Tubeworker's seasonal issue discusses the forthcoming strike action by signallers, as well as action by drivers on the Piccadilly and District lines.
Workplace reports include the successful campaign to reinstate a Station Assistant at Oxford Circus, and the ongoing fight against job cuts on London Underground's stations.
You can read the text below, or download Tubeworker here.
Signals Shorter Working Week: Strike to Stop These Attacks
<> no to job cuts <> we demand: 35-hour week without strings! <> fight back with solid strike action <>
As we write, the result of the RMT ballot of service control members is not out yet, but it is likely that there will be a strong vote in favour of strikes. Signal operators, controllers and other service control staff should be in no doubt that management’s proposals are a serious attack on our jobs and conditions. The proposed job cuts will affect everybody, regardless of whether you are redeployed or not – less people doing the same amount of work means that those who remain will be working harder, even though there is a nominal shorter working week.
This is an attempt to squeeze more work out of fewer people. Minimum four-hour duties, rather than the current 8, could see meal relief turns cut and provide a shorter working week on paper without actually reducing the amount of work we do. The proposals reduce minimum rest time between duties from 12 to 11 hours. Including travelling times and shifts throughout the 24 hours of day and night, this has obvious safety implications. Signal operators need to be well rested and alert in order to do the job safely.
The pay on offer does not meet the union’s long-standing claim of parity for signal operators with train drivers. These are roles roughly equivalent in terms of skill and responsibility. It may be reasonable for reserves to get more, to reflect their unpredictable shifts, but workers doing the same job should get the same rate of pay. To have someone in one cabin earning more than someone in another is divisive.
The proposals are also inconsistent: most of the higher-graded cabins are two-person staff in the day, while the lower-graded cabins are one-person; most higher-graded cabins have a 7-shift roster, with nights every 7 weeks; most lower-graded cabins are five-shift with nights every five weeks. So, the more anti-social your working, the less you get paid! RMT’s leaders have indicated this would be acceptable if all other demands are met, but Tubeworker thinks that if they listened to their members, they would know it is not.
Management want to cut lots of jobs. No-one will be made redundant, but lots of people will be forced to jump through a lot of hoops and take jobs they don’t want. And the redeployed will not get the new rates of pay. The bulk of the job cuts will fall on reserves – and there are a lot of them.
What about the managers who were responsible for recruiting so many ‘surplus’ staff? They will not have their lives turned upside down.
There are also job cuts for rostered staff, so no-one should assume that they are automatically ‘safe’ – this is an attack on all of us!
When the Central line cabins were closed, all signal operators were offered the chance to go for driver, or transfer to other cabins (outside the roster, to be absorbed by natural wastage). The same should go now for any signal operators deemed ‘surplus’. Coburg Street and Earls Court will need more people in future, and where will they come from if not existing signal operators? What about all the Modern Apprentices who are supposedly the future of the railway? Are they suddenly surplus to requirements too?
When the ballot result is in, we must build for solid action. New Year’s Eve is being suggested as the date for action. We are not sure that we should be targeting people who want to have a party: it may be better to take action in the first week of January when the city is back at work. But whatever date is set, we need to stand together and defend our jobs and conditions.
ASLEF and TSSA look likely to agree whatever is on the table. Their members should stand together with RMT workmates (joining RMT if necessary) to fight these attacks – they will affect us all whatever union we belong to.
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Remote Control
It is three years since drivers last took action about remote booking. And yet District line drivers are still expected to book on at Earls Court, which even management admits has woeful facilities. Come the New Year, ASLEF and RMT drivers will take action together, refusing to book on there.
The likes of the Evening Standard are trivialising the issue by saying that it is just about ‘tea-making facilities’. If it is that small a matter, why has LUL not sorted it out yet?! In any case, Tubeworker does not believe that Standard journos would work the whole day without a cuppa, do you?
Season Of Goodwill?
