Leaflet for Drivers - Pay Talks Bulletin / Vote Yes

This leaflet urges London Underground train drivers to vote Yes for industrial action over pay, job cuts and management bullying of staff. Click '1 attachment' / file name to download it. Read the text below.

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Train Ops Bulletin - Pay Talks - RMT to ballot all grades in LUL, TfL and Metronet

Following widespread outrage at the derisive pay “increase” offered by LUL, and an escalating tendency to breach their own agreements, the RMT moved swiftly to put on a ballot for industrial action – the papers will be arriving on March 24th. Management offered a 5 year pay deal of 1% above the RPI for this year and just RPI for the following 4 years. As we all know, the RPI does not give a true reflection of the actual price rises experienced by people who live and work in London and the South East. This pay offer represents an actual cut in your standard of living year-on-year until 2014. We didn’t cause this economic crisis – we shouldn’t be made to pay for it.

We are all aware of the way some managers are abusing the attendance and disciplinary procedures in order to sack staff without due process. One T/Op was dismissed for attendance at a case conference; another for failing to properly report an accident on duty; yet another for an alleged wrong side door opening when the doors weren’t even open! This is completely unacceptable and needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency which is why your Union is asking you to vote “YES” in the upcoming ballot.

What’s more, LUL are intent on tearing up the agreement signed with this Union on redeployment, which states: "It is the policy of LUL, the Infracos and their subsidiaries to work with the trades unions to avoid compulsory redundancies and provide job security (including one job offer to any member of staff who becomes surplus and is displaced). ... This agreement applies to all staff employed by LUL…”

At the moment Train Operators are not facing job cuts, in fact with the upgrades our numbers will first of all increase. But this won’t carry on forever; with the current economic climate there are no guarantees that they won’t come for us. If LUL get away with imposing compulsory redundancies on “non-operational” grades they could equally well do the same to T/Ops after the upgrades and the Olympics are over. It is not insignificant that the pay offer takes us beyond the Olympics! We have to stop them now!

The ballot is based on 3 items – wages, abuses of procedure and job security. It is absolutely crucial that you protect yourselves and your families by voting in favour of both strike action and action short of strike. Remember that the only reason we enjoy our current wages and conditions is because we fought for them in the past. It is now time to fight to protect them for the future.

VOTE YES FOR STRIKE ACTION!

RMT Train Ops Pay Campaign Coordinators
BCV Bill O’Dowd – 07739 834688 Vaughan Thomas – 07720 297657 Jim McDaid - 07834 117378
JNP Dean O’Hanlon – 07956 342235 Gary Houghton – 07834 448956
SSR Gwyn Pugh – 07894 604176 Dave Rayfield - 07753 878933