Reference no: EM133262595

Read the following case study about Carlisle Cleaning and Support Services (CCSS) and then identify:

• the managerial style
• the parties involved
• their respective interests.

What have you learnt about the managerial style at CCSS and what, if anything, does the exercise tell you about power?

At the end of August cleaners on the TransPennine Express held a 24-hour strike followed by a two-week ban on overtime and rest-day working. The strikers wanted a pay increase comparable to the 10 per cent rise in pay won in the previous year by Carlisle cleaning staff working on Virgin trains. The strike, over what the union described as a derisory pay offer, occurred after the company, Carlisle Cleaning and Support Services (CCSS), failed to increase its offer and to meet the RMT union for further talks at the conciliation service Acas.

RMT general secretary at the time, Bob Crow, said its members working for CCSS suffer some of the worst conditions in the industry: 'For a company that boasts about its commitment to service its attitude to our members is unacceptable and its attempt to make low-paid workers subsidise its profits is beneath contempt. They have no sick-pay, no paid meal breaks and no enhanced pay rates for working overtime, nights, weekends or even bank holidays.' The strike followed similar action between RMT members and CCSS in the previous Autumn when cleaners on Virgin Trains' West Coast Main Line service covering stations including Birmingham, Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool Lime Street also went on strike over a below-inflation pay offer as well as moves to de-recognise the RMT. Strikes and overtime bans are not the only 'persuasive' tactics taken by union members: in this case part of the action against CCSS involved a refusal to empty effluent tanks and replenish fresh water.