To keep pressure on against further LU stations job cuts, RMT has decided to boycott the ‘line reserve’ and enhanced AFM functionality policies. These are both measures which assist LU to manage with fewer staff, paving the way for future job cuts.

Hello all here is an update on where we are with the ACAS reviews:

Neil Cochrane and John Kelly who have been dealing with the ticket office review have made progress albeit slow and have put together a report which will focus mainly on:

A passenger explains from her point of view why we need open ticket offices:

I usually use ticket offices to get Oyster statements printed for filing expenses when I travel for work.

Sometimes I have to go back to a station several times to find someone to do this for me - and often the occurrence takes so long that the travel information has already been overwritten.

RMT SFC Reps John Kelly and Neil Cochrane alongside our TSSA colleagues met LUL management at ACAS on Tuesday 18th January regarding the Ticket Office Review.

London Underground has announced another plan which will undermine ticket office jobs and put CSAs at risk. Called 'Enhanced AFM Functionality', it will see SAMFs and CSAs with ticket office licences carrying out functions on a passenger-operated machine from outside the ticket office that are currently carried out by staff from inside the ticket office.

Got sent an email last night by one of our DSM's and wondered how many more people had missed an important line in the following.

T&R Update 46

From Sunday 02 January 2011, the refundable deposit on all new Oyster cards will increase from £3.00 to £5.00.

From Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary:

Management, ourselves and TSSA have agreed to the resumption of talks in this dispute with detailed reviews now to take place which had previously been proposed at talks at ACAS in the run up to the last 24 hour strike. These proposals had been withdrawn once we had decided to press on with the last strike day. The reviews are listed below together with the number of representatives allocated to each.

Join RMT in protesting outside Mayor's Question Time at London's City Hall (nearest station: London Bridge, map here). We will be handing in the thousands of postcards that Londoners have filled in demanding that cuts to station staffing be withdrawn.

RMT has sent the following letter to London Underground's Director of Employee Relations:

JOB CUTS – LONDON UNDERGROUND

I am writing to propose a way forward with regard the dispute between LUL and the trade unions RMT and TSSA in particular in relation to outstanding safety issues which you withdrew from the table because we would not suspend our industrial action.

As a London resident I completely agree with you about the importance of having adequate staff on the London Underground. In my view, there are currently too few staff and to reduce the numbers further is dangerous, unhelpful and demonstrates a lack of insight and too much focus on the bottom line.
Best wishes,
Caitlin Morrow

Regional Organiser Steve Hedley writes ...

I regret to inform you that despite our best efforts in negotiations at ACAS, talks have broken down due to management's refusal to compromise.The RMT delegation proposed that we should enter binding arbitration on the issue of the criterion for deciding on ticket office opening hours, a process where both sides put their arguments and an independent body decides on the merits of the case. In an action that betrays their lack of any solid justification for massive job cuts, management issued a press atatement saying they will not go.

Unions offer to recommend suspension of tube action if management agree to twelve week suspension of staffing cuts plans to allow for thorough safety evaluation

TUBE UNION RMT today offered binding arbitration on the issue of the level of usage of tube station ticket offices in advance of ACAS talks tomorrow but has rejected as “totally meaningless” management proposals for a safety review that would still see current staffing cuts bulldozed through regardless of the “review” outcome and regardless of the safety implications for the travelling public.

If you click '1 attachment' and the file name at the end of this post, you will see a letter from Boris Johnson to the Mayor of Chesham. As well as apologising for giving incorrect information in an earlier letter, Boris also includes this extraordinary paragraph: