by Vaughan Thomas, RMT representative, London Underground Trains Council

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

I don’t imagine Mark Twain was working for London Underground when he wrote those words, but as someone who does I share his frustration. LUL and its parent company, Transport for London, are going through the biggest financial crisis in living memory. The Mayor is siphoning off huge sums from LUL to pay debts and to fund Crossrail; upgrades are being postponed or cancelled; vacant positions are remaining unfilled; employees are being forced to do extra work; and they don’t want to pay us a decent wage rise for another 3 years - minimum.

As employees we didn’t cause this crisis, in fact we achieved record levels of performance, but we are being expected to pay for it. Every decision that is being made by LUL is as a direct result of the global financial crisis and adversely affects staff. But there are trade unionists within our grade who say that Train Operators won’t be affected by what’s happening - that as drivers we’re indispensable and we’ll always be taken care of. Well, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee – it’s already affecting us:

The “2009 Agreement” (read it here) is the name given to a recent raft of changes made to the TTAA (the main train staff transfer agreement.) This agreement changes the method of promotion from stations to trains and also the method of reducing the size of depot establishments. But, crucially, it will also reduce the number of rostered spare turns in most depots and the number of pool operators in all depots – in some cases by 50%. Management claim that as sickness levels are falling, fewer pool and cover operators are needed – but this is a lie: they just want to make us work harder and longer to cut costs.

Every depot will be affected by this agreement and senior managers are claiming that they have no choice but to reduce to minimum numbers in line with the 2009 Agreement, but this is a damned lie. The minimum figure was agreed to prevent reducing drivers below that number and minutes show that management stated it wasn’t their intention to go to minimum numbers. The RMT reps on the Council were not convinced that such assurances were enough to safeguard drivers’ conditions and none of them voted for it, but 5 out of 6 Aslef reps were convinced enough to vote for it. The words turkeys, voting and Christmas come to mind.

Cuts to station staff will also have an immediate effect on drivers. There are currently 170 station vacancies which haven’t been filled and which LUL have no intention of filling because they say they aren’t required – this is playing with statistics. There are plans to leave outlying stations unstaffed thus leaving passengers and drivers alike without assistance in an emergency. If we have a one-under or someone pushes the emergency plunger there will be no Supervisor to assist. Older drivers may remember the “OPO Agreement” (when guards were removed) that guaranteed all stations would be staffed during traffic hours: well, LUL have already written to us seeking to “renegotiate” that agreement. This union will resist any attempt to do so, but will we get support from Aslef? Or will they falsely claim again that station staffing levels are nothing to do with drivers?

It is often stated that the RMT is an all grades union; this isn’t just a slogan. An agreement made for one grade within a company often impacts on everyone else. Changes to station staff numbers will adversely affect drivers’ safety. Changes to the TTAA will adversely affect the way CSAs are promoted. The introduction of “Despatch Supervisors” at Edgware Road will adversely affect DMTs. The RMT is the biggest union on the Underground and the only union that effectively fights to safeguard wages, conditions and jobs for all workers. Whatever grade you are, wherever you work – you need to sign up now and join the fight.