RMT London Calling

In April, RMT's London Transport Regional Council wrote to disabled people's organisations as part of our 'SOS: Staff Our Stations' campaign, alerting them to London Underground's planned job cuts and the difficulties that these will cause to disabled passengers. You can read our letter here. Several organisations representing disabled people have now sent the following letter to Mayor Boris Johnson, opposing the job cuts.

Dear Mr Johnson,

Venue: The Old Star, opposite St. James Park station (Park / Broadway exit)
12-4pm - drop in at any time

All RMT women are welcome to join us for an informal lunch. This is your opportunity to meet other women members in a friendly setting and discuss any issues which matter to you as a female transport worker.

So, what's on your mind? Job cuts? Management bullying? Discrimination? Working in a male-dominated industry? Balancing work and family responsibilities? Sexual harassment? Sexist comments? Pregnancy? Health and safety? Menopause? Safe travel to and from work?

Stratford Number One branch have released their latest newsletter.

It contains information about LU's attack on jobs, with the reasons why all grades including train operators need to support the ballot for action against these cuts.

Click 'Read More' to see the full newsletter.

"I wanted to protest vigorously at the planned cut of staff at Warwick Avenue Station.

"This very busy station is important to all its users- tourists, locals, business people travelling at peak times. It has been the target of many incidents prevented by the attendance of its vigilant and kind staff

"I feel that it is important to keep it adequately staffed at all times."

Ann Futter

The RMT's General Secretary Bob Crow will appear on the BBC's Question Time programme tonight (Thursday 22nd of July) at 10.35. Shortly afterwards it will be available on the BBC's Iplayer here.

Whatever your grade, there are (at least) ten reasons why you should vote Yes to strikes and Yes to action short of strikes in RMT's ballot. The Regional Council has produced a leaflet for members in each grade reminding you of these ten reasons. Click on the links below to download the leaflets for ...

• Engineering and fleet
• Drivers
• Station staff
• Service control
• Revenue control
• Managers and admin

AFTER MONTHS of accusing tube union RMT of scaremongering over the safety impact of cuts on London Underground, tube bosses this morning put their hands up and admitted that the cuts mean that services are running on dangerous and rotten infrastructure dating back to the 1920's with worse to come in terms of the risks to millions of passengers as the Government lines up further attacks on the TFL budget and the tube upgrade programme.

RMT underground members begin balloting today for strike action across the entire network over jobs and safety cuts.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

The new Health & Safety rep on the Wembley Central Group, Alan Foster has raised the issue of places of safety for staff on the gateline. On London Underground the standard place of safety is the GLAP. But when LU took over the control of the silver link stations north of Queens Park in 2007 none were put in. Management were quick enough off the mark to bring in gate lines to maximise revenue but the safety of the staff working the gate lines was deemed secondary.

From Bob Crow, General Secretary ...

Dear Colleague,

I am writing to bring you up to date with developments in regard to the TfL Pension Fund.

Actuarial Valuation

The results of the latest valuation of the Fund have recently been concluded. The valuation, as at 31st March 2009, assesses whether or not there are sufficient assets to pay for pensions already promised to existing pensioners, deferred pensioners and active members, and also sets employer contribution rates necessary to fund future benefits after the valuation date.

The valuation revealed a £1,206m deficit in the Public Sector Section. In addition a deficit of £125m exists in the LUL BCV and SSL sections, and a £75.6m deficit in the Tube Lines Section.

From Steve Hedley, Regional Organiser ...

Maintenance “optimisation” is an attempt to move the vast majority of the 14day exam out to 28 days endangering the public and our members jobs

Research by several organisations across London has found that LGBT people fear for their safety on public transport including the tube and that there is a higher incident of assault - both verbal and physical - on public transport than there is in other public areas.

The British Transport Police state ‘For passengers, feeling safe is as important as being safe. The visible presence of rail staff, PCSOs and police officers can reduce the fear of crime dramatically.’

With these figures showing how LGBT people feel about travel on the underground, it should be considered that many LGBT people will feel more at risk of assault on the underground as staff cuts will inevitably mean the reduction of staff visibility.

TUBE UNION RMT has welcomed the tabling of a motion at tomorrow’s London Mayor’s Question Time, in the names of Labour’s Val Shawcross and the Lib Dem’s Caroline Pidgeon, calling on Boris Johnson to review plans to axe 800 station staff jobs and to close or slash the opening times of 245 ticket offices.

In this latest leaflet, Finsbury Park's Branch Officers and reps explain why they will be voting YES in the forthcoming ballot for industrial action against LUL's latest attempts to destroy jobs, working conditions and safety on the Underground. To read or download a copy, click on the attachment below:

TUBE UNION RMT today secured a massive victory for low paid workers as it was confirmed today that all tube cleaners will be paid the London Living Wage of £7.85 per hour backdated to the 1st of July.

RMT has mounted a long and hard campaign for the cleaners to be paid the London minimum and the final group, the Tube Lines cleaners working for ISS, will at last join their colleagues on a decent rate of pay from this month.

We are collecting accounts of how station staff assist train operators. This information will help the RMT's case against cuts in the number of station staff.

Perhaps you had a customer ill on a train and needed assistance, needed to detrain during the peak or where given safety critical information by a member of station staff?

You can complete the survey by clicking go to form below.

The RMT London Transport Region is collecting stories of working alone or with too few staff on London Underground stations. You can complete the survey by clicking go to form below.

You can leave your name and email address, which will be kept entirely confidential and will allow us to contact you for more information. You can alternatively leave these blank if you prefer.

The Convenor of the RMT Parliamentary Group John McDonnell MP, has been drawn first in the Private Members' Bill Ballot of MPs and after consultation with the trade union movement, he is sponsoring the Lawful Industrial Action (Minor Errors) Bill. This will tackle the increasing employer practice of using minor technical errors in the balloting process - which have no material effect on the outcome - to take unions to court in order to prevent them from taking industrial action.

The latest issue of the RMT London Taxi branch's newsletter reports on issues including pedicabs, emissions and satellite minicab offices.

Click '1 attachment' / file name to download it.

AS LONDON mayor Boris Johnson confirmed this morning that Transport for London have completed their takeover of the failed Tube Lines operation, RMT has demanded urgent intervention to resolve a dispute over jobs and working conditions as the union produced new figures showing that 535 out of 2915 Tube Lines staff posts are under threat.

Following two days of strike action last week, RMT has confirmed a further 48 hours of action on Tube Lines between 19.00 hours on Wednesday 14th July and 18.59 hours on Friday 16th July.