RATES OF PAY & CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2015 – LONDON UNDERGROUND (LUL/0001)

Further to my previous Circular (IR/107/15, 23rd April 2015), the following resolution was received from the London Transport Regional Council:-

“This region condemns London Underground for their naked attempt to divide the tube’s workforce by making different pay offers according to grade. LU’s claim that some grades are not impacted as much by night-tube has been made in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary and represents nothing more than a cynical attempt to break the unity of RMT members across trains, stations and engineering grades.

LU’s offer remains a below inflation pay rise with derisory one-off payments in return for delivering night-tube. This is wholly unacceptable to our union.

This comes on top of fit for the future, which as it stands will leave our stations chronically understaffed and many members in unacceptable grades or locations.

We applaud every member who took strike action over LU’s austerity cuts and we endorse the negotiating position of our union. Our strike action has won important shifts in LU’s position including a guarantee that no member would lose their substantive salary.

However, it is clear that LU’s proposals remain unacceptable in relation to both pay and austerity cuts. At the present time these include:

Below inflation pay offer
Demand for complete implementation of night tube tied to a no strike clause. This would include our acceptance of new rosters across functions accepting sharp increases in night and weekend working.
900 job cuts on LU stations
Displacement of around 1500 station grades with many sent to unacceptable new locations.

In order to resolve these issues we will have to take significant strike action.

We are at our strongest when all grades are united. It would be preferable to take all grades action in order to fight on the key issues we face. We have to take account of the different mood of members in different functions. LU has pursued a deliberate strategy of imposing austerity on stations ahead of other areas and it is understandable that some members are not yet convinced of the need for immediate strikes.

RMT must seek to convince members that all grades action is required to ensure that night tube does not result in unacceptable rosters with more weekend and night working and to win a fair pay settlement. RMT should fight on these issues at the same time as the additional issues facing stations.

It may be necessary to take separate industrial action, either strikes or action short of strikes, on stations in response to LU’s fit for the future programme. In particular, LU’s continuing failure to restore significant numbers of jobs to our stations is a crucial issue, alongside issues relating to rosters and location.

Additionally, RMT will continue to campaign amongst passengers and the wider public against ticket office closures and job cuts on the tube.

The LTRC will produce regular propaganda in support of this fight. The GGC should convene reps meetings as necessary to ensure the involvement of reps in the development of our strategy.”

The Lead Officer and Senior Reps have attended two further meetings regarding this matter but no new offer was made and a mass meeting of members has taken place where this matter was discussed. The General Grades Committee has taken the decision to prepare an all grades ballot matrix of London Underground members as a matter of urgency. I am currently acting in accordance with this decision and would be grateful if Branches could ensure that all members’ details are correct.