RMT is sending members on London Underground (including Metronet) a ballot paper for industrial action to achieve a better pay deal. Your union urges you to vote YES to strikes and YES to action short of strikes.

Voting YES to both will enable the union to use a variety of tactics - such as overtime bans or work-to-rule as well as strikes - to win a better deal than the pay-cutting ‘offer’ from management.

London Underground's pay offer remains 1.5% from 1 April 2009 and RPI+0.5% (minimum 0.5%) from 1 April 2010. Despite strong representations from your union, London Underground has not changed the amount of money on offer since it tabled these figures on 1 July 2009.

Senior TfL bosses have given themselves a 50% increase in bonus payments over the past two years from £3.6 million in 2007 to £5.3 million this year. And yet London Underground pretends that it can not afford to reward you for your hard work and increased productivity with a decent pay rise.

Inflation is rising again, and the latest figures show: * an all-time record rise in the price of second-hand cars (annual rate of increase 13.2%) * furniture and household goods up 3.3% * communication up 2.6%, mainly due to landline phone bills increasing * food and non-alcoholic drink up 2.2%, with significant increases in the prices of meat, bread, cereals and vegetables.

So how far is 1.5% this year and 0.5% next year going to get you?! Your pay “rise” will not even keep up with your rising bills, so is not a pay rise at all but a real-terms pay cut!

London Underground has made a revised offer on medical redeployment that only applies to 25 drivers and 25 staff from other grades. You can read the offer here. You will see that it does not actually guarantee an alternative job to those who become unfit to do their current one.

RMT's National Executive continues to discuss London Underground's offer, and in the meantime urges you strongly to ...

Vote YES and YES!

Yours in solidarity

Janine Booth Secretary RMT London Transport Regional Council