In April 2008, TSSA members and RMT members across all LU grades were poised to take strike action over stations cuts and casualisation. The most drastic threats were on ex-Silverlink stations on the north of the Bakerloo line and south of the District Line: mobile station supervisors, security guards instead of supervisors overnight; agency instead of LU staff.
But TSSA called off its action at the last minute and RMT followed suit.
As Tubeworker commented at the time, 'The action could and should have continued'. The unions had forced management to scrap plans for mobile supervisors and a few other concessions.
But, as we pointed out, it left 'ex-Silverlink stations without supervisors overnight, private security guards patrolling the stations instead. It left the ticket office cuts sure to come back another day; does not give a satisfactory result in the Bakerloo detrainment dispute.
At the time Tubeworker assessed that our fight had slowed, but not buried, management's attacks. We warned, 'Management will come back with more attacks'. And cautioned that 'working groups' between unions and LU over issues such as agency staff would be used by management to 'kick the issues into the long grass', and be used by LU to 'sneak in their attacks again and demobilise our opposition'.
We don't like saying 'we told you so'. But everything we predicted has come to pass on the North of the Bakerloo Line.
Four years on, agency staff are still being used. The dispute over lone working for detrainment staff reached an end last year with the removal of ALL detrainment staff from the ex-silverlink stations. There are still no night turn supervisors; security guards open and close the stations.
The latest blow is that LU has revived its plans for mobile station supervision.
It shows that when unions settle a dispute on a hopeful compromise, and rely on 'joint working parties', management do not show the same courtesy. They have pressed on with the majority of the issues we fought over.
It also shows that, even when unions win a concession, such as the withdrawal of mobile station supervision, such victories are only temporary. Management will put them on hold until they feel confident enough to strike again. It is in the nature of class relations that management will assert their interests and we must constantly defend ours.
So what are our unions doing now? What should they be doing?
The RMT sees the re-emergence of 'mobile supervision' as a breach of the dispute settlement of 2008, and has referred this to ACAS.
But LU withdrew these plans in 2008 because of the threat of combine-wide strike action from RMT and TSSA. It is not likely to simply withdraw them now, feeling little pressure from the unions.
So it is essential that RMT and TSSA campaign around the Bakerloo Line. Staff will need to see that this issue is being taken seriously by their unions, which will build up confidence to strike if that becomes necessary.
The unions must also give a clear line on what to do about the presence of agency staff and security guards. Tubeworker believes we do not want to simply kick these super-exploited workers off LU. We should unionise them and argue for them to be brought in-house. The agency workers legislation, which became law last year, makes it illegal to employ agency workers on inferior terms and conditions if they have been working more than 12 weeks. Many of the agency staff have been working for years. We should use rights under agency workers' legislation as a stepping stone to arguing for all staff to come under LU.
So far, local reps have been doing what they can. But they have struggled to get information from the unions' hierarchy about where we're going with this. An issue as important as this should not be down to local reps to fight on their own.
The unions have made much of the 'leaked document' which threatens casualisation of station staffing post-Olympics. Well, this is the leaked document in the flesh, on the North of the Bakerloo Line. The unions should pour their resources into building a serious campaign in the stations affected and across the whole network. The leaked document will not be implemented in one grand D Day. It will be drip-fed, attack by attack. Unions must fight each attack as it is happening. Widespread attacks on jobs are expected after the Olympics. But these attacks are happening now. We cannot wait until the Olympics is over. The fight must start now.
