Students told clean up own mess

Date: 18 February 2002

The Brisbane area cleaners action committee of the LHMU Cleaners Union will be handing out white plastic garbage bags to students and staff at Griffith University's College of Arts, Logan and Nathan campuses on Tuesday 19th February to protest the dramatic cut in cleaning standards.

" Cleaning contractor, Allcorp, have forced roster changes on our members which means many classrooms and academic staff rooms are not cleaned every day," Gary Bullock from the LHMU Cleaners Union said today.

" Academic staff at Griffith University are so angry about the changed cleaning conditions that they have organized a 21st century protest with an e-mail jam of the University's facility management email letterbox.

"After heaps of protest e-mails the University started renegotiating the contract.

"Academics and students are not happy that as the new academic year starts there are widespread concerns about cleaning standards.

" The contractor is trying to force our members to live off poverty wages," LHMU Cleaners Union Gary Bullock said.

" The changed rosters don't just mean massive cleaning cut backs, the changed rosters mean our members wages have been cut back dramatically - in one case from $902 a fortnight to $314 a fortnight.

Church backs cleaners

" The LHMU Cleaners Union members at Griffith University - a large proportion of whom are Pacific Islanders - are also receiving support from their local church," Gary Bullock said.

The Pastor Sasifo Farsimo of the local Somoan church in Brisbane will help hand out white plastic garbage bags at Nathan Campus on 19th February 2002.

Support by faith community leaders of union activists is not as common here in Australia as overseas but the trend is spreading.

The US civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated while seeking to assist a garbage workers' strike in Memphis.

The importance of the growing world-wide alliance between unions and faith communities was underlined last week by an article in the LA Times headlined: Workers Have the Godly on Their Side

The LHMU proudly represents more than 150,000 hard working women and men throughout Australia.

A media conference will be held at the Nathan campus of Griffith University outside the Security/ Information booth located at "The Circuit" at 10 am on Tuesday the 19 th February 2002.

For further info: John Martin on 0419 732 078 or David Pullen on 0409 490 032

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