‘We want to get on with what we love’: what union activists are fighting for

theguardian.com:

An autumn wave of strike action is sweeping across the UK, embracing industries and sectors long untouched by industrial strife, as workers struggle to make ends meet in the face of double-digit inflation.

Here, we speak to three trade union activists on the frontline of the cost of living crisis about why they got involved, and what they are fighting for.

“You are never going to win the fight overnight. But we’re going to give it all we’ve got because we have no other option. It’s as simple as that,” says 26-year-old train cleaner Bella Fashola.

Employed by facilities management company Churchill, she works on Govia Thameslink trains, from Hastings station in East Sussex.

As an RMT rep, Fashola has been helping to organise colleagues to fight for a £15 an hour wage, sick pay and help with travel costs. They took strike action earlier this year and are now preparing to ballot for a fresh round of stoppages – and coordinating with cleaners from other outsourcing firms.

“We’re currently on the real living wage, if you can call it that, which is £9.90. We still have no company sick pay, and obviously Covid hasn’t just disappeared into thin air,” she says.

Fashola describes having “roughly eight minutes” to clean a train – removing rubbish from seats and on the floor, cleaning the tables, emptying the bins, and cleaning the toilets. “It’s kind of like you’re set up to fail really, aren’t you?” she says.

“You can’t take pride, because you feel like you come into work and you’re just completely beaten down. You’ve been battered from pillar to post with the cost of living going up.” She blames the business model of outsourcing, arguing that it encourages undercutting. “We will fight to the bitter end until they put us back in-house,”