Tubeworker's blog

West Brompton: More Responsibilities -> More Staff!

West Brompton station inherited two platforms and a lift from Silverlink. Management said this would make precious little difference to the station, and would certainly not require any extra staff or an uprating of West Brompton, which is one of the few remaining SS3 stations.

So it came as...

Right? Wrong!

Yesterday, the OPO equipment at South Kenton failed, and a CSA from Wembley Central was deployed to the platform to give drivers the right.

Which might not seem at all odd, until you remember that South Kenton is an ex-Silverlink stations, staff from other LUL stations are not familiarised there...

Metronet: Infraco Returns To Public Hands

So TfL is the only only bidder for Metronet's infraco contracts.

Good news. It means that two of the three infracos will be back in public hands. It proves that everything that we, the unions, and practically everyone else said about PPP being a disaster is proved true. And the return of Metronet's...

Terminal Problem

Heathrow Terminal 5 station will open next year, served by both Heathrow Express and our very own Piccadilly line. The LUL platforms will be staffed by workers who will only do LUL work, will be trained to LUL standards, and will carry out LUL procedures eg. detrainments.

So you'd expect them to be...

Roughed Up

On last Wednesday's football night, a detrainment CSA was dragged the length of the platform by some blokes who were annoyed that the train wouldn't be going all the way to their destination.

Fortunately(?), a senior Bakerloo line manager was present at the time. So even though his presence was not...

Life Since Transfer

On 11th November, 80 or so ex-Silverlink staff put on their new LUL uniforms. But while LUL managed to give them their clobber, the company has not managed to give them their pay rates - or the right support to do their new job.

And the new uniform itself has brought them grief, as they are now...

When Is The Time To Fight?

Management are piling attack upon attack on Underground staff: security guards, agency staff, mobile supervision, direct recruitment of drivers, ticket office cuts and closures ... What they all add up to is casualisation and de-staffing. We all know that these will be a disaster for all grades of...

The Sickness Inquisition Strikes Again

It seems that management's crusade for 100% attendance has plumbed new depths, as they have taken to carting off staff who are at work doing full duties and subjecting them to medical scrutiny!

Yes, you might think that turning up to work every day and doing everything required of you is enough to...

Staff forced back to work sick

The practice of stopping a persons pay while off sick has to be challenged by our Unions. It is becoming the norm on LUL to be told that your pay is being stopped on the second day of illness even if you have sent in a certificate or phoned in to report yourself sick.

Managers are so obsessed with...

French rail strike

For a bang-up-to-date, interesting report from the rail strikers in France, click here.

Section 12 - Is It Or Isn't It?

We all know that a station is either Section 12 or not. It can't be Section 12 in parts, not in other parts. If any part of it is sub-surface, then the whole station is covered by the Section 12 regulations, brought in after the King's Cross fire to prevent, detect and suppress fire in sub-surface...

Wot No Security Guard?

A mere four days into the Silverlink transfer, and it seems that things are going wrong already.

You know LUL's claim that security guards would keep the stations safe at night? On Wednesday evening, a London Overground driver had to call for help when there was an 'altercation' on his train...

Agency Staff Keep Popping Up

Agency staff are starting to appear in places other than the transferring Silverlink stations.

LUL have declared their intention to use them for special events - making us wonder what happened to the 'special events team' that was part of the much-lamented stations shorter working week deal.
...

Royal Visit

You know when a member of the Royal Family opens a hospital or whatever (no such ceremony when one is closed, of course)? In preparation for the ribbon-cutting and baby-kissing, the management order the building to be cleaned more thoroughly than it has ever been cleaned before.

Perhaps Tim O...

Detrainment Staff Strike Again

Bakerloo line detrainment staff are striking again on Monday (12th November). On the same day, Ken Livingstone and Tim O'Toole are due to visit Willesden Junction to celebrate 'London Overground'.

They will no doubt be after publicity - so let's make sure that our struggle against lone working gets...

Irregular Cycle

We have reported previously about contractors' failure to empty sanitary bins often enough.

Now it turns out that Metronet has cut the frequency with which it empties the sanitary bins on stations from two weeks (which was already too long a wait) to four weeks.

Four weeks?! Are they having a...

Extra Duties

Hammersmith group management seem to think they can change staff's working practices without any consultation.

With Kew Gardens and Gunnersbury transferring into the group from Silverlink, management have issued an instruction to Turnham Green Supervisors that they will have to process their lost...

Gun Crime: Problems and Solutions

Gun and violent crime has become a big issue, with several murders this year alone, many in London. The media and politicians don’t help us to understand this issue.

We may have ideas about why gang violence happens, and some of us will have experiences. As working-class people, we need to start...

Northern Line cleaners get organised

ISS cleaners on the Northern line have been messed around for months.

Many have no fixed station, don't know where they'll be working from one day to the next. They are forced to work on stations where they haven't been familiarised. They are losing out on the stability (as well as opportunity to...

Why Are We Waiting?

Lots of station staff applied for the RCI jobs that were advertised a couple of months ago. And lots passed the application.

Then, nothing. No word of a training date, and rumours flying round that it might be six months or more before they get one.

Meanwhile, bang goes your ability to plan your...

Wake for the East London line?

RMT will be protesting against East London line privatisation, just as the line closes for the extension to be built. Get yerselves along there.

Thursday 13th December, 11am
outside City Hall

Of course, it is much better to stop the privatisation than to mourn it. It is a serious setback that...

ERU Depot Closure

TubeLines is threatening to close the ERU's Tottenham depot, with staff displaced elsewhere. Not good if you live locally and want to carry on working there!

RMT has declared its intention to oppose this, so let's hope it does - with action if words don't work. After all, this is a small...

Delayed Take-Off

Chaos on the Picc yesterday, when a couple of hours' suspension in the early afternoon led to delays well late into the evening, no thanks to management's refusal to implement an emergency timetable.

Spare a thought for the beleagured station staff at Acton Town and Northfields. With half-hour...

10% Worst Attenders

Management have a new campaign as part of their relentless drive to persecute the sick. They are targeting the '10% worst attenders'. The unlucky tenth could well find their names emblazoned across office walls, together with little icons plotting how they will be poked and prodded back to work or...

The Value Of Time

LUL's new catchphrase is that its core value is time.

As we know already, time is money.

Go figure ...

As We Were Saying ...

Back in 2004, Workers' Liberty (the group which publishes Tubeworker) produced a pamphlet, Tunnel Vision, which reviewed the fight against the Public-Private Partnership. In it, we included an article called Where next?.

Re-reading it now, it is spookily - and sadly - accurate about London...

We're On Our Way To Wembley

Bakerloo line station staff had a treat on Monday - a trip to Wembley Stadium's sumptuous hospitality facilities. Why this luxury day out? So that management could schmooze them about their plans for the transferring Silverlink stations.

Fortunately, staff are perhaps not as naive and...

Ticket Offices: Don't Sit Back And Wait

Tubeworker readers will know that LUL has agreed to delay the implementation of the ticket office cuts and closures until autumn 2008.

But while management may have agreed a delay, they are clearly determined to press ahead with the cuts. It seems that infraco surveyors continue to visit stations...

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