Management seem to be clinging to a desperate hope that the Metronet strike will be called off. Metronet bosses have sent round a circular stating that they expect it to be called off, and apparently LUL station staff have been told to take down the strike posters.
As we write, though, they are...
LUL's savage ticket office cuts will even wipe out some of the jobs they created under the stations 35-hour week! Staff who transferred to a location they had been waiting for will now be forced out, and staff who were displaced into them will be displaced out again!
One example is Greenford group...
Would you take a drink out of this?! Well, management seem to expect Bakerloo drivers to. Who knows what germs lurk within the water dispenser in the notorious Goldfish Bowl (the drivers' step-back room on the platform at the Elephant)?! There is a horrible stink, and the fridge is appalling too...
Scrap the PPP, bring maintenance in-house
Lobby the Department for Transport
Tuesday 4th September 11.30 – 13.00
Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DR (nearest Tube: Westminster or St James Park)
Bring banners & flags
Called by RMT
Management would have you believe that ticket offices have to be closed because of the effects of new technology, implying that those of us who oppose the cuts are some kind of Luddites.
Here at Tubeworker, we are not against new technology (we'd hardly be running this blog if we were, after all!)...
Ken Livingstone's latest newspaper for Londoners carries an article about the Metronet collapse. On first reading, it is a welcome condemnation of PPP and Metronet's management, but a closer read reveals why we can not trust our fat-cat Mayor.
Barking sidings are so dark as to be unsafe. The measure for lighting levels is such that over 30 is OK, between 20 and 30 requires a risk assessment, less than 20 and the location should close until the problem is rectified. The level at Barking sidings? 4.
There was little action from ASLEF, and...
Tubeworker warned earlier this year that Station Supervisors' jobs were under threat, as the new Rule Books stripped the grade of many of its responsibilities. Now Supervisors have even more reason to fear for the future of their jobs - and more reason to fight back to defend them.
Firstly...
Bank holiday Monday, and the BBMS advises us that auto-completion/continuation is in operation, but will only work if customers do NOT touch out.
So we've spent the whole year up til now telling punters that they absolutely MUST touch in and out on pain of losing chunks of money off their Oyster...
Fancy an SAMF's job? Then pop down to your local JobCentre!
Believe the bare-faced cheek of it or not, management are actually talking about direct (ie.external) recruitment of SAMFs. Yes, this is at the same time that they are planning to get rid of 270+ SAMF positions and are making it as hard as...
At Angel station, a Station Supervisor accused a cleaner of neglecting their duties. The cleaner got an RMT rep, who proved that there was little basis for his allegations.
Now, the next time the cleaner goes in with the union to see management, it will not be a disciplinary hearing against the...
Detrainment staff on the Bakerloo line are still up in arms about management's plan to make them work alone, and they have very good reason to be.
Even with current staffing levels, workers are vulnerable. In the month between the two strike dates, there were three serious incidents of verbal...
Following the massive Yes vote in their ballots, RMT and the two smaller unions TSSA and Unite have named strike dates on Metronet. RMT and Unite will strike for two lots of 72 hours - from 18:00 on Monday September 3 until 17:59 on Thursday September 6; and from 18:00 on Monday September 10 and 17...
Under TfL's current policy, when a worker reaches retirement age but wishes to carry on working, they must prove they ares still competent enough to do the job, and successful workers are allowed to stay on in part time employment.
The unions have always agreed with this policy. But a change in...
Does anyone still think management are 'consulting' in good faith about the ticket office closures?
If so, perhaps they can explain why TubeLines have been going round the ticket offices which management plan to close measuring them up for their planned destruction?!
Strike ballot result
Total: 1.369 (95.1%) yes, 70 (4.9%) no.
RMT: 1,123 (98.3%) yes, 20 (1.7%) no.
TSSA: 127 (77%) yes, 38 (23%) no.
Unite: 119 (90%) yes, 12 (10%) no.
Nearly 3,000 Metronet workers have voted to strike, in a great display of determination to fight and a welcome show of unity...
Tubeworker has reported previously about the staffing levels crisis on the east end of the District line.
This really hit rock bottom on Saturday 4th August, when West Ham United played Roma and the station was left woefully understaffed.
Fights broke out in the ticket hall and on the westbound...
Detrainment staff at the north end of the Bakerloo Line will strike on Tuesday 22nd August in protest against LUL attempts to impose lone working. Meetings between RMT and management came to nothing after one day’s strike action last month of detrainment workers and drivers on the northern end of...
It seems that we all continue to ignore the new Rule Books, preferring to stick to procedures that we know are safe. For instance, earlier this week, during the signal failure on the District line, a driver needed to do a Wrong Direction Move near Dagenham East - and naturally, needed the station...
The 2008 Mayoral and Greater London Assembly elections are likely to offer little choice for working class people in London.
For mayor, there will be Ken Livingstone, who proved he'd turned his back on workers when he said that RMT members should cross picket lines - and he's supposed to be on our...
Management's plan to more-than-decimate our ticket offices continues apace. And there is a real mood amongst rank-and-file workers to fight back against it. Passengers too. A petition put together by staff at Boston Manor has already gathered more than 2,000 signatures. Repeat this across the...
Tubeworker has received this invitation, and will be popping along. See you there?
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Campaign for a fighting and democratic union [CFDU]
RMT members need a union which fights on our behalf and behaves in a democratic manner. To ensure this happens the London Underground Engineering Branch...
As management advertise for new CRAs, they will no doubt be expecting existing CRAs to coach the newcomers. But despite having agreed in principle to pay them a coaching allowance, they are dragging their feet about actually implementing it.
While the details of the allowance's introduction sit...
We all know that Tube workers are strongest when all grades act together. And there are good reasons why other grades should defend the 270+ SAMF posts that are currently under threat. Other station grades will see their workload, and their vulnerability to abuse and assault, increase. CSAs will...
Remember management saying they planned to close 40 ticket offices and cut dozens more? Turns out that's only the tip of the iceberg, as it emerges that virtually every ticket office on the Underground is to be cut. Most people would call that 'bare-faced lying'; we could not possibly comment.
What...
When a signal failed on the Victoria Line, the supervisor couldn't go down to secure the points because they weren't trained, leaving trains stuck in the tunnel for nearly an hour!
Management should not try to discipline this supervisor. Incidents like this happen far too often for it to be put...
In case you were wondering how much administrators cost, it is apparently around 750 quid per person per hour (that's their fee, rather than the amount the individuals are actually paid). And there are 45 of them administering Metronet. So, assuming they are on, say, a 35-hour week, that's over a...
Dear Tubeworker
Staff on the gateline in the busy station where I work face abuse from customers regularly. It can make you angry, and can get you down after a while. Although we have to learn to deal with it and carry on doing our job, I feel that we should not just 'accept' or grow to 'expect'...
While staff dealt with the effects of the heavy downpour a couple of weeks back, the GSM showed up at Golders Green station. Great - some people would say that managers never show up when the proverbial hits the fan, but Tubeworker won't have a bar of it.
Oddly, though, this GSM's contribution to...
When a flashing light that informs drivers of a temporary speed restriction between Euston and Kings Cross stopped working, Euston station initially tried to inform drivers via the service information board near the driver's cab.
One driver pointed to where it said, 'not to be used for safety...
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