The RMT and TSSA have an ongoing overtime ban in place with London Underground station staff. Since the overtime ban began several Stations have been closed due to lack of staff, and in some cases left unstaffed or 'baby sat' by station assistants.
Read more of this article to see the list of closed stations.
Present: Vaughan Thomas, Adrian Finney, Paul Jackson, John Kelly, Clare Reilly, Gary Lazell, Carol Foster, Bjorn Bradshaw-Murray, Janine Booth, James Wong McSweeney, Lewis Peacock, Glenroy Watson In attendance: Phil Boston (Organising Unit), Olly New (Council of Executives member), Steve Hedley (Regional Organiser) Apologies for absence: Andy Littlechild, Adrian Rowe, Dean O'Hanlon
1. RECRUITMENT AND ORGANISING
RMT's overtime ban is affecting the District Line fleet. No shunter on days at Ealing Common depot means no trains available for changeovers and problems with some service trains and football trains tomorrow.
Click on the attachment to download the latest Monthly News, the newsletter of Finsbury Park branch.
In this edition:
SUPER STRIKE FLOORS LUL - a Monthly News round-up of how the strike hit home in the areas covered by our branch; WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON? - why there is no fence to sit on in this dispute; WORSE IS STILL TO COME - with the government expected to demand between 25 and 40% of cuts to the transport budget, the 800 threatened station jobs is merely the start of the jobs cull;
Management have requested a meeting next week at ACAS to discuss the proposed 800 job cuts on LUL. The RMT will of course be attending but we have made it very clear we will not be agreeing to any axing of jobs.
In the meantime please continue to build pickets for our next day of strike action which will be announced soon.
Yours sincerely
Steve Hedley Regional Organiser
Click '1 attachment' / file name to download the new issue of our 'RMT London Calling' newsletter. It features the Alstom pay dispute, the LU overtime ban, messages of support for our fight against job cuts, Royal Mail - not for sale, and more!
Vince Cable has announced that the ConDem government is to sell off the Post Office - despite the fact that Post Office workers, and the big majority of the public oppose this.
Janine Booth, RMT Regional Secretary, said: “When this disastrous policy was floated by the last government a couple of years ago, our Regional Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning it. We know from the experience of PPP, and from mainline rail privatisation, that selling off public services only benefits private-sector fat cats. Working conditions, job security and the service itself always suffer.
Arsenal, Liverpool Street, Lambeth North, Cannon Street, Charing Cross, Regent's Park ... These are all stations which have been forced to close because RMT and TSSA members are refusing to do overtime in protest at London Underground's proposed job cuts.
An RMT member in Service Control writes ...
Firstly, when station staff are taken away, their responsibilities have to go somewhere and a lot of them are being heaped onto controllers. We are being given increasing responsibility for operational procedures such as wrong direction movements (carried out over secure radio) and frankly I think we already carry a huge responsibility (and therefore concurrent potential for cock-up) and need more like we need holes in our heads.
An RMT member at Alstom writes ...
Alstom is a multinational engineering company that was invited to supply and then maintain trains on the London Underground Northern and Jubilee Lines under that last Tory government. They were the first private company in the underground and may be the last one. Conditions in Alstom have declined massively in the past year, with the employer using severe disciplinary methods against staff for increasingly minor offences.