Stop The Job Slaughter

So… let’s get it right from the start: the banks have screwed up; the bankers have screwed up; PPP has been a massive failure; Metronet has gone bankrupt; Tubelines is about to go bust too. Oh, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have drained billions that could have been spent on health, education and, er… public transport. But, but, but…it’s Tube workers who are expected to pay. They want to sack us to pay for their mess.

That’s what the cuts are all about. Saving money; at all costs, if you’ll forgive the pun. Forget the nonsense about ‘focussing staff where customers need it’. Customers need staff on the window and LU is planning to close ticket offices and massively reduce opening hours. Customers need staff on the gateline and on platforms, and LU is planning to slash staffing levels; around 450 SAMF posts and 150-200 CSA jobs are in line for the axe. Management say there’s been a 28% reduction in T/O transactions – so they want to get rid of 60% of SAMFs! The RMT is opposed to any reduction in SAMF numbers, in fact we think there should be an increase in staff, but this makes no sense and somebody’s maths is rubbish.

Some station groups will get bigger, reserve staff will have further to travel and admin staff will be more remote than ever. It’s also clear that ‘flexibility’ means some of our members will be forced moves to locations that they have not nominated. Furthermore, some staff who’ve been waiting years to move to their chosen locations are going to find that the roster at the new station now looks nothing like it did when they nominated. For instance, the proposed reduction in peak-hours staffing means the majority of duties will be extreme turns, ie, dead earlies or dead lates.

As for promotion, forget it! The impact of so many SAMF job losses will be to (continue to) stop movement upwards from the entry grade. The management press release is full of guff about new train operator opportunities for staff on stations. Considering that a) management say they’re over-establishment at the moment, and that b) there are staff who’ve passed their T/Op assessment ages ago and have been waiting a year / 18 months to start their training, this claim is utterly implausible. Instead, those CSA’s who’ve already been waiting up to two years and still find themselves number 250 or 300 on the training list are being kicked in the teeth.

A further attack on working conditions is this stuff about ‘our customers don’t need staff in the peak’. This will come as a surprise to staff who work their socks off during the peaks. Perhaps you should try this thesis out by all asking for PNR’s in the middle of the peak. Call up the SS, (if he’s not PNR’ing of course – don’t wanna disturb him!) and say, ‘look mate, it’s only the peak – no one will miss me for 20 mins. I’ll just shut the window / leave the gateline’. Can’t see it going down well, really! The truth is, as the Customer Satisfaction Survey proved last year when we got paid a £250 bonus, (and we’re on course for it again this year), the customers value staffed stations with trained personnel. How you square this with slashing jobs we can’t see.

This attack is bad enough, but it’s clear that this is only Round 1. Therefore there needs to be the mother of all fights by our union. Every single member of staff needs make sure they’re in the RMT and aware of the nature of the threat.

King's Cross group RMT reps:
Mac McKenna 07801 071363 email: mac@evilplan.org.uk
Alfie Jackson 07794 266231 email: alfie_jackson1@hotmail.co.uk
John Colville 07810 795564 email: johncolville@hotmail.co.uk