RMT Platform

Dear Colleagues,

The votes have been cast in favour of strike action and action short of strike. We have voted to take action and now is the time to act.
Do not book on for any duty beginning between:
21.00 hours  on Monday 6th September until 20.59 hours  on Tuesday 7th September.
Nor from 21.00 hours on Sunday 3rd October  until 20.59 hours  on Monday 4th October.

WHY WE ARE STRIKING: TO DEFEND SERVICES, SAFETY AND JOBS

London Underground plans to:

• get rid of around 800 station staff posts
• reduce ticket office opening times by around 7,500 hours
• carry out essential maintenance checks on trains every four weeks instead of every two weeks
• cut the number of train drivers’ posts

Tube trade unions RMT and TSSA have tried for months to persuade London Underground to scrap these unnecessary and dangerous cuts. We have spent hours in talks, have lobbied politicians, and have won lots of support from passengers. But London Underground and the Mayor have not listened.

London Underground has left members of the two unions with no choice but to hold strikes and other industrial action. We are prepared to lose money by striking because we are not prepared to see London’s workers and passengers put at risk, left without help, or have vital services withdrawn. We are professional railway staff and we want to be able to do our jobs safely and properly.

We believe that people who live in, visit and work in London need:

• a safe, secure London Underground
• open ticket offices
• more Tube staff, not fewer
• job opportunities for unemployed people and school-leavers

We understand that strikes can cause disruption and distress. We want the staff cuts withdrawn so that we do not have to carry on striking. Please support our campaign.

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Fewer station staff means:

• a less safe London Underground
• less information and help during delays and disruptions
• it will be harder to evacuate stations quickly and safely in the event of an emergency eg. fire, crash, bombing
• less help for disabled, elderly and other vulnerable passengers
• less chance of you getting the help you need with directions, information, lost property, accidents or other issues
• less deterrent to assault, vandalism and other harmful behaviour
• you will feel less secure travelling around London Underground

Shorter ticket office opening hours means you will not be able to get a ticket seller’s help when:

• you have a problem with your ticket or Oyster
• the ticket machines are not working (which will happen more often with fewer staff to service them)
• you need to buy a ticket that is not available elsewhere
• you believe that the ticketing system has treated you unfairly
• your ticket or Oyster does not work
• you want the ‘personal touch’ in dealing with your issue

Less frequent train maintenance and fewer drivers means:

• trains potentially going into passenger services with defective brakes and other parts
• serious risk of accidents, injuries and even deaths
• trains more likely to be cancelled and therefore more delays to your journey

Support our campaign against staffing cuts:

• Visit our website: www.rmtplatform.org.uk/sos
• Send us an email: supportus@rmtlondoncalling.org.uk
• Contact your member of the Greater London Assembly. Find out their names and contact details at www.london.gov.uk/who-runs-london/the-london-assembly/members. Write to them at City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2AA.
• Tell London Underground and TfL your views by writing to Customer Service Centre, London Underground, 55 Broadway, London SW1H 0BD, or online at www.tfl.gov.uk/helpandcontact
• Email Mayor Boris Johnson: mayor@london.gov.uk

The next Stations & Revenue Grades Committee Meeting meets at 3pm on Wednesday 1st of September 2010 @ the Exmouth Arms, nearest station Euston Square.

please email g.bowtell@gmail.com if you intend to attend.

We wish to submit a collective grievance against the proposed rosters as this appears to be our only avenue to raise objections against changes to our stations operation, staffing numbers, provision of customer service and service levels. Therefore, the proposed rosters submitted to our TU Representatives on the 05/08/10 are unacceptable for the reasons detailed below.

I have written this article for my local anti-cuts campaign newsletter in Hackney ...

We may not have London Underground here in Hackney (except at our very edges!), but the loss of 800 Tube staff posts would still affect us - in a very bad way. So, many Hackney residents and workers fully support Tube unions RMT and TSSA in their campaigning and industrial action against these cuts.

From Bakerloo branch RMT newsletter ...

Having seen the proposed new rosters at Marylebone, staff there are ready for strike action. The proposed roster will get rid of one member of gateline staff and one SAMF leaving just one person to staff the gateline during the morning peak.

Best of luck in your fight to save jobs and defend the health and safety of Tube users
Philip Lewis, Vice chair, Camden Unison

Travellers on London Underground certainly do not want job cuts, that would lead to reduced safety levels and reduced morale amongst staff. We respect the judgement of the workers delivering the services.
Janet Shapiro, Retired UCU

Just to say that there are Tube users who support you in your dispute.
Oisin Gilmore

Tube stations need staff at all times for passenger safety and help. Despite excellent tube maps the network can still be confusing to visitors and even to a native like me. (Never board a northbound Northen line train at Euston - the signage is impossible). At quiet times being alone is worrying; just seeing a staff member at the other end of the platform is a comfort.
Keep up the good work. Keep our train network safe and pleasant.
Rosalind Levy, GMB

Good luck with your strike, brave members of RMT! I hope your struggle inspires the whole movement so we can take the workers' fight from underground to the streets and all the way into the skies!
Gilaine Young, Branch Organiser, PCS NATS Heathrow

Solidarity brothers and sisters! It's only with a fight like yours that we can build working-class confidence, power and resistance to these ideological cuts! We've got a lot to do to get the public to not accept 'austerity' and to fight, and that means explaining how the impact on the Tube all the way through to social care workers' sick pay being axed have the same root. It requires unity and action - good luck!
Max Munday, Unite Shop Steward for Turning Point services in Yorkshire

SOME 10,000 members London Underground’s two biggest unions will begin a rolling series of strikes on September 6 against plans to axe 800 station and other staff and close ticket-offices, after RMT and TSSA members voted overwhelmingly for action to defend jobs and safety.

