RMT writes to Mayor about ‘incorrect and incendiary statements’ on Night Tube dispute.

TUBE UNION RMT has written to Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, today to express the union’s deep disappointment at ‘incorrect statements’ he made on Twitter this morning that are a total misrepresentation of the facts around the Night Tube dispute. ‎The union has warned that deliberately distorting the truth has an incendiary effect when the Mayor should be putting pressure on tube bosses to get back round the table with RMT officials for serious talks.

In his tweet on Friday morning the Mayor said that RMT had ‘refused to attend talks yesterday with TfL to try to come to a resolution’. In his letter to the Mayor, RMT general Secretary Mick Lynch pointed to an email sent to London Underground managers on Wednesday afternoon in which the union expressly offers to meet at ACAS. The union received no reply to this letter.

In his letter, My Lynch says

“You should know that our reps and members have seen the email in which RMT offers to meet at ACAS and are justifiably furious at the complete misrepresentation of our position in the public domain. It is having an incendiary effect. It’s hard for us to understand why you’ve done this and all I can think is that you have been fed an inaccurate line by hawks within TfL.”

I ask that you take steps now to resolve this dispute. I repeat our offer to meet at ACAS or with yourself before this situation degenerates further.”

The letter

26 November 2021

Dear Sadiq,

Incorrect public statements concerning today’s strike action

I’m writing to express my deep disappointment that you’ve made incorrect statements in the public domain concerning RMT’s position in the dispute over the Night Tube. In your tweet at 11.13 this morning, you say that we “refused to attend talks yesterday with TfL to try to come to a resolution”. This is not true. 

Our Lead Organiser for TfL wrote an email to London Underground senior managers, including Nick Dent at just after 4.30pm on Wednesday 24th November which ended with the words ‘We are happy to attend ACAS to resolve the dispute. And are available to do so’. We never received a reply to this email. 

You should know that our reps and members have seen the email in which RMT offers to meet at ACAS and are justifiably furious at the complete misrepresentation of our position in the public domain. It is having an incendiary effect. It’s hard for us to understand why you’ve done this and all I can think is that you have been fed an inaccurate line by hawks within TfL. 

I ask that you take steps now to resolve this dispute. I repeat our offer to meet at ACAS or with yourself before this situation degenerates further. 

Yours sincerely

Michael Lynch

RMT General Secretary