Aslef drivers at Barking depot on the Hammersmith and City Line will strike on 10 and 23 January, as yet another group of drivers encounters problems with depot management throwing their weight around and ignoring agreements.
Surely it’s time for a combine-wide drivers’ fight back against bullying bosses?
The "Four Lines Modernisation" (4LM) upgrade on the District, Met, Circle, and H and C missed the 17/18 November "go live" date for the first phase of automatic train operation.
There have been numerous problems with Thales' new signalling system, including more than one train entering a signalling section at once during a simulated test. It has now been put back to next year. By 2018, Bombardier was supposed to complete the entire upgrade - before it pulled out of its contract, costing TfL £85 million. Thales doesn't seem to be seem to be delivering on its promises either.
One consequence of sharing some stations with other train operating companies is that we get the fallout when their standards slip even lower than ours.
So spare a thought for station staff at Moorgate, Old Street and Highbury & Islington. Great Northern have omitted to clean their tunnels properly for a couple of decades, and the dust has now become a positive nuisance. The good news is that it doesn't - as initially feared - contain asbestos. The less good news is that it contains mould and various other nasty substances.
Here at Tubeworker, we're big advocates of public art and the liberating potential of artistic expression. But art installations in our workplaces need to take the safety and welfare of staff into account.
This consideration went missing with a recent "Art on the Underground" installation at King's Cross, by the Met/H&C gateline, which featured a looped 12-minute film, with a soundtrack featuring high-pitched singing throughout. A site space allocation was sent to safety reps, but no risk assessment was carried out.
The stretch of the Hammersmith & City and Circle Lines running past Grenfell Tower remain suspended, as investigations into the tragic fire continue.
This is absolutely right; no corners can be cut with safety, and until those investigations are concluded and the area made safe, that suspension should remain in place.
Last month, King's Cross station stayed open with just one CSS and two CSAs on the station - not just below but way below minimum numbers - but management have decided that it was not that much of a problem.
When the last H&C trains were running late on 22 February, dead-late staff booked off and the station fell below the minimum numbers of 1 CSM + 10 others, it should have closed. Instead, King's Cross stayed open with just one CSM, one CSS and two CSAs - and then the CSM left the station to get rid of an intoxicated passenger who had abused a member of staff.
A new manager comes in, wants to make a name for himself, clamps down on overtime, interferes with established ways of ensuring coverage, and guess what happens?
Yup. Not enough control staff to run the subsurface and Piccadilly lines last night. No problems for our intrepid new guvnor: the control room equipment can run itself! No, it can't. Still no problem: the staff can work through their meal reliefs. Er, no they can't.
Result: job up wall.
Tube drivers on the Central and Hammersmith & City Lines will join the developing Christmas 2016 strike wave, which also includes mainline rail workers, airport workers, postal workers, cinema workers, and factory workers.
RMT suspended strikes planned on the Piccadilly and Hammersmith and City Lines, after management made significant concessions in Acas talks.
RMT has called strikes of drivers on the Picc and Hammersmith and City Lines for 6-7 December. They're facing similar issues - management abuse of procedures, arbitrary and authoritarian discipline, and, on the Picc in particular, victimisation of union reps.
All drivers, whichever union they're in, should participate in the strikes.
RMT stations reps are meeting on Monday 28 November to discuss their dispute; they should push the union to name strikes on stations to coordinate with the drivers.
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