Spotless Services awarded 'Golden Toilet Brush' on International Cleaners Day

MEDIA ALERT: International Cleaners Day 2007
Date: Today: Friday June 15, 2007
Time: 12noon, Auckland and Wellington

Locations:

Auckland: Downtown (foot of Queen St); Cleaners will rally and march.
Wellington: Parliament, Molesworth St side; Cleaners will rally and march.

Spotless Services awarded 'Golden Toilet Brush' on International Cleaners Day

Which company will go away with a red face this year?

Cleaners across New Zealand will be handing out their annual Golden Toilet Brush Award this Friday, June 15, as part of global rallies for International Justice for Cleaners Day.

The Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners campaign handed out the first awards last year to to building owners who condoned poor treatment for cleaners and insufficient time to clean properly, John Ryall, SFWU Nga Ringa Tota National Secretary, said today. The SFWU Nga Ringa Tota is the cleaners union in New Zealand.

" We will be asking why some contract cleaning corporations are out of step with the rest of the industry - and awarding the Golden Toilet Brush to companies who just don't want to adopt ethical standards."

In New Zealand the Golden Toilet Brush Award will be handed to Spotless Services today at midday in Auckland and Wellington. Wellington cleaners will hand deliver the inauspicious award to Spotless' Wellington office.

" We find it difficult to believe that a company like Spotless could show such contempt for the situation of cleaners in New Zealand".

Service workers, including cleaners, in hospitals all over New Zealand had been campaigning for a national Collective Agreement. Negotiations had been on track, but last week Spotless had initiated for a separate agreement, threatening the progress of these negotiations.

"This leaves New Zealand's lowest paid service workers in limbo and living on poverty level wages for even longer."

" We can only believe that Spotless are indifferent to the poverty level wages, high rates of injury and work pressures experienced by cleaners," said Mr Ryall.

The SFWU Healthy Hospitals and Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners campaigns aim to build good industry standards which improve the working conditions for some of New Zealand's lowest paid workers.

International Justice for Cleaners Day on June 15 commemorates a day in Los Angeles in 1990 when immigrant cleaners holding a peaceful protest against a global contract cleaning firm were savagely beaten by police. Media coverage of the attack provoked a public outcry in the U.S. and abroad. With the assistance of workers and unions overseas, many of whom worked for the same company as the Los Angeles cleaners, the workers won their strike and secured better wages and benefits.

International Justice for Cleaners Day rallies will be held in:

New Zealand:
* Auckland
* Wellington

Australia:
* Melbourne
* Sydney
* Brisbane
* Canberra
* Adelaide
* Perth
* Hobart
* Darwin

And around the world in:
Argentina
Congo
Denmark
France
Germany
Hong Kong
India
Malawi
Netherlands
Panama
Poland
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Tunisia
Uganda
United Kingdom
United States

ENDS

Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota
www.sfwu.org

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