At Labour party conference, I spoke in the debate about local government, shortly after London Mayor Sadiq Khan had spoken. This is the second part of what I said.
“I’ve worked on London Underground stations for nearly 25 years, and I work alongside cleaners who are amongst the worst paid, worst treated, most exploited workers in London. They are treated little better than the muck they clean up.
But my boss, and their ultimate boss, is a Labour mayor, and has been for five years.
There’s been lots of positive talk at this conference about in-sourcing, and the disgrace of low pay for essential workers. This is why I wanted to ask this question before Sadiq spoke, but I’ll ask it now anyway.
Sadiq, I want to put a direct question to you: will you commit now to bringing London’s transport cleaners in house, and significantly improving the pay and conditions they receive for keeping our transport system going – through pandemic, through thick and thin? That’s what I believe a Labour mayor should do.”
