Tubeworker's blog

RMT Pay Strike Ballot Result

RMT's ballot for strike action over pay has come back with a whopping mandate for action. On a turnout of about 50%, 2,271 (76%) voted for strike action and 705 (24%) voted against.

Now we should be set for the strikes that we need to force management to improve their offer. But the union's press...

DLR Workers Reject Pay Offer(s)

RMT members on the Docklands Light Railway have decisively rejected both of the company's inadequate pay offers.

The scores on the doors were as follows:

  • Total votes cast: 149
  • Option 1 (3 year deal): 15
  • Option 2 (1 year deal): 9
  • Option 3 (rejection of both): 125

That's a massive 84% rejection...

How Secure Are You?

During refurb work at Epping, Metronet has employed a security guard to protect its worksite. But the guard has been getting rather too close to the ticket barrier, on occasion looking like a substitute member of station staff.

Local union reps complained, and Metronet'sman backed off for a while...

Off-Road Training

Management seem to think it is OK for Central Line drivers to learn about the new White City sidings in the classroom. That is, just in the classroom. No need to actually, erm, drive a train. We don't think so.

Could this be yet another case of corner-cutting? We do think so.

Different Unions, Different Pay Rises?

LUL's latest bulletin makes the bizarre claim that that the company will pay TSSA and BTOG members this year's pay rise of 4%.

LUL is apparently accepting the principle that each individual worker should be paid the amount that his or her union has negotiated. So when RMT's industrial action...

The Best Cure For Sickness = Work!

Oh yes it is! At least according to a leaflet sponsored by TfL.

Medicine? Rest? Recovery? Pah - they're for wimps! A hard day's graft is what you sickly types need.

The leaflet encourages us to reject common 'myths' about ill-health including such fictions as: illness can be cured by medical...

Pick On Someone Your Own Size

Managers have been grovelling around on the stations, talking to new starters to 'clear up the issues' surrounding the ballot. To them, 'clearing up the issues' means repeating the nonsense of the employees communications bulletin in a somewhat pathetic attempt to secure a 'no' vote! Do GSMs have so...

ASLEF referendum on pay offer: Vote NO!

It seems that ASLEF has caved in to LUL management's goading and decided to hold a referendum on the pay offer. Worse, the referendum will carry a recommendation to ACCEPT!

That's right, ASLEF members, your union leaders want you to accept a three-year pay offer, with rises just a sliver above...

Cleaners' Meeting Pledges to Fight Job Cuts

Fightback against ISS redundancies
Mass Meeting - Monday 5th Feb

Around 40 people attended the meeting to plan the fightback against ISS cleaning company's intended 200 compulsory redundancies this month. Pat Sikorski (RMT Assistant General Secretary) gave the background: what the the RMT has done...

Looking Good?

At Morden depot, management have come up with another cracking scheme to boost the morale of the workers. Now when you book on, you can look (well, you can hardly avoid looking) at yourself in a mirror, adorned with the words 'Looking Good'. No doubt, management imagine the professional driver...

Stop Press: Mayor Suspends Late Night Running

Mayor Ken Livingstone has announced that he has suspended later running because he can't get an agreement with the unions.

This is surely an admission that LUL management's strategy of withholding staff's pay rise in order to force through later running on the company's terms has failed.

Now later...

We Can Work It Out

LUL's letter to staff at home is going down like a lead balloon. Loads of people are commenting that this is pretty much the first time Tim O'Toole has written to them, and it's to tell them he's not going to give them a pay rise unless they agree to rubbish for the future! And this from a man who...

The Ballot Papers Are Out: Vote YES

Despite their best efforts, LUL have failed in their attempts to blackmail us into caving in to their multi-year deal.

Their refusal to pay the 4% now clearly illustrates their motive all along which was to impose draconian disciplinary, attendance and performance-related policies. They may keep...

Assistance and ... er ...

The eagle-eyed amongst us spotted some time ago that ticket office windows that used to have illuminated signs above them saying "Assistance and Tickets" now have signs simply saying "Assistance".

