TfL has finally admitted what we all knew was coming - massive job cuts on stations. In a press release today, the company said that 7-800 jobs would go - mostly ticket sellers, but also other station grades and 100 managers.
Cheekily, the company claims that there will be no ticket office closures. Right ... No ticket offices will close outright, but offices that are currently open for, say, 13 or 14 hours per day will suddenly find themselves open for just three or four hours. So if a 'customer' wants to buy a ticket outside of these hours, then it may as well have been closed! Maybe BoJo thinks we and our passengers are daft enough to think that this means he has kept his promise to have no ticket office closures. No, Boris, we're not stupid.
Here at Tubeworker, we are particularly amused by our employer's claim that these job cuts will create a 'safe' and 'efficient' Underground. Efficient at moving passengers' money into fat cats' pockets, maybe. Efficient at running a railway - not.
So our trade unions must gear up for the fight of our lives. We should remember some of our past struggles, repeat the things that worked, avoid the mistakes. We can learn both from victories (eg. defeating the last round of attempted ticket office closures) and defeats (eg. Company Plan).
One thing the unions must note straightaway is that the company's press release promises no compulsory redundanices. So there is no need for the union to demand 'no compulsory redundancies' then, is there?! We can demand, and should stick to, 'no job cuts'.
