TUBE UNION RMT confirmed today that they are preparing for a ballot of members for strike action and action short of a strike after London Underground failed to withdraw the threat of axing 800 staff, closing ticket offices and undermining public and staff safety and following confirmation from Tube Lines that they are pressing ahead with job cuts.

RMT has also revealed today that as vacancies are left unfilled, and staff shortages hit home, the prime terrorist target of Heathrow Terminal Five on the Piccadilly Line was left unstaffed on the Friday 12th of March with the one member of crew due to be on duty pulled away to a briefing session with LU managers.

RMT is hosting a public meeting on the tube cuts tomorrow night – Weds 31st March – at 6pm at Friends Meeting House on Euston Road with Bob Crow and John McDonnell MP.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“We have already warned that the cuts that are being planned by TfL will turn tube stations into a muggers paradise and we now have concrete evidence that the company are speeding up the process and are already leaving stations unstaffed, or babysat with just one member of staff, without any consultation.

“That is a scandalous dereliction of duty and it is only a matter of time now before TfL and Boris Johnson have a tragedy on their hands as a result of their cavalier disregard for public safety. The Mayor gave assurances to the public on ticket offices and tube staffing in the run up to his election and it’s down to him to pull London Underground back from the brink.

“The Tube Lines cuts are bound up with the £1.7 billion funding row with the Mayor and TfL and our members jobs, and the essential works on Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee Lines, must not be written off as collateral damage in a political war over the failed tube privatisation experiment.

“RMT has made it clear right from the outset that we will not sit idly by while the Mayor, his transport officials and Tube Line’s drive down tube staffing levels to dangerously low levels. We gave LU and Tube Lines an opportunity to pull back from these cuts but they have decided to plough on leaving us with no option but to organise ballots.”

RMT is hosting a public meeting on the tube cuts on the 31st of March.