I am pleased to announce that all RMT members facing compulsory redundancy have now been given or will be offered jobs. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone of you who showed steadfast support for your colleagues who were at risk of being made unemployed. In particular I would like to thank all reps activists and those who manned the picket lines that made our forty eight hour dispute a huge success. Members of other unions are still at risk and we are sorry about this but it would be unreasonable to ask you to sacrifice more money for them when their own unions have not even balloted on their behalf.

Management have guaranteed that the no compulsory redundancy deal is being honoured for all operational staff and managers. We have also achieved further talks on pay at ACAS with all the unions being present. The other unions have all rejected the pay deal but as yet none of them have balloted on it. One senior rep of another union even boasted that his union would wait until the RMT punched themselves out, recruit our members and then declare a dispute because our members would not cross their picket line. We must not fall into that trap. Now that we have secured our members' jobs we can pressure the other unions into acting with us just as we did on the mainline to win better pay rises. If they are not prepared to fight with us, they will have to show their true colours to their members and to us and we - in a worst case scenario - may have to once again after full consultation with you our members go it alone. This will be your decision.

A brief summary of what we have achieved already:

1. We’ve smashed the proposed five-year pay deal. The offer is now two years. On TfL where the RMT is a minority union, there is still a 4-year pay deal on the table.

2. We’ve achieved a small increase in pay from 1 percent to 1.5 percent in the first year of our pay deal.

3. The RMT has secured jobs or job offers for all RMT members facing compulsory redundancy.

4. Your Union has secured improvements to the attendance procedures - for example, the definition of a 26 weeks maximum warning in future will mean exactly that; and there are other concessions that the joint working party will report on fully.

5. More talks on pay and talks on a job offer for anyone who is redeployed for reasons of ill health are to take place.

Thank you again for your support so far and your continued support in the future.

Steve Hedley Regional Organiser