Standing up for all workers

Wednesday 10th February 2010

In your article titled TfL staff lobby bosses over pay offer (M Star February 3) Steve Hedley, RMT regional organiser, is totally correct in his assertion: "Unless people are prepared to take industrial action, this will keep happening."

Assemble outside City Hall, 110 The Queens Walk, Southwark, London SE1 2AA (nearest station London Bridge)

Our TfL members are still faced with

• a three year pay deal linked to an unpredictable RPI figure
• unprecedented job cuts
• bullying of reps & activists
• unfair treatment of members in disciplinaries & medical redeployment/termination hearings

RMT members there have had two days of strike action & have been in dispute for some ten months now.

• TfL
• Alstom
• London Underground engineering workers (ex-Metronet)
• London Underground "summit"
• EDF

This bulletin has been issued jointly by RMT and the other five recognised unions in TfL. Click '1 attachment / file name to download it. Read the text below.

Get The Facts Right!

Warning! Don’t believe everything you hear from TfL. Managers have been telling staff that they will not receive the 75% Reimbursement after April 1st 2010 if they don’t sign the pay award acceptance form. This is untrue. Reimbursement will continue for the full length of your current season ticket, even if it expires after April 1st 2010. Maybe this was meant as an early April Fool, but it’s more likely yet another mistake from management that don’t seem to have a clue what they’re doing.

photo by Paul Mattsson

TUBE UNION RMT today called for PPP contractor Tube Lines to be stripped of their contract with immediate effect and without compensation, and their work brought back under direct public control, as it emerged that their operations on the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee Lines have collapsed into chaos and recrimination.

RMT have no doubt that the poisoned relationship between TfL and Tube Lines has now broken down irretrievably with a sequence of events in the run up to Thursdays decision by the arbiter on the value of the next phase of their contract fuelling the case for the company to be dumped.

TUBE AND TfL union RMT today released new information which exposes the full extent of the first wave of cuts under Boris Johnson’s £5 billion tube savings programme with 144 station ticket offices and 1200 jobs under threat of the axe.

Photo by James Cridlan

TUBE UNION RMT today accused TfL and Tube Lines of slashing safety standards to dangerous levels as it emerged that twice weekly inspection of escalators will be cut to just once a week and the 12 week frequency of signal maintenance on the Jubilee Line will be cut to a 16 week cycle.

The latest safety and maintenance cuts on the Tube Lines section of the Underground have come just two weeks after RMT exposed moves to hack back the frequency of track inspections on the Jubilee Line extension.

RMT reps will be raising the issues at a meeting of the Health and Safety forum today – Thursday 3rd December – with a demand that the cuts be reversed as a matter of urgency.

TUBE AND TfL union RMT today slammed confirmation from Mayor Boris Johnson that tube fares will increase by 3.9% from next year and bus fares by over 12% as “dire news in the middle of a recession which will be deeply damaging to passenger numbers and revenue income.”

In further bad news for public transport in the capital, TfL's business plan, to be considered by TfL's board next week, includes the deferral by three years of all remaining station renewals which were to have been completed by the failed private Tube maintenance company Metronet.

This is an extract of RMT's Official circular regarding LUL - IR/296/09 dated 9th October 2009.

You may be aware that for a number of years LUL and its predecessors have had the right to participate in the Annual Remembrance Parade at the Cenotaph. The TFL contingent is made up of past and present employees.

This is an extract of RMT's Official circular regarding LUL from Bob Crow- IR/296/09 dated 9th October 2009.

The General Grades Committee also this week considered the outstanding pay claim for TfL members

It's good to see various trade union leaders saying they will be fighting for their members whoever is running the country, but perhaps they should start now. Most of the recent disputes in the oil refineries, occupations at Visteon etc were started by rank and file with the leaderships being forced to support the workers.

Big adverts in the Morning Star stating how many members you have and pleading for the government not to cut public services and please be progressive do nothing. Fighting back does.

Circular No. IR.275/09: RATES OF PAY & CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2009, REDUNDANCIES AND BREACH OF AGREEMENTS - LUL and TfL

At a meeting of the LUL Company Council last week, the company’s pay offer was further discussed. There was no further movement by the employer and so their offer still stands as follows:

Year 1: 1.5% increase from 1st April 2009
Year 2: February 2010 RPI + 0.5% or 0.5% whichever is the greater from 1st April 2010

Dear colleagues,

LUL - TfL - Alstom - Cubic - bus workers

A summary of where we currently stand with the jobs/pay/justice dispute:

• RMT is calling no more strikes for the time being.
• Our disputes with LUL and TfL are still 'live' ie. not resolved.
• The Regional Council's strike committee continues to meet and organise.
• No RMT member will be made compulsorily redundant in the current LUL job-cut process.
• LUL accepts that it has a 'no compulsory redundancy' agreement, but insists that this only applies to operational staff even though it clearly states that it applies to "all employees".