Hmmm. It seems that the unions asked why this might be, and management helpfully replied that it was...

Return To Sender

You've got to admire their cheek. LUL send a letter to every member of staff at home explaining why they won't give you a pay rise - and it's signed by a bloke on a quarter of a million quid a year! Actually, you don't have to admire that at all.

The company's explanation was notable for its...

Press '1' for Chocolate, '2' for Oyster, ...

Management's latest ruse to replace ticket offices, and therefore ticket office staff, is to sell Oyster cards from vending machines. The machines will be operated by (yet another) private company.

The theory is that the machines will cut queues at the ticket office, but there's a bit of a glitch...

Fraud Survey For Sale?

Creeping privatisation continues to creep into more and more parts of the job. The latest is the Fraud Survey, which LUL wants to sell off. Yet another contractor will mean yet more fragmentation, and yet another company organising for profit rather than for the good of the railway.

Management also...

Biometrics and Solidarity

Contractor ISS is still trying to sneak in biometric booking-on systems for cleaners - but it is coming up against the power of all-grades trade unionism.

RMT has an agreement with Metronet that neither the Infraco nor any of its contractors will use such systems. They are an infringement of...

Freeze Their Assets

When the snow fell on Wednesday morning, 90 points on the Central line failed, resulting in total chaos on the service.

The reason? Metronet, knowing there were freezing temperatures, had decided not to de-ice the points that night in order to save money. This money-saving measure ended up costing...

On The Cheap

Station staff will have noticed that management struggle to cover posts over a long period - eg. during maternity leave or long-term sickness. Obviously, then, they need to employ more reserves.

Well, you'd think it's obvious, wouldn't you? But management have another plan, which will save them a...

Vote YES To Win Our Pay Rise!

Thursday 18th January came and went ... and LUL management didn't even bother replying to RMT's demand that the company give us our long-overdue pay rise. You might think that you hear the words 'scandal', 'outrage' and 'disgrace' rather too often, but these words are actually not strong enough to...

Radio Gaga

Northern Line management are proposing a change, to allow Line Controllers to authorise drivers to apply the rule over the radio. There are two big reasons why we should oppose this:

1. Is the radio actually secure?

2. It represents a change to the Rule Book as Line Controllers do not currently...

Gis A Job

The escalator refurbishment at Tottenham Court Road very nearly didn't go ahead, because Reed Recruitment - who now take care of TfL recruitment - failed to recruit enough staff.

Station staff have been pulled from other stations to cover the extra work. It is bad enough that a separate contractor...

Clean Your Own Station?

Night cleaners have been removed on the Central line and District line. These cleaners work for ISS, the same company that is trying to lay off 200 cleaners on TubeLines contracts at the moment - a move that RMT is fighting.

An example of how cleaners' cutbacks affect us all is that cold weather...

Walkway - Or Slipways?

The new sidings at White City are now in use. Shame about the walkways being dangerous. Oh, and as for the ready-to-start plungers ...

Airwave Chaos

If management are serious about Airwave Radios being an essential safety system, maybe they should stop being so slapdash about their use. Turning up with thousands of quids worth of equipment in a Sainsbury's carrier bag, giving it to station staff with the most cursory of briefings, and then...

Not Enough Staff = Not Enough Safety

Last night at Bank, call point operation triggered an evacuation ... and the P.A. failed. No Inspector Sands, no P.A. from the control room, nothing.

With superhuman effort, the staff evacuated the complex in twenty minutes. Fortunately, it was a false alarm. Had it been a fire, people would have...

Watching You

Tubeworker recommends to Endemol and Channel Four a possible venue for the next series of Big Brother - the new Waterloo & City line signal cabin.

It's got cameras pointing at the staff, though no-one seems to know who's looking at the monitors. And you have to walk through the changing room to get...

Management Spin On Pay

Management's latest 'employee communications' bulletin on pay makes interesting reading. That's "interesting" as in "downright cheeky".

There are some sections that would benefit from translation:

  • "Since the start of the Pay Talks we have made clear that we need a multi-year pay deal". Yeah, but...

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