RMT press release, issued today

LONDON UNDERGROUND'S biggest union today condemned the company's cavalier attitude to safety after it emerged that 23 passengers, including a child, were trapped in a lift at Elephant and Castle station for nearly an hour-and-a-half on Friday night.

The passengers' ordeal, which began at around 21:30, was prolonged unnecessarily because inexperienced and inadequately trained managers drafted in to scab on striking station staff had been left in charge, RMT said today.

Regular station staff at the station, as well as at Charing Cross and Lambeth North, were on strike for the second time to demand the re-instatement of colleague Jerome Bowes, who was sacked unfairly after defending himself against an attack from behind on New Year's Eve.

"This incident underlines why we believe it is irresponsible to leave scab managers in charge of any Tube station, not least a busy one with lifts," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"We understand that managers left floundering by the emergency delayed calling the fire brigade, and that the fire service eventually responded to a call from one of the trapped passengers.

"Under normal circumstances if it took more than 20 minutes to get people out, managers would be demanding to know why it had taken so long, and if it took more than an hour they would be looking for someone to discipline.

"Safety reps tell me that the failsafe systems on the lifts at Elephant and Castle are unusual, but the people normally staffing the station are familiar with them.

"Instead of parachuting in scab managers without the training, local experience and knowledge to cope when things go wrong, LUL should be sorting out the injustice to Jerome Bowes that has led to this dispute in the first place.

"RMT has now agreed to ballot Bakerloo Line drivers at Elephant and Castle, and if LUL does not want this dispute to escalate that is what they should now do," Bob Crow said.