TUBE UNION RMT today revealed leaked details of an internal London Underground management report titled “Minimum Staffing Levels” which the union is warning would lead to the loss of hundreds of station jobs, hacking back to the absolute bare bones staffing levels agreed in the aftermath of the Kings Cross fire in 1987. Even Victoria, the busiest station on the underground with 76 million passengers, could see its current twelve staff cut to just two during “degraded” operation.

RMT and ASLEF Health and Safety reps at Arnos Grove depot have written a joint letter to their Train Operations Manager to express their concerns with the constant low intensity radiation emissions given off by the Tetra system recently installed throughout the London Underground railway system.

Your Trains Health & Safety reps write ...

As LU's purse strings tighten we have noticed standards falling across the combine in regard to pigeon guano all over the place. The manager who carried out the water points survey across the combine has been tasked by the Trains Health & Safety Council to look at the worst offending areas; he is the new 'guano guy'.

LONDON UNDERGROUND’S biggest union has demanded an explanation from Tube bosses after a signal failure at Farringdon last night left passengers stranded without advice or help to finish their journeys.

RMT has learned that passengers on Metropolitan and Circle and Hammersmith and City trains spent up to 45 minutes between Kings Cross and Farringdon stations, missing last onward connections with other lines, and were given no help to finish their journeys.

Click '1 attachment' / file name to download the 'Brown Book', which sets out the rights of health and safety representatives.

On a personal note, the reason that I have posted this today is that the 1977 regulations, which gave these rights to safety reps, were brought in by Labour Secretary of State for Employment Albert Booth, my uncle, who sadly died this morning.

On 18th December 2009, First was fined £400,000 plus costs after it was found guilty of breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states that: "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."

Colleagues:

We need to advise you that RMT Signal maintainers working for the former Metronet will be taking industrial action for 24 hours starting from 06.45 on Friday 5th of February.

Their dispute is over the imposition of unagreed rosters that change Monday to Friday workers to compulsory weekends

This dispute could have serious implications for the safety of the service that LU will be offering for the duration of the industrial action.

Please find the following Important Safety Information from the Regional Organiser

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION FOR JUBILEE LINE DRIVERS

Dear Colleagues,

We need to advise you that Jubilee Line train maintainers at Stratford Market Depot, Neasden and Stanmore will be taking industrial action for 24 hours from 19.29 hours on Wednesday 24th January. This will be repeated the following Sunday to Monday, and every Sunday/Monday for three months.

Their dispute is due to the fact that their Northern Line counterparts get paid considerably more money for doing the exact same job.

This dispute could have serious implications for the safety of the trains that will be offered for service during and following the industrial action.

Deadline for resolutions and delegates' registration for the union's Health & Safety Conference.

Venue: Doncaster Trades Club

Following elections, the following members were elected to the stations safety council from Jan 1st 2010

Dave Phillips (Neasden Branch)
Jason Dew (Finsbury park branch)
Ross Marshall (Neasden Branch)

They will join Pat O'Brien on the council for a 3 year term of office.

Im sure everybody will join me in sending a massive thank you to the work of the 3 outgoing members.

Unjum Murza (Stratford Branch)
Tony Gandolfi (Camden 3 Branch)
Vik Parmar (Central Line west Branch)

They will be missed by the union and the 1000s of members they have supported over the past few years.

First faces a fine after being convicted of a health and safety "shambles" over the death of one of it's drivers.

Robert Cherry, 59, was crushed to death when he was trapped between two buses at a depot in Uxbridge belonging to Centrewest London, a subsidiary of First UK group. Robert had been collecting a can of water to top up his vehicle's engine when the gear stick of the bus in front slipped and the vehicle reversed into him. He was pinned between the first bus and the one behind, which was in turn thrown back into a third vehicle. He died at the scene of the accident.

From Jim McDaid, RMT Trains Health & Safety Council rep

We had an 'informal chat' with bods from the Operational Standards Unit (LU's Rule Book people) last Friday to hear their proposals for a new programme of rule changes that they want to implement across the combine. It was informal as we have so far refused to enter into formal consultation until the Safety Council have had a chance to meet with our Functional Council and Head Office officials, which we hope will be happening soon.

There are several rule book changes proposed so I'll give you the main items:

After some excellent work by Bakerloo RMT reps we have now got a concession from management regarding the taxi service required during the Xmas/New Year shut down on the Bakerloo Line between QPK & SPK.
A DMT will be tasked with driving T/Ops to and from SPK in a hired people carrier as and when required.
An absolute minimum requiremnt I know, but it took some persuading by your RMT reps before management were prepared to concede.
A small victory.......but a victory nonetheless.
Trust the RMT.

Photo by James Cridlan

TUBE UNION RMT today warned of serious risks to public safety as it emerged that track safety patrols are to be cut.

RMT are pointing to the move to halve safety inspections as clear evidence that claims by Mayor Boris Johnson that the £5 billion black hole facing TfL will not result in front line cuts are nonsense.

Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, said: “We have warned all along that the multi-billion pound black hole facing TfL, and the financial chaos at Tube Lines, would result in real service cuts and would impact on safety and reliability.