As London Underground's short-staffing is exposed dramatically by our overtime ban, stations are closing left, right and centre. We can strengthen our fightback by ensuring that passengers and Londoners know exactly why this is happening.
We can tell them that when TfL tweets blame 'staff absence', they actually mean 'staff shortage'. We can explain that because LUL has got rid of 900 staff, it doesn't have enough people left to run stations. We can warn them of the potential for serious incidents and long-term deterioration of service. We can alert them to the desperate and unsafe measures that the company is taking to keep stations open. And we can ask them to support us and help us win the restoration of axed jobs.
Our union could do more. On Southern, union activists have put a lot of effort into winning public support - dishing out thousands of leaflets, speaking at local meetings, getting into the press, using social media. Their efforts have ensured that the majority of Southern passengers blame the disruption they face not on the workers and their unions, but on the naked greed and incompetence of Southern management, and on their Tory government backers.
Let's see the same from our unions on London Underground.
