Tubeworker's blog

Management forced to reopen discussion on station job cuts as closures spread

Recent days have seen a spate of station closures, with stations including Marble Arch, Temple, Hyde Park Corner, Lancaster Gate, and several others all having to shut due to staff shortages.

Such closures are an inevitable consequence of LUL's recent reductions of staffing levels across multiple...

No “Crowndels” please, we’re republicans!

LUL staff are being given “crowndels”, LU roundel badges adorned with a royal crown, to wear to commemorate the coronation.

Tubeworker says: no thanks. It’s bad enough having to work in the midst of all the nauseating adulation of heredity power and privilege without having to wear badges that...

Forego the formalities...

Throughout our dispute on pensions, management has tried to pull the wool over our eyes by continually insisting that "there are no formal proposals" to change our pensions.

But we've known pension reform was on the cards since the Mayor and TfL's own financial review in early 2020 called for it...

ABM: "Joint Negotiating Body" holds first meeting

RMT union reps met with ABM bosses recently for the inaugural meeting of the "Joint Negotiating Body", the highest committee within the recently agreed collective bargaining structure. That structure ensures collective bargaining rights for RMT across the entire ABM TfL contract, creating recognised...

LUL pay: don't let management set the pace

LUL bosses have told unions that they will begin negotiations over our next pay settlement on 11 May.

If previous years' talks are anything to go by, they'll likely drag on for months. Meanwhile, our pay falls further and further behind inflation. Remember: we were due a new settlement on 1 April...

LUL dispute: renew the mandate, step up the strikes!

RMT will re-ballot members in LUL from 25 April in our ongoing dispute over jobs, pensions, and conditions. The requirement to renew industrial action mandates every six months is one of many restrictions placed on unions by anti-strike legislation, designed to obstruct us and slow us down.

Further...

LUL escalates attacks: we must escalate our strikes!

It's three weeks and counting since the RMT and Aslef strike on 15 March.

Since then, LUL has continued to impose job cuts on stations. It's continued developing its plans for changes to drivers' working conditions, which could see drivers working longer shifts and having shifts changed at short...

TfL diversity scorecard doesn't reach benchmark

TfL has a new scorecard for 2023/24, with a more detailed section for diversity.

Tubeworker welcomes this focus on measuring the levels of representation of women, disabled people, LGBT+ people, Black people and other equality groups across the workforce, though of course almost all gains that...

Cable car workers plan strikes

Maintenance workers on the TfL cable car - known as the "IFS Cloud Cable Car" due to its current sponsor - plan strikes from 7-10 April.

26 out of 27 RMT members working for the companies which provide maintenance voted for strikes to win improved pay and conditions. The threat of action has...

Outsourced DLR workers back on the picket line

It was another solid strike for outsourced workers on the DLR on 1-2 April, as cleaners, security staff, and others employed by the contractor ISS kept up their fight for improved pay and conditions.

As elsewhere on the TfL network, their fight for immediate improvements is part of a wider struggle...

Meet the new boss... same as the old boss?

(Editor's Note: Yes, we know we've used that title before, but it is pretty much the perfect fit for response to LUL's continual shuffling of the managerial deckchairs...)

New "Stations Operations Managers", who've been "appointed on a secondment basis" to "support their respective Senior Stations...

New edition of Tubeworker bulletin now online!

The latest edition of the printed version of our bulletin, collating content from the blog, is now online.

You can download the PDF here.

This edition argues for escalation of strikes in response to mounting management attacks on pensions, jobs, and conditions, plus local and workplace stories. We...

Cleshar: Poke Your Pay Insult

Engineering contractor Cleshar has insulted its workforce with a pay offer of just three percent, hopelessly below the rate of inflation and therefore a pay cut.

The company says that any increase above that must be paid for by 'productivity' - by which they mean fewer staff doing more work in...

ABM claim on the way

Now that ABM has finally agreed to a formal collective bargaining arrangement with RMT, the union can submit claims for pay and conditions.

A claim will be going in soon, pursuing key union demands such as a £15/hour minimum wage, full sick pay, improved pensions, and a guaranteed minimum staffing...

Minor delays because of...

...Train cancellations. An almost endless update over the radio now particularly on weekends. On 11 March by the time the night turn controllers had booked on there were apparently 69 ONAs on the Picc. Often the service is running with upto 40 but why the big increase? What do management plan to do...

Missing the point(s)

For more than a month the Piccadilly line had had two sets of points out of action. At both South Harrow and Northfields trains have been restricted by one fewer reversing move and all Heathrow trains have been forced down the local at Acton Town.

This was causing delays as all the Heathrow and...

On the front foot on pay

With our current pay settlement expiring at the end of March, RMT has submitted its demands for the new one.

The headline demands are a pay rise in line with RPI, or a £5k flat-rate increase (whichever is higher). It’s very good RMT is making aspecific demand, rather than asking for something...

Call more strikes to head off threats to pensions, jobs, and conditions

On 17 March, TfL wrote to all employees about the ongoing moves to reform our pension scheme. There was a fair bit of preamble, but one key part was the phrase "we remain committed to continuing to deliver the requirements of the Funding Agreement". That means that TfL's repeated mantra that there...

Next steps after 15 March

We shut down the job completely yesterday. No train moved, no station opened. It was another demonstration of the basic reality of how London Underground runs: by our labour.

It was especially significant that RMT and Aslef struck together. Aslef has maintained near-continuous industrial action...

Detrainment dispute heats up as drivers vote for action

LUL drivers' fight against the removal of detrainment duties, and the imposition of the "flash-and-dash" system for detraining, is heating up. Both RMT and Aslef have successfully achieved industrial action mandates.

RMT balloted all affected lines together, while Aslef balloted on a line-by-line...

15 March and beyond

RMT has announced a strike on 15 March, meaning the two largest unions on LU (RMT and Aslef) will strike together for the first time since 2015. We'll be striking alongside hundreds of thousands of other workers, including teachers, civil servants, university workers, doctors, journalists, and...

Latest edition of Tubeworker bulletin now online!

Every month, we collate content from our blog into a printed bulletin, which is distributed around London Underground workplaces by supporters.

The latest edition is now online, looking ahead to the strike on 15 March and beyond. We also feature analysis from comrades in Turkey, following the...

Trains agreements under attack

In November 2022 Tubeworker warned that "Fit for the Future Trains” looked like it was on the horizon. That process now looks underway, even if no firm proposals have yet been made by management.

LU management wants to make a big chunk of the £100m savings it claims must be made by attacking...

Outsourced workers on the DLR strike again

Outsourced cleaners, security staff, and revenue protection workers employed by ISS on the Docklands Light Railway are striking from 24-25 February, as they continue their fight for decent pay. ISS has offer just 1.8%; given rising inflation and soaring living costs, the workers have understandably...

Aslef to strike on 15 March: RMT must call action too!

Just three days ago, we speculated whether Aslef would finally use their long-renewed mandate to call industrial action on LUL.

Well, they finally have, announcing a strike on 15 March. This will see them strike alongside teachers in the NEU, civil servants in PCS, junior doctors in HCSA, and...

Keep it clean!

Staff and passengers on the Piccadilly line will have spotted that the trains are starting to get pretty mucky. Plenty of "clean me" messages, and some rather more obscene, means we seem to be heading for maybe a spring clean if we are lucky.

The train wash at Cockfosters is not yet back in use...

LUL dispute: time for more strikes!

Our last LU-wide strike was on 10 November. With only local strikes (on 25 November), and overtime bans on some station groups, since then, it's high time we got back onto the picket lines.

LUL hasn't de-escalated (quite the contrary), so why have we?

After we sat out the 1 February mass strike...

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