LHMU News
Meeting of SA Court Cleaners
Cleaning delegate Di Lockett of Phoenix Cleaning, organises her first meeting.
Since the Clean Start campaign began in the Adelaide CBD a couple of years ago, one of the biggest difficulties has been for getting cleaners together so that they can meet and discuss their issues.
After attending Introductory Delegate Training at LHMU, Cleaning delegate Di Lockett organised her first off-site meeting with her workmates to share what she had learned.
Di (second from the right) works for Phoenix Cleaning, the company contracted to clean SA’s Court buildings. The meeting that she organised in a nearby snack bar was a follow-up to her Delegate’s Training course and attended by over 15 of her workmates.
Di started the meeting by asking each cleaner to introduce themselves and say where and when they worked. Even though they all work in three adjacent court buildings, some had never met before due to their different shift times.
After the introductions, Di opened a discussion on their issues as cleaners and told them how the Clean Start campaign was aimed at improving conditions for cleaners and the industry as a whole.
“Our problem starts with the building owners as they say how much they can pay for cleaning. And its not very high so the contractors have to bid as low as they can to make sure they get the contract knowing only the lowest bid will win!” said Di.
“We must change this way of thinking by getting building owners to see that ‘what you get is what you pay for’. These low bids affect us cleaners as we are given less hours or less people to do a ‘perfect’ job.”
Di spoke to the group about how important she felt it was to be a union member and how she believes the Clean Start campaign will change her day to day work.
“If we’re alone we can’t change anything, all we can do is keep complaining. We must try and carry a bit of weight and push for better conditions and the only way we can do this is by joining together in the union.”
