International Day of Action – 5pm on Friday19 March at UBS HQ, 100 Liverpool Street
"You. It’s not just a word. It’s a commitment." (UBS publicity)
On 1st February UBS, the Union Bank of Switzerland, transferred the cleaning contract at its London offices to Lancaster Cleaning Services. By law the workforce’s terms and conditions should have remained the same, indeed the workers received that very commitment. Yet, working they say to UBS guidelines, the new UBS contractor has:
► Cut the full time cleaners’ daily wages by 10.75%
► Increased workloads
► Sacked union shop steward Alberto Durango for resisting these changes.
Like almost all cleaners in the City, the UBS cleaners are immigrant workers from Latin America, Africa and Portugal – all parts of the world from which UBS draws huge profits. The bank is taking advantage of the immigrant workers’ disadvantaged status to impose a wage cut and unsociable conditions. This is shameless exploitation!
We demand of UBS, and its intermediary Lancaster:
► Honour your commitment to retain wages, hours and conditions of the previous contract
► Stop bullying the cleaners into extra working and unsociable shifts
► Pay all your workers a living weekly wage
► Reinstate Alberto Durango, and full consultation with workforce.
"UBS. It’s not just a PR image.
It’s paying poverty wages and union busting"
See the Cleaners’ Defence Committee Facebook group for more info: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=321918197556