Last Tubeworker reported the sacking of an Oxford Circus SA following a gateline incident. We are pleased to report that the company has seen sense and reinstated him on appeal.
Perhaps LUL’s enlightenment was something to do with the threat of a strike. We couldn’t possibly comment.
Strike On The Picc
Picc line ASLEF members will strike on Christmas Eve and 5 January, after voting 87% for action to defend their workmate who was busted to SA over SPADs. RMT will offer solidarity. Whatever our union, all drivers know that management is well out of line over SPADs, coming down like a ton of bricks rather than addressing reality.
Effective strikes should make them see sense. ASLEF’s leaders should understand that drivers are serious about this issue, and expect it to be LUL who backs down, not the Society.
Ring In The New
Plenty of us will be at work while the rest of the country parties when New Year comes in. Some station groups have got their management to agree to pay for grub during the night. If yours is not one of them, get on their case.
Sauce for The Goose?
LUL’s harassment policy holds little credibility with staff. Many people feel that it does not help the victims, and is often abused, especially by managers.
The latest example is on Finsbury Park group. A Station Supervisor has had a harassment case ongoing against the company for a couple of years without resolution, but has been busted to SAMF after an allegation against him was dealt with much more promptly. It seems that what is sauce for the goose is not necessarily sauce for the gander.
Fares Not Fair (Again)
Just when you thought tickets could not get any more complex, they have. Weekend travelcards are replaced by 3-day travelcards, and lots more tickets – even including singles – have different prices at different times of day. Many fares have risen massively.
The upshot will be confusion, longer queues, more people buying the wrong ticket, and more grief on the gateline. And remember Mayor Ken promising a fares freeze? Liar.
More Equal Than Others?
LUL’s ‘equalisation’ on the stations has got off to a rocky start. Staff voted to accept the shorter working week, but LUL does not seem to have anticipated that we would fight job cuts.
Draft rosters have been savaged by union reps who rightly point out that their stations are not ‘over-staffed’, and that stretching staff yet more thinly will be a disaster for morale, safety and the beloved ‘customer service’. Back to the drawing board, we think.
Radio GaGa
When Northern line train radios went on the blink, LUL pulled all sorts of stunts to keep the service running. Heroic, maybe … or dangerous, more like. You might be sick, pregnant, or not track certificated – but if LUL needed you, then in the cab you went!
Oddly enough, management had done something similar on the Picc during the summer, apologised and said it wouldn’t happen again. Which shows how much their promises are worth.
Snouts In The Trough
As usual, when we have the temerity to stand up for ourselves and take strike action, the denunciations from media pundits and politicians come thick and fast. Pride of place goes to Roger Evans, Tory GLA transport spokesperson, calling us ‘greedy’. Mr Evans is paid a mere £48,000 per year of the same “taxpayers’ money” that he accuses us of draining!
Evans adds that the only way to defeat this greed is to take on the unions and crush them. So, following his own logic, Tubeworker reckons that the only way to defeat the greed of hypocritical right-wing tossers is to take them on and crush them.
Sales Start Early
Jarvis has sold its TubeLines stake for £100m. And we thought the contract was awarded to particular firms. Not.
The buyer is Star Capital, a private equity group set up specifically to pick the carcasses of PFI contracts. As such, they will know next to nothing about engineering or railways, but lots about making money. Which, after all, is what privatisation is all about.
Leave It Out
It’s that time of year when outstanding leave is allocated. In some workplaces, this means being told to take your leave when you don’t want to, which is especially galling if you had requests for days off refused during the year.
With most of our leave allocated in blocks, the odd days are the only ones which we (allegedly) have any say over. We’re meant to be delighted by how much leave we get – but what’s the point if you don’t get to take it when you want it?
Last-Minute Shopping
If you have left it late for presents, why not try ebay?! Infrastructure parts, BTP hats, … probably the only thing not available is a well-funded, publicly-owned underground railway.
