News, reports and information for RMT members who work for London Underground Ltd
Upfront is the regular newsletter for London Underground train drivers. Please download it and distribute it in your depot. In this edition: Unions In Unity - Time For a Good Deal Congratulations to members of all grades in all unions who took strike action last week. The support was outstanding, and the effect on the service devastating. We are now firmly in the driving seat as negotiations reopen.
Please display on union noticeboards and around your workplace Hard copies are available from Unity House ASLEF, RMT, TSSA, UNITE - Unity delivers total shutdown We won’t accept imposition of rosters that destroy work/life balance Latest offer is insult to all grades All four unions, in solidarity, will win a decent settlement United Action Can Win RMT is demanding:
Tube union RMT confirmed that members across London Underground will be taking strike action from 1830 hours on Wednesday 5th August to 1829 hours on Thursday 6th August. The on-going overtime ban, which has already severely impacted on staff availability to run services, also continues.
The strike times for driver members will run slightly later, between 21.00 on 5th August to 20.59 on 6th August.
General Secretary Mick Cash said;
We are aware that ASLEF have named further strike dates tonight and we support them in their action. The RMT will announce what we plan to do shortly. We believe solidarity will win this dispute and that principal will be foremost as we decide on our next steps.
John Reid
RMT Council of Executive member
All London Underground members are congratulated for the hugely successful strike action which took place across the network during Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th July. Now, while RMT remains available for further talks with London Underground, all members are urged to continue to take part in the overtime ban and to REFUSE TO WORK ANY OVERTIME.
This morning I have been in contact with John Woods at ACAS. He has advised me that ACAS are writing to all the unions today involved in the current disputes at LUL (that are at ACAS level) and inviting us to talks about process (talks about talks) as a first step, starting tomorrow at 10.00.
I have accepted this invitation and confirmed that we will attend. This is a multi layered situation with both disputes connected, especially on station staff rosters.
SUPPORT THE OVERTIME BAN
The RMT has instructed all of it’s members not to do overtime during this dispute.
The ballot for action short of a strike, which is exactly what this is, came back unanimous. If LU don’t have enough members of staff to open a station safely, then the station must close. Perhaps they should employ enough staff so this doesn’t happen!
One day after our recent strike action, two stations couldn’t open up in the morning because of staff shortage!
The @RMTLondon Twitter account received messages of support throughout the strike this week, and hundreds of new followers taking us beyond five thousand.
Tube workers were striking in several different disputes. These were the Pay & Night Tube dispute which saw all tube workers taking action, Station staff striking in a dispute over planned cuts and Fleet workers walked out over the use of agency trainers.
Messages of support came from other unions and workers who are fighting back:
Night Tube was first announced in October 2013 at the same time as London Underground bosses and Tory mayor Boris Johnson announced plans for massive cuts to the tube and the closure of every ticket office.
The RMT has held the position since day one that we are willing to discuss any increase in Tube services. In this official union decision in November 2013 we made our position clear:
RMT Willing To Discuss Any Extension To Tube Services Including All Night Running
In September 2014, the date that London Underground plan to launch Night Tube was announced, but still bosses hadn't agreed with the workers via their unions how it would be staffed.
You can download the leaflet at the end of this article
Our action is in response to the impact of a £4.2bn cuts programme imposed by the Government and Mayor of London. All four Unions are united with members voting overwhelmingly for strike action, with 90% plus yes votes and turnouts of over 50% (markedly better than the Tory Governments 24% share of the eligible voters in the General Election).