22 years ago I joined an underground very different from the one we have today. Some changes have been good, some bad. Through all these changes one theme has remained constant.
“It’s the rich wot takes the pleasure and the poor wot takes the blame”
The job then was run by the Station Mangers most of these were West Indian or Caribbean men who came to Britain in 50s and 60s with promises of gold to find that the only work was poorly paid and the accommodation usually had signs saying “ No Blacks no Irish” outside.

Our recent level one meeting on the East Ham Group was a complete suprise. Management were willing to listen to our complaints and respond favourably in nearly every instance. Smiles were seen from across the table that sent chills down your spine and made you wonder what dasterdly plan was being hatched or what path we were being led down to certain death. Still two days have gone past and we are all still alive at the moment so the tea was not poisened and they have not assigned hit men to us yet.

It has come to my attention that there are face book and blog sites that are pretending to be attatched to an RMT branch or region. Some of these have been attacking the familes of our management. My managers family has come under increasing pressure.
This practice is despicable and will never be supported by official RMT web sites.
We have our disputes with LUL management as a body not as a person. personalities should never creep into issues of industrial relations. We as proffessional reps should be aware that shit runs down hill.

R.M.T. East Ham Branch
After the success of our action so far we need one last push to win!
Your next branch meeting is on:
Thursday 2nd of October at 16:30 at
The East Ham Working Men’s Club,
Boleyn Road, (Off Barking road) East Ham.
(Nearest station is Upton Park)
This branch meeting is important as we will be discussing future action on the East Ham Group. These issues concern you so please try to attend and let us know what you and your mates are thinking. It is your Branch.
If there is no way that you can attend please let me have your comments and ideas on:

East Ham Branch is disgusted with the managements response to the East Ham Group reps meeting on the 21st of August.

Though they have reinstated the pay of 4 staff, no mention has been made of reinstating Sarah Hutchins.

The bullying of our staff has been condoned with management being told that they can interview staff when off sick without Union reps present. This is in clear contavention of our agreements and sets a new company standard. This is now being rolled out all over the underground.

We have to put up with the constant nit picking of our management every day. How often have you heard,
"You have not signed this , you have not done that, are you aware of this or that procedure as we are being audited and it is safety critical , we must reach our targets."
With managers running the East Ham group on the 22nd of August Strike we saw from the managers how it should be done.

The 22nd of August will be a day of celebration for East Ham Branch for many years to come. Our day of action saw the group being staffed by managers on overtime costing the company a fortune. These are the lengths that management will go to try to convince you that they can win against a united workforce. When you need overtime they tell you they can’t afford it. We should show them that we can not be bought so easily and go into an overtime ban next. Write in and let me know what you think

The East Ham Group sent a clear message to management today. Our strike action against the sacking of Sarah Huchins and the intimidation of our staff was a total success. Managers on overtime staffed every station costing the company a fortune. To think the GSM was concerned about his overtime bill. Only a handful of staff turned up for work at Upton Park, East Ham & Plaistow. We will remember them.

Why Train Operators should support striking station staff!
Station staff on East Ham Group will be taking strike action on the 22nd of August for 24 hours. Staff have been advised not to book on for any duty that starts between 04:30 on the 22nd of August and 04:29 on the 23rd of August in a dispute against the unfair sacking of Sarah Huchins, the stopping of pay, intimidation of staff when off sick and the bullying tactics of the local manager.

Everybody out on the 22nd of August!

The staff have spoken, the mandate has been given and East Ham Group are going on strike against oppression and tyranny.

The votes have been counted on the East Ham Group. The staff have voted yes with only votes 2 against
action. The result is an indication of the feeling on the group and will be followed by decisive action by the staff. The sacking of Sarah Hutchins and the bullying by management have forced us into a situation where we have no choice but take action to put a stop to this continual torment.

LONDON UNDERGROUND LIMITED
STATIONS

LEVEL 1 MINUTES – 02/2008
EAST HAM GROUP – DISTRICT LINE
HELD IN GROUP STATION MANAGERS OFFICE
ON 25TH June 2008 at 10:00 hours

Level one Union Meeting. East Ham Group 20th March 2008.

Persons in Attendance: Gsm: Vince Dardis. & Abbey Alero.

Andy Norton (TSSA IR) Rick Grogan (RMT IR). Steve Philbrick (RMT IR)

John Knowles (TSSA Functional committee By Invitation).

Minutes Taken By DSM Simon Jones.

Meeting Starts 10:00 AM

Agenda:

1. Minutes of last meeting

Minutes of Last meeting Read, Agreed and signed.

2. Matters Arising.

Member of staff: Pay stopped.
This was classed as domestic unpaid leave:

Outcome: GSM said “All cases need to be looked at on an individual Basis”

The East Ham Group are to ballot around 100 members for strike action to secure the re-instatement of their sacked colleague Sarah Huchins and to stop the breaches of agreements local management are becoming famed for.
We want to see Sarah back at work asap and the pay re-instated to several members of staff that have been stopped pay in grossly unfair ways. Ballot papers go out on the 4th of August and must be returned by 13th of August. We urge you all to return a massive yes vote!

Sarah Hutchins has been callously sacked for having pneumonia. This may sound absurd but if you use managements logic it is true. Sarah was assaulted three times on the gate line at Becontree once while she was pregnant. That assault resulted in a pregnancy related illness that requred her to take time out.
None of her time off for assualts or her maternity leave are admisable for disciplinary but she was sacked after a bought of pnumonia with only 62 days off accountable in three years.

The management of the East Ham Group have reached an all time low. On Monday 16th June a letter went out ordering the removal of all televisions from every station on the group within 24 hours.

During the recent refurbishment work, plasma TVs were installed on several stations as a part of our upgrade. We have been ordered to disconnect these and send them to East Ham. Televisions owned by staff had to be removed from the station and taken home.