Every Job Matters - Vote Yes For Industrial Action

In every area, the company is either cutting jobs or preparing to cut jobs. It is deliberately under-staffing our workplaces, attacking our conditions and ‘reinterpreting’ our agreements. It wants to replace skilled workers with unreliable automation.

This is not aimed at improving our Tube but at saving millions of pounds following the government’s 12.5% cut to Transport for London’s funding.

London Underground Ltd plans

  • to close every ticket office
  • to get rid of nearly a thousand stations jobs (net job loss of around 750)
  • that stations will be staffed when trains are running, which suggests that they may not have Supervisors present and may no longer be staffed when trains are not running at night
  • a thoroughgoing restructuring of station staffing, with all job roles changing and staff being re-evaluated for their own jobs
  • cuts in train and infrastructure maintenance
  • driverless trains
  • job cuts in service control

RMT has called on London Underground Ltd and the Mayor to abandon these reckless plans. We will be working with other trade unions and the wider community to oppose these staffing cuts.

RMT has made its opposition to staffing cuts clear to London Underground Ltd over a long period, but the company’s well-paid Directors have not listened to us so far. With LUL starting a 90-day consultation period on 21 November, it could impose these cuts as early as February. So we need to take industrial action in an effort to make the company see sense. RMT’s Executive has agreed to pursue a high-profile campaign and to ballot all our London Underground members for strikes and action short of strikes.

Even if it is not your job, or your grade, that is being cut right now, you will still be affected, by:
- increased workload and responsibility on those who remain
- loss of support available in doing your job
- more dissatisfied passengers, meaning more complaints, abuse and assaults
- less opportunity for transfer, promotion, career change or redeployment
- less money going into the pension fund

If management succeed in their current round of job cuts, then it could be your job next.

VOTE YES FOR ACTION
RMT strongly urges you to vote YES to strike action and YES to action short of strikes. A ballot paper will be sent to you home address.

Keep up to date:
Web: www.rmt.org.uk; www.rmtlondoncalling.org.uk/every-job-matters

JOIN RMT: Speak to your RMT rep – phone 0800-376-3706 – www.rmtlondoncalling.org.uk/signup

WHY STATION STAFF SHOULD VOTE YES FOR ACTION

In 2011, the Operations Strategic Plan (OSP) stripped station staffing to the bone. Stations are barely coping as it is. Now management plan to cut nearly 1,000 of our jobs, close all our ticket offices, and completely reorganise our way of working.

Our stations will not cope with this. Every remaining member of station staff will be over-stretched, vulnerable to abuse and assault, fearful for our safety and our jobs. Our jobs will be devalued and our promotion chances will be gone. The company even intents to make us, in effect, reapply for our own jobs.

We can defeat this attack. If we act quickly and decisively, and with the support of our workmates across the stations and in other grades, we can put enough pressure on management to make them rethink.

THE PUBLIC SUPPORTS US
In a recent survey:
71% oppose ticket office closures
81% said that loss of staff at stations would make travel difficult
71% said they need assistance from staff at stations and on trains
54% said they need help buying tickets
45% said they need help with accessing ticket gates and platforms
34% said staff and ticket office cuts would deter them from making some journeys or make train travel difficult


WHY DRIVERS SHOULD VOTE YES FOR ACTION

Derail LUL’s plans for driverless trains

  • RMT wrote to LUL demanding assurance that all future train stock will have a driver’s cab – LUL’s response refused to give this assurance.
  • LUL wrote that ‘Any new train is likely to be operable in a number of modes’ and that it could not rule out any option.
  • The company admitted that it is ‘currently starting to plan the next generation of rolling stock’ – driverless trains are not a distant plan, but a process that is starting now.
  • A trial has recently started on the Central line of automatic obstruction detection equipment. This is a preparatory step towards driverless trains.
  • Train-building company Siemens is running an exhibition in Docklands showing a model of a driverless train.
  • We can not wait until these trains are designed and ordered before we challenge this. We need to stop the preparations for driverless trains and resist now.

Station staff cuts impact on drivers

  • LUL is introducing mobile supervision on some stations, and it intends to further cut station staffing.
  • LUL says that stations will be staffed while trains are running, but NOT that these staff will be Station Supervisors.
  • What if you have an incident at a station with no supervisor on duty (because s/he is at another station) or maybe no staff at all? A one-under, or door problem, or aggression or assault from a passenger? You will be on your own.

WHY ENGINEERING WORKERS SHOULD VOTE YES FOR ACTION

London Underground Ltd is stepping up its project to casualise the workforce and attack our terms and conditions. The company’s aim is to remove obstacles to cutting jobs, and to drive down the conditions of those who remain. Even if there is no immediate threat to scrap your particular job, this process is going on all around us, so this is a fight for us as well as for other grades.

LUL is:

  • reinterpreting agreements at will; removing rules and procedures; and slowly dismantling our conditions
  • using nearly 1,000 agency staff instead of directly-employed, permanent workers
  • reducing the frequency of track inspections and of ultrasonic testing
  • Meanwhile, our workmates at Tube Lines – and those recently transferred from Tube Lines – are still denied equal rights and benefits.