The LU 'employee communications' bulletin issued on Wednesday implies that if the job cuts go ahead, staff will be displaced only within their current group. Here, RMT clarifies this claim ...

LU says:

• Posts will be reduced by around 800 (including 150 managers, administrators and support managers)

• Will the Oyster survive?
• Will your Oyster problems be eternal?
• Will you have travelled from afar looking for a Ticket Office open?
• Will you then bother to search for another Ticket Office!!?
• Will you have Oyster problems that can’t be resolved, meaning that you may have to buy another Oyster Card or Ticket?
• Will you be able to pay with Cheques, Swipe Cards, Warrants, Vouchers (or get NR discount)?
• Will you feel that this is a ‘World Class Service for a World Class City’?
• Will you recommend us to others?
• Will you understand the best product for you to travel economically?
• Will you enjoy your conversation with the Ticket Machine?
• Will you know how to complain about the ‘World Class Service’?

Details are coming in of excatly what jobs LU management plan to cut from our stations. Click the following links to see the detail for these groups:

• Acton Town
• Bank
• Barkingside
• Blackhorse Road
• Camden Town
• Canary Wharf
• East Ham
• Edgware
• Finchley Central
• Goodge Street
• Greenford
• Harrow-on-the-Hill
• Heathrow
• London Bridge
• Liverpool Street
• Marylebone
• Paddington
• Rickmansworth
• Waterloo
• Wembley Park

RMT's Regional Organiser has sent the following letter to London Underground ...

RMT stations and revenue reps have brought to my attention a matter of great concern. At today’s Stations & Revenue Control Council meeting, management insisted that they would ‘work to’ (ie. impose) version 24 of the Stations Framework Agreement. However, this document is a still a draft, has outstanding areas of disagreement, and has been neither agreed by the Stations & Revenue Council nor ratified by the Company Council.

Our reps believe that in certain respects, it will significantly worsen the working conditions of staff, and are not prepared to agree it until these matters are addressed. While we have indicated that some parts of the document will be acceptable to us, others are not, and therefore the document as a whole is not acceptable, and - I reiterate - we have not agreed it.

Some issues and outcomes from the Stations and Revenue Control Council meeting held on Tuesday 27 July ...

• Weekend closures
• High Barnet regrading
• Misuse of evacuation sheets
• Maximum days for dependants leave
• Willesden Green group.

In April, RMT's London Transport Regional Council wrote to disabled people's organisations as part of our 'SOS: Staff Our Stations' campaign, alerting them to London Underground's planned job cuts and the difficulties that these will cause to disabled passengers. You can read our letter here. Several organisations representing disabled people have now sent the following letter to Mayor Boris Johnson, opposing the job cuts.

Dear Mr Johnson,

London Visual Impairment Forum (LVIF) Transport for All and Inclusion London are greatly concerned about the proposed staffing cuts for London Underground which, we believe, could seriously undermine the mobility of older and disabled people in the capital.

We who work on London Underground know just how finely a line is daily trod between organised chaos and unbridled chaos in the functioning of the transport system.

How has short-staffing affected you at work? RMT is collecting stories of working alone or with too few staff on London Underground stations. Please help us by filling out the form on the RMT London Calling website: click here.

The roster consultation has begun. You will be called to a meeting by your GSM, then have a period of time to consult members, and the meeting will reconvene after three weeks for you to give feedback.

The weeks in which these meetings should take place are as follows:

As London Underground management move staff around like pawns to cover for their own deliberate under-staffing of stations, our new issue of 'RMT Platform' tells you exactly what your rights are, and how to stop management abusing them.

Click '1 attachment' / file name to download. Pleast distribute widely.

RMT has produced leaflets explaining to passengers the potential effect of London Underground's job cuts on the serivce they will (or will not!) receive at specific stations. Click to see leaflets for:

• Plaistow and Hornchurch
• East Ham and Upton Park
• Farringdon and Barbican
• Canada Water and North Greenwich
• Seven Sisters and Vauxhall
• Highbury & Islington and Warren Street
• Russell Square and Covent Garden
• Preston Road and Rayners Lane
• Leytonstone and Bethnal Green
• Hainault and Loughton
• Liverpool Street and Aldgate
• Knightsbridge and Arnos Grove
• White City and Greenford
• East Finchley and Golders Green
• Elephant & Castle and Warwick Avenue
• Woodford and Epping

RMT branches and reps are encouraged to organise leafleting sessions at your local stations. Please email Janine Booth to arrange for a station-specific leaflet to be produced.

Attached are documents for each line giving the details of planned cuts to ticket office opening times.

Click '9 attachments' then the file name to download each document.