RMT Members on London Underground To take 5 Days Strike Action

RMT Members on London Underground are to take five days strike action, split over two weeks, in reaction to London Underground bosses continued threat to cut hundreds of jobs.

"As a result of the disgraceful outcome of the talks at ACAS and the breach of trust between ourselves and the company we agree that further strike action and action short of strike action is absolutely necessary to further this union’s central objectives to defend the job and protect the travelling public. Accordingly we instruct all our members, excluding Fleet staff, not to book on for any shifts that commence between:-

21:00 hours on Monday 28th of April 2014 until 20:59 hours on Wednesday 30th April 2014; and

21:00 hours on Monday 5th of May 2014 until 20:59 hours on Thursday 8th of May 2014.

All members employed in the Fleet grades will be instructed not to book on for any shifts that commence between:-

18.30 hours on Monday 28th of April 2014 until 18.29 hours on Wednesday 30th April 2014; and

18.30 hours on Monday 5th of May 2014 until 18.29 hours on Thursday 8th of May 2014."

Full GGC decision

This General Grades Committee notes the report from the Lead Officer and is disgusted at the outcome of the talks at ACAS that this union entered into in good faith. When this GGC suspended our strike action in February London Underground undertook to conduct a review of every station and stated that “some ticket offices could stay open”. We are outraged that despite 8 weeks of discussions only five stations were reviewed and London Underground are still maintaining that every ticket office will close by the end of 2015. This union views LU’s commitments as dishonest and a total breach of trust between ourselves, our members, London’s public/ passengers and London Underground Ltd.

At the end of this process of discussions London Underground now insist on slashing safety critical front line staff by 953 Jobs plus 840 more from the front-line equating to some 1793 positions being lost. Not only do LU plan on removing nearly 1800 front-line operational roles they intend to create 900 new managers! If their plans are implemented there will be one manager for every 4 members of station staff.

London Underground now insist on slashing safety critical front line staff by 953 Jobs plus 840 more from the front-line equating to some 1793 positions being lost"

LU’s claims of providing more visible staff on stations is a cynical lie. The figures now provided to us show cuts to the number of staff on stations across the whole of the combine. When this disgraceful increase in managers is taken into account the cuts in operational staff are even bigger. Not only will London’s tube passengers lose their ticket offices but there will be massively fewer staff to help across the stations and provide a safe reliable tube system.

We also note in the Lead Officer’s report that neither has any improvements been made on protection of earnings or job selection. Worse, the talks at ACAS have further deepened and exposed that LU’s proposals are a whole scale attack to the staffing levels and wages structure to our members livelihoods Furthermore while LU propose to undermine and slash earning levels to front line staff, LU Directors are insistent on lining their own pockets. This General Grades Committee is outraged at LU’s response to this union’s concrete proposals for LU to save monies by limiting and setting a maximum salary to LU’s directors who are paid obscene financial packages. In London Underground’s document “Detailed response to RMT counter proposals” their statement, “As a consequence of this benchmarking, TFL has no reason to believe that there is any “over-inflation” in the pay packages for senior staff – if anything the reverse is correct.” This is a total affront to our members facing redundancy and massive wage cuts.

The outcome to the 8 weeks of talks at ACAS have clearly exposed the lie that these proposals for London’s Underground are about “modernisation”. Not true! They are only the first tranche of cuts to the staffing levels and safety culture on the tube due to government imposed austerity cuts to London Underground and TfL. This union’s position is clear: we will not stand by and allow this attack to station staff. We know London Underground plan to roll out the same process to engineering staff, Fleet, Service Control and all grades across the company. We are further aware of their proposals to come for our members pension funds and arrangements. Their proposals for driverless trains are a folly, and are not supported by tube users and will be resisted by this union.

This General Grades Committee agrees that as a national trade union we will fight and campaign against austerity on London’s Underground and it’s parent body, Transport for London. We fully endorse our former General Secretary’s initiative to call a conference of academics and stakeholders in July 2014 to examine and make a report on the future of London’s tube. We agree to hold demonstrations and bring to the travelling public’s attention these dangerous, unsafe and damaging proposals to London’s Underground. We agree to continue to support the work of the campaigning body ‘Hands off London’s Transport’. We request that the full Council of Executives makes a financial donation to this important campaigning umbrella body. The public are clearly opposed to LU’s plans for the tube and this union will do our utmost to bring these proposals to the attention of Londoners using every means at our disposal.

This GGC also notes the report of our Equalities representatives, indicating that London Underground’s proposals will have a significant detrimental impact on equalities and that LU has misled those equalities organisations that it has contacted. We believe that these organisations, and campaigners who work hard to promote equality, are entitled to know the truth about LUL's proposals. We therefore also agree to our representatives' recommendation and instruct the General Secretary to organise a briefing event for equalities organisations and campaigners in a fully accessible venue. This event is to be presented in a professional manner, and is to include our Regional Organiser and all the equalities representatives who took part in the talks. Invitations are to be sent to national organisations, and to organisations in London and the surrounding areas, which promote equality and promote the interests of women, disabled people, LGBT people, young people, ethnic minorities and older people, all of whom will suffer massively from LUL's proposals. We aim to hold this event mid May.

As a result of the disgraceful outcome of the talks at ACAS and the breach of trust between ourselves and the company we agree that further strike action and action short of strike action is absolutely necessary to further this union’s central objectives to defend the job and protect the travelling public. Accordingly we instruct all our members, excluding Fleet staff, not to book on for any shifts that commence between:-

21:00 hours on Monday 28th of April 2014 until 20:59 hours on Wednesday 30th April 2014; and

21:00 hours on Monday 5th of May 2014 until 20:59 hours on Thursday 8th of May 2014.

All members employed in the Fleet grades will be instructed not to book on for any shifts that commence between:-

18.30 hours on Monday 28th of April 2014 until 18.29 hours on Wednesday 30th April 2014; and

18.30 hours on Monday 5th of May 2014 until 18.29 hours on Thursday 8th of May 2014.

Furthermore all members in the station grades are instructed not to work any rest days or overtime from 00.01 hours on Tuesday 29th of April 2014 until further notice.

Further we instruct the General Secretary to continue to produce head office propaganda and grade based materials to our members and to inform them urgently on the union’s position by personal letter and by text and email.

Finally we instruct the GS to contact our sister unions to urge their support in our campaign.

London Transport Regional Council and branches to be advised.