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janine's blog

Complaint about strike coverage: BBC replies

You may remember that I complained to the BBC about their reporting of our strikes, where they continually referred to "800 job cuts in ticket offices", when in fact many of the job cuts are among CSAs, who work around the stations, not in the ticket offices. You can read my complaint here.

The BBC has responded. The response is pretty woeful - you can read both it, and my response to it, below.

Complaint against BBC: Job Cuts are not just in Ticket Offices

I have today submitted the following complaint to BBC News ...

Today, the BBC has continually referred to the Tube strike being about 800 job losses "in ticket offices". This is inaccurate.

Article against Job Cuts

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.

Ticketing and Technology

I have written the following article for 'Solidarity' newspaper ...

One of London Underground's pretexts for cutting jobs and slashing ticket office opening times is that new technology, in the form of the 'Oyster' smartcard ticketing system, has significantly reduced purchases at ticket office windows. There are several reasons why this 'reason' is disingenuous:

Speaking Out Against Station Job Cuts

This is the speech I made to RMT's public meeting against job cuts on 31 March ...

I work as a Station Supervisor at Bank.

London Underground wants to cut hundreds of SAMF and CSA jobs. At my station, these grades work very hard in difficult conditions.

They are the people who:

  • evacuate the station in emergencies
  • answer questions and give information all day

Does the Economic Crisis Mean that London Underground "Has To" Cut Our Jobs?

London Underground tells us that it "has to" cut stations jobs because of the economic crisis. But a look at London Underground's history shows that this is not just untrue - it is the opposite of the truth.

PPP Arbiter: Worrying Issues for Station Staff

Over on the RMT London Calling website, I have posted a detailed guide to the directions and guidance recently published by the PPP Arbiter. This is an important document, which may turn out to be a staging post in the collapse of Tube Lines and – following 2007’s similar collapse of Metronet – of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) itself.

Click the link to read the guide in full, or click 'read more' below to read extracts of particular concerns to station staff.

Conference contribution: Stop Ticket Office Cuts and Closures

These are my notes for a speech I made at RMT's AGM in support of a resolution calling on the union to run a national campaign against ticket office cuts and closures. The resolution was passed unanimously.

Changing The Workers, Not The Work

Last week, I went to one of LUL's 'Time for Action' workshops for Station Supervisors. Every Supervisor on the Underground will be going to one of these events.

So what is it all about? It's all part of management's plan to stop us being 'dinosaurs', make us 'unafraid of change', and get us to supervise station staff more effectively ie. get them to work harder. I came away feeling strongly that the key theme was to change the workers rather than to change the way that work is organised. LUL does not intend to change itself; it intends to change us.

One Delegate's Report From RMT AGM

I have already posted a couple of blog entries about particular debates at this year's RMT AGM. Here is a round-up of other discussions - all from a personal point of view, of course!

This is the first time I've been a delegate to RMT's AGM, but not being the shy, retiring type, I had a hatful of resolutions to propose, and something to say on several others.

Voting for a Voice for Workers

I was very pleased to propose this resolution at RMT's AGM. I had written it as a response to the collapse in Labour's vote in the May 1 local elections, when Boris Johnson won the London Mayor's job for the Tories and Labour Councillors around the country had to clear their desks in the Town Hall. My branch, Stratford no.1, discussed and agreed it, and thus it found its way to the union's AGM as an emergency resolution.

Speaking Out For Reserve Staff

This week, I have been out of London at RMT's Annual General Meeting in Nottingham. I am one of eight delegates from the union's London Transport region who met up with over 50 delegates from the rail, maritime and transport industries around the country to make the union's policies.

Over the next few days, i will post on this blog reports of what we discussed and decided. I'll report on my contributions to the deliberations - after all, since union members elected me to go and represent you, you are entitled to know what I got up to!

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