London Underground Ltd

Click on the attachment below to download April's Monthly News.

In this edition:

PICCADILLY BOSSES TRIAL ‘OPEN DOORS’ POLICY! - How did a set of doors open on their own on a moving train? Why did management fail to alert drivers to the incident, leaving our Safety reps to do the job for them?

COMPANY OFFERS PAY CUT - We are the 'Metro of the Year', yet the company offers us a deal which will cut our pay in real terms.

EARL’S COURT DERAILMENT REPORT SHOWS SAFETY FAILURES.

In line with RMT policy, a pay claim for an increase in pay and improved terms and conditions was submitted to London Underground on behalf of you and your colleagues.

The offer has been considered by your union’s Executive Committee and has been rejected.

Tube union RMT today called for direct talks between the Mayor, unions and passenger groups, and demanded an immediate halt to tube jobs and maintenance cuts, after what the union described as “24 hours of tube hell.”

On Tuesday night the Jubilee Line was plunged into chaos through a combination of a power shutdown and faulty rolling stock and operating systems leaving over 1700 passengers to be detrained and walked through sweltering tube tunnels with the assistance of station staff. By Wednesday morning, the Jubilee Line was still in total disarray.

RMT GGC decision:

That we note that London Underground has made a five-year pay offer, with this year's 'rise' being just 4%. With February's RPI being 5.5%, this is a real-terms pay cut of 1.5%. Further, LU has dismissed most of our claims for improved conditions, and on the two its offer has mentioned, makes no firms commitments.

The following emergency resolution to the April meeting of the Regional Council was passed unanimously:

This Region is appalled by London Underground's below-inflation, five-year pay 'offer', with no commitment to improving conditions. Our union must reject this insult, and fight as effectively as possible for a much better, preferably one-year offer.

London Underground today told the unions its pay offer. It is a five-year offer, of a 4% pay rise this year and a rise of RPI+0.25% in the four following years.

London Underground pay settlements are based on the February RPI figure. In February, RPI was 5.5%.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow has described the offer as "disappointing", and confirmed that the union's executive will be discussing it soon. I represent you on RMT's executive, so please let me know your views by emailing j.booth@rmt.org.uk.

FROM RMT PRESS OFFICE

On the day that Boris Johnson announced that he is going to sort the tube out for the Olympics the Mayor has been hit by a massive embarrassment as the entire service on the busy District Line stretch from Earls Court down to Wimbledon is closed this afternoon in advance of rush hour.

TFL are blaming emergency engineering works. An earlier stalled train at Putney Bridge took 80 minutes to de-train due to a shortage of staff.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

That we note the report from our Regional Organiser. We oppose TfL’s attempt to streamline its OCP policy in order to make it easier to make redundancies due to funding cuts.

We note that all unions have agreed to reject management’s proposal to deal with this at a joint meeting at Company Council level, and instruct the General Secretary to write to TfL/LUL accordingly; the reply to be placed in front of us.

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

That we note the correspondence from London Underground announcing that it is withdrawing uniform cleaning vouchers. We strongly object to the fact that once again, this employer has declared a change in policy without adequate advance consultation with us. We agree with our Regional Organiser’s view that LUL should table this issue for discussion at the Company Council, as it affects staff in all uniformed grades. We instruct the General Secretary to write to London Underground accordingly, requesting that uniform cleaning vouchers continue to be issued to staff until adequate consultation has taken place. Should LU not agree to discuss the matter at Company Council, we agree to refer this matter to ACAS.

We instruct the General Secretary to obtain a detailed report on the impact of this change on our members, assessing whether the £100 tax allowance really does adequately compensate our members for the withdrawal of the vouchers as the company claims or whether it in practice leaves our members worse off financially. This report to be completed and placed back in front of us within 14 days.

That we note the unjust conviction of our London Transport Regional Organiser. This conviction is a clear miscarriage of justice and an attack on our union; by London Underground's own admission, it resulted from an incident that took place while Brother Hedley was carrying out his union activities.

We further note that London Underground has seized on this situation to ban our Regional Organiser from its premises and even to demand that this union allocate duties to our Regional Organiser which prevent him having any contact with any LU employees, which includes thousands of our members.