26th March 2024

Dear RMT Member,

DEFENDING JOBS, PENSIONS & AGREEMENTS – LONDON UNDERGROUND

All London Underground members are commended for maintaining a strong and positive mandate for industrial action throughout this long-running dispute. The anti-trade union laws mean each ballot mandate only lasts for 6 months so another ballot is now due to keep our action live. Your ballot paper will be posted on Thursday 28th March so please look out for it arriving in the post next week. The ballot closes on Thursday 25th April.

Our demands in this dispute remain consistent and LUL could resolve it by giving us three simple assurances:

1. No changes to the current pension arrangements

2. No reduction in the existing headcount of employees

3. No changes to existing terms and conditions

However, instead of providing the above, TfL has agreed with the government to start a formal consultation in July this year to transfer your pension into the inferior Local Government Pension Scheme. This is despite the last funding report in 2023 confirming that the current TfL final salary pension schemes continue to remain in excellent shape with a surplus in funds. 

Our previous action protected Station Grades jobs but Fleet Grades are next in line. Fleet Depots are currently only staffed at an average of 80% and management will seek to leave these vacancies unfilled to save money. There are proposals in the pipeline to abolish entire Fleet grades and force this work onto members in other roles.

Train Operators are threatened with changes to their working practices through ‘modernisation’ involving new technology and working longer hours by ripping up our framework agreement. 

Further cuts to all of our hard-won agreements, which apply to all grades, such as the attendance at work policy remain on the company’s cost cutting agenda as management seek to make flexibility saving across the whole of London Underground.

We must continue in our fight to guarantee job security, to fight detrimental changes to our agreements, and to demand that no changes are made to our pensions. A strong ballot result is vital to ensure that your negotiating team is in the best possible position to guarantee that our demands are met.

You may receive a text message from one of your RMT Reps reminding you to vote. Please respond to the text and they will not need to remind you again.

If you do not receive your voting paper by Monday 8th April or know of a colleague who has not received it, please call the freephone helpline on 0800 376 3706, RMT Head Office on 0207 387 4771 or e-mail ballot@rmt.org.uk to request a replacement.

PLEASE LOOK OUT FOR YOUR BALLOT PAPER

MAKE SURE YOU USE YOUR VOTE!

Yours sincerely

Michael Lynch

General Secretary