Defending jobs

Rail union RMT confirmed today that London Overground guards, who have voted overwhelmingly for strike action and action short of a strike in a ballot following the announcement by Transport for London (TfL) of their plans to introduce Driver Only Operation (DOO) on the whole of the London Overground network, will take action for 48 hours over the coming Bank Holiday weekend.

The grades balloted have been instructed NOT to book on for any shifts that commence between:

00:01 hours on Sunday 25th August 2013 and 23:59 hours on Monday 26th August 2013.

Prior to the young members organised fundraiser social for the Brian Munro Cancer Fighting Fund on the 12th of August 2013 RMT young members went down to Dover Rail station to leaflet the public about Action for Rail: http://actionforrail.org/our-alternative/

Campaigning for-
-Lower fares
-Public ownership of the railways
-Ending the expensive leasing of trains

It was kick started by executive member Mike Sargent the video of his address to RMT young members can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQDMmFIZDDc

On the day that secret plans for the alleged axing of thousands of crucial tube jobs was leaked by the TSSA union, RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: “RMT has warned that the Government cuts of 12.5% to TFL budgets would result in thousands of job losses and now the numbers are being confirmed we are prepared to ballot across the Capital for strike action in defence of jobs and services.

Rail union RMT today served notice of a strike ballot following the announcement by Transport for London (TfL) of their plans to introduce Driver Only Operation (DOO) on the whole of the London Overground network with the axing of 130 safety-critical guards posts. Ballot papers will be despatched to affected members on 31st July 2013 and the ballot will close on 15th August 2013.

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd dated 17 July 2013. We welcome the assurances given, which are clearer than those given previously. We seek a report from the lead officer before responding to the employer’s question about our ongoing dispute on this matter, and instruct the General Secretary to place this in front of us.

London Transport Regional Council and branches to be advised.

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd and the report from our Regional Organiser. We are totally opposed to LUL’s stated intention to reduce night station supervisor cover, and introduce mobile or remote supervision of stations.

We share our RO’s belief that this is an all-out attempt to de-staff and weaken our agreements for all LUL station grades, which we must resist.

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd and the report from our Regional Organiser. We are totally opposed to LUL’s stated intention to reduce night station supervisor cover, and introduce mobile or remote supervision of stations. We share our RO’s belief that this is an all-out attempt to de-staff and weaken our agreements for all LUL station grades, which we must resist.

From RMT General Secretary Bob Crow

The General Grades Committee has considered this matter and has taken the following decision:

That further to our previous decision GWW 09th july we note the report from our regional officer and the material from London Overground Rail Operations Ltd. We are appalled that this company is proceeding with scrapping Conductor Guards and contrary to the managements own briefings to employees, led by the Managing Director and Human Resources Director, intends to begin dismissals in October 2013 and complete them in February 2014 which is earlier than the dates quoted in their briefings.