agency cleaners brought in as cover for the New Year's Eve and New Year's Day action.
A message appealing to agency workers not to break the strike was posted in English, Polish, and Russian by the striking cleaners' union, the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT). The union says that its members, on £8.30 an hour rather than the £8.55 an hour estimated as the London living wage, should be on £12.50 an hour.
A leaflet distributed at stations by the striking workers explained their action: "We will not tolerate low pay in this day and age, nor being treated like second-rate people. We clean your trains, your stations and your depots. We mop up all the nasty stuff that no one else wants to deal with. We clean up after 4 million people who use the London Underground system, so they can enjoy clean trains to use and clean stations to pass through."
The 48-hour strike, which began at 5.30 am, follows a Boxing Day strike by Tube drivers, in a row over bank holiday pay that has been rumbling on for years.
The RMT union's general secretary, Bob Crow, described the cleaners as working "in often appalling conditions with no proper recognition and regard whatsoever".
London Underground said services would be operating as normal throughout the strike, and the cleaning contract company ISS, which employs many of the striking workers, said it was disappointed the RMT had called the industrial action, as it plans to introduce new salaries in March.
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