London Underground Job Cuts Dispute 2010-11

From RMT General Secretary Bob Crow:

I write to advise members of the latest situation in our dispute with London Underground over their planned job cuts. Many of you may have today seen the totally false reports made by the BBC that RMT had decided not to call strike action in January. Please be assured that this statement is totally false and your Executive continues to deliberate on the way forward. Nothing has been ruled in or ruled out at this stage.

The General Grades Committee has today met to discuss the dispute and the following decision has been taken: -

This morning, the BBC has reported that RMT will not hold strikes against London Underground job cuts during the month of January, and attributes this to a "highly-placed RMT source". This report is wrong. [The BBC has changed its report since it originally publish it, but it is still inaccurate, although less so than previously.]

Tube chiefs given green light to blow cuts cash on lunches, flowers, hotels and management consultants as stations are left unstaffed during security alert

TUBE UNION RMT today slammed underground bosses as it emerged cash that has been saved through £12 million of recent cuts is to be spent on hotels, drinks, flowers, lunches and management consultants.

RMT has achieved significant press coverage of London Underground's plans to leave nearly one-third of stations unstaffed for part of the day. After RMT issued this press release, several newspapers reported on the issue, and items were broadcast on TV and radio news bulletins. Here are some web links to media coverage:

• London Tube documents 'show station staffing cuts' - BBC London News, 6 January

RMT's General Grades Committee today took a detailed decision about our continuing fight against London Underground job cuts. The full decision is below. In summary:

• We oppose LU plans for two trials of new ticketing procedures.
• We are exposing the extent to which LU's planned staffing cuts will leave stations completely unstaffed for periods during the day.
• We will call a 48-hour strike, with dispute payments to strikers; this will take place later in January, with dates named after consultation with TSSA.
• We will ensure that there is plenty of communication with members about the talks and about the action, and efforts to win public support and promote our case.

TUBE UNION RMT today demanded an immediate halt to the London Underground cuts programme as new documents released the union show that 30.5% of stations have been scheduled to be unstaffed during operational hours – a direct contradiction of the speech given by Mayor Boris Johnson at the Tory Party conference in October last year where he said that staffing cuts would leave “no station unstaffed at any time.”

From Steve Hedley, RMT Regional Organiser ...

London Underground's Director of Employee Relations has sent out a circular stating that job cuts will be implemented on 6 February and giving the impression that RMT has agreed to this. I would like to clarify that your union has most definitely NOT agreed to this. We are NOT accepting job cuts, because we know the devastating effect the de-staffing of stations will have on our members in all grades and on the travelling public, and because we know that if we back down on this wave of job cuts there will be more to follow.

As a public body, London Underground has to carry out an assessment of the impact of any new policy on various equality issues. The attached file is LU's Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) for its current OSP (policy of cutting 800 mainly-stations jobs). Below is the response to this document that I have written on behalf of RMT. You will see from this that LU's EQIA falls woefully short, and ignores key equality issues.

RMT's General Grades Committee has today taken the following decision:

That we note the views of our representatives freely expressed at the meeting on 20th December in the Indian YMCA Hall.

We further note the report from our Regional Organiser.

The General Secretary is instructed to liaise with our sister union and make clear to our members and LU Management that unless real progress is achieved on this issue we may name further days of industrial action in support of a safe working system and in defence of jobs.

The General Secretary is further instructed to continue our campaign in the media and by other means to highlight the increasing risks to safety created by understaffing and at time non-staffing on stations and other jobs on the system.

Earlier this week, RMT's Council of Executives agreed to make dispute payments to members in the event of further strike action in the LU Job Cuts dispute.

Following the meeting of reps and activists that took place on Monday 20th December planning meetings have taken place over the proposed review bodies. These reviews are now due to commence their work from 4th January 2011.

Click 'Read more' to see the full circular from General Secretary Bob Crow

Click here to read the RMT Executive's current position on futher industrial action.