All Grades to Defeat Stations Job Cuts

Will all grades come together to fight job cuts on stations? It should not be seen as ‘will drivers support the station staff?’ but ‘will we support each other’? That’s the true meaning of solidarity: our own interests are best protected when we stand together. In order to achieve this a 'General Strike' of all grades should be put to the membership across the combine under a single heading of ‘job losses (particularly in operational grades) equals an unsafe tube’.

Stop the Cuts - It's Time to Fight or Die

The cat is out of the bag. LUL have told the unions bluntly that they intend to slash as many as 800 operational jobs across the combine. Recent leaked documents have shown that these cuts are merely the tip of an iceberg which includes sub-surface stations having no more than minimum staff numbers, even during special events, and open section stations having no staff at all. This is a Company Plan with knobs on.

Finsbury Park Branch Monthly News - March 2010

Read the March 2010 edition of Finsbury Park Monthly News by clicking on the attachment below.

In this edition:

1. Stop the cuts - it's time to fight or die. Editorial explains the truth behind LUL's latest jobs massacre and what we have to do to stop them.

2. All grades to defeat Stations job cuts. A plea to members of all grades to come together and fight for our futures.

Training workshop: Refusal to work on the grounds of safety

Venue: ex-Services Club, Harvey Road, Leytonstone

All workers have the legal right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions. By using this right, we can protect ourselves and force employers to provide a safer workplace for us, our workmates and our passengers. With employers under increasing pressure to cut corners in order to save money, this issue is more important than ever.

The workshop will ensure that you understand your legal rights and how to use them.

This training workshop will look at:

  • what the law says
  • unsafe situations that arise in rail and transport

'Time to train'

From 6 April, employees will have a new legal right: to request time off work to undertake study or training.

Known as 'time to train', this right applies to you if you work for an organisation with 250 or more employees, but not if you are an agency worker. You must have worked for your employer for at least 26 weeks before you apply.

From 6 April 2011 the right will apply to all employees working in organisations of all sizes, regardless of how many employees there are.

Management's Conspiracy Against Their Staff and Unions … in their own words

A Presentation document from LUL’s Performance Day earlier this year has been “uncovered” by RMT; detailing London Underground’s Maintenance Directorate Strategic Planning over the next few years.

*** Click '2 attachments' and the file names and you can download both management's document and these comments as a Word document.

Report: London Underground Company Council, 25 March 2010

London Underground held a special meeting of its Comapny Council yesterday to discuss management's job-cutting plans. Steve Hedley, Janine Booth and Roy Carey attended on behalf of RMT. Here is a report of the discussions ...

CONSULTATION WITH THE UNIONS

RMT complained that there had been no meaningful consultation with the unions so far. We could have no faith in the 'consultation' when managers are already talking to staff about the changes as though they are definitely going to happen. TSSA said that they did not accept the Terms of Reference set out by management. ASLEF agreed.

Minutes: Regional Council meeting, 25 March 2010

ATTENDANCE:

  • Bakerloo: Jim McDaid
  • Camden 3: Geoff Palmer, Mick Crossey, Becky Crocker
  • Central Line West: Stefan Melnyk, Vaughan Thomas (meeting chair)
  • DLR: Chris Ives
  • East Ham: James Wong-McSweeney, Gordon Craig, Malcolm Collier, Tony Rowntree
  • Finsbury Park: Dave Rayfield, Will Reid, John Kelly, Dean O'Hanlon, Frank Curtis, J Miller
  • Hammersmith & City: Mark Harding, Josie Toussaint-Pinnock
  • Jubilee South & East London line: Lynda Aitken, Jane Gwynn

Emergency resolution: anti-EDL demonstration, Bolton

The following resolution, submitted by Jubilee South & East London Line branch and seconded by Hammersmith & City branch, was carried unanimously by the March meeting of the Regional Council.

This region notes:

Thousands of UAF supporters gathered in Bolton to oppose the English Defence League on Saturday. The protest was strengthened by striking taxi workers protesting at the EDL coming to their city. It was a magnificent display of anti-fascism. We outnumbered the EDL by 4 to 1.