London Underground now plans to slash nearly 1,000 stations jobs, to not have Station Supervisors on duty at every station, and to leave some stations unstaffed at night. Station staff – especially Station Supervisors – are responsible for:

  • booking you on and off when you work on a station – without their presence, you could be left waiting around for someone to come from another station further down the line.
  • your safety while you are working – without them, who will raise the alarm in the event of a fire or incident?!
  • ensuring you have access to facilities and any information, access etc that you may need – if station supervisors are taken away, or replaced by private security guards, we will soon miss them!

WHY SERVICE CONTROL STAFF SHOULD VOTE YES FOR ACTION

“Axing staff and ticket offices is part of the drive to a faceless, automated Tube where you take your chances the moment you step onto a station, a platform or a train. RMT will work with sister unions and the public to fight these plans, using every campaigning, political and industrial tool at our disposal.” Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary

Our own jobs are under threat

  • When Hammersmith Control Centre opens and cabins close, London Underground wants to shed 150+ jobs. RMT has alternative plan which does not reduce the number of jobs.
  • With Cobourg Street due to close, twenty 20x SO4s have still not been found a post.
  • Management’s long-term strategy is to replace us with technology – to use modern signalling systems not to make our job easier and safer, but as an excuse to get rid of us.

Removing station staff makes our job harder

  • We need station staff, including Station Supervisors, on site to help deal with incidents.
  • If there is a one-under, a SPAD, a door fault or any other incident, and there is no Supervisor on the station, all the responsibility will fall on you. This will make it much more difficult to deal with the incident, and make you much more likely to be in trouble if things go wrong.
  • If you can no longer do your job in service control, you will not be able to get redeployed to stations if there are no stations jobs left!

WHY FLEET WORKERS SHOULD VOTE YES FOR ACTION

London Underground Ltd is attacking the jobs and working conditions of fleet maintenance staff.

The company plans to:

  • reduce maintenance frequencies
  • cut jobs
  • replace skilled staff with unreliable automated processes

These plans include Auto Train Preparation, Maintenance Optimisation Plans (increasing maintenance times), ATC, Maintenance Capability Plan 9 (reduction of staff at Hammersmith depot and on the Central line), and setting up incident response teams, taking call point staff out of Fleet depots. This is a clear attack on the Fleet Core Work Agreement.

RMT is already balloting fleet members about these issues. Fleet is also part of RMT’s company-wide dispute in defence of jobs. Even if there is no immediate threat to scrap your particular job, this process is going on all around us, so this is a fight for us and for all other grades. We are all in this together!

WHY REVENUE CONTROL STAFF SHOULD VOTE YES FOR ACTION

Revenue control staff will be directly affected by London Underground Ltd’s ‘Stations Operating Model’:

Absence of Station Supervisors

  • Mobile station supervision will mean the chances of having assistance at stations will be seriously reduced.
  • Mobile supervision will also mean the chance of having a place of safety available will be reduced.
  • Mobile supervision and unstaffed stations lead to an increase of harmful anti-social behaviour and ‘no-go areas’.
  • The absence of permanent, round-the-clock station supervision will seriously impact the constant reporting of revenue issues that our job relies on.
  • RCIs would be expected to assist in incidents at stations without no supervisor or access to any equipment.

Loss of ticket offices

  • Less opportunity to pay in the money you collect from passengers at ticket offices, leaving you carrying money around more of the time.
  • Customer disputes and therefore assaults will rise go up because of lack of ticket issuing facilities.
  • Lack of staffed ticket offices will lead to a large rise in members of the public travelling with unresolved journeys and other Oyster issues, causing potential conflict.

    Your job security under attack

    • Loss of supervisory and duty manager grades will close the natural promotion routes for RCIs.
    • The current recruitment freeze and lack of a commitment on filling vacancies shows that management has no long-term commitment to revenue control. The department is under threat.

    WHY DUTY MANAGERS AND ADMIN STAFF SHOULD VOTE YES FOR ACTION

    LUL’s ‘Stations Operating Model’ includes nearly 1,000 stations job cuts, and a complete change in every grade on stations.

    For Duty Managers, this will mean:

    • the end of our grades
    • competing with graduates for any future roles
    • effective demotion if you get into the new Supervisor grade (even if it does have manager in the title)

    For admin staff, this will mean:

    • yet more pressure to ensure coverage at stations with hardly any staff available to cover the duties
    • more responsibility and workload with fewer resources
    • the staff we work with becoming demoralised and overworked

    Remember: You were promised Grade Progression, but hardly anybody progressed! Now your wages (and your pension) are under threat too.

    Now we know why Mike Brown did not promise Duty Managers job security at ‘Fit for London’. Your reward for the Olympics, your job and benefits will go!

    In the past, London Underground Ltd has looked to our grades to undermine trade union resistance to their job-cutting plans by working during strikes. This time, we must not do this. The whole future of the job is at stake – take sides with the Underground’s workforce, not with its overpaid Directors.