Jubilee line

After the excellent ballot result on the Jubilee, Northern, Victoria, and Central Lines, RMT has named action starting on 10 October in its dispute to end excessive track noise.

Drivers will impose temporary speed restrictions in affected areas, lessening the effect of the noise forced into the driver’s cab and the train cars.

That’s the kind of go-slow we like to see. We’re less keen on the slowness of the union’s decision making process. This action should have been announced as soon as the ballot result came back. The delay only benefits the bosses.

RMT Drivers on the Northern, Central, Victoria and Jubilee lines have returned a yes vote for action short of strike due to excessive track noise.

Tubeworker congratulates the workers who voted YES and bizarrely those who voted NO. Without them the ballot would not have made it over the ridiculous 50% threshold that the Trade Union Act imposes on unions.

Since the issue was first raised miraculously management say they have found an extra £10 million to "tackle the issue". Why they couldn't see problems with the Pandrol Vanguard system in the first place we don't know. Either way workers should not have to endure track noise any longer.

Tubeworker says the RMT should start the slow down in noisy sections immediately. Neither drivers of passengers should be suffering any longer. Station staff can use the opportunity to explain exactly why the service is being disrupted, and this kind of action will be very disruptive, lets use the opportunity to push the bosses back and put safety first.

RMT is balloting all driver members, including Night Tube drivers, on the Jubilee, Central, Northern and Victoria lines, for industrial action against excessive noise levels, which have become intolerable.

The problem is caused by the "Pandrol Vanguard" system LU installed to reduce track noise for people living above and next to the tracks; fair enough, except the system has the effect of forcing the noise into the train itself, leading to thunderous levels of noise in the driver's cab (and, indeed, in the carriages).

LU wants to issue drivers with ear defenders, but RMT is rightly insisting on a long-term engineering fix to sort the problem out properly. As LU won't agree to impose speed restrictions over the affected sections of track, which would alleviate the problem, it is entirely right for drivers to ballot in order to take things into our own hands and impose the speed restrictions ourselves.

The ballot opened today, Tuesday 27 August, and closes on 10 September. Use your vote, vote yes for action!

RMT is considering a ballot of driver members on five lines - Victoria, Central, Northern, Jubilee, and Piccadilly - over noise levels.

LU has installed “Pandrol Vanguard” technology on the tracks in an attempt to reduce train noise at street level... with the effect that noise is forced into the cab and cars, affecting drivers and passengers.

This fix is not good enough. We want a proper engineering solution, and in the meantime a temporary speed restriction in place over affected areas to reduce noise.

If LU won’t agree to that, industrial action short of strikes to drive at reduced speed over affected track will be necessary.

It has emerged that the London Fire Brigade issued London Bridge station with a notice on 10 April for breaching fire safety regulations.

Ultimately it is management’s job to oversee that our workplaces comply with these vital regulations. How many other corners are they cutting, and where?

Workers need to feel empowered to blow the whistle. If your local management is cutting corners with safety, let a union health and safety rep know immediately.

Westminster was looking like it wouldn't have the minimum numbers to open, so some bright spark had the novel idea of ringing LUCC and getting them to divert a staff taxi carrying someone bound for Canada Water to make up the numbers.

It's not clear whether the person was even familiarised at Westminster and whether the station was, therefore, actually still under numbers when it opened.

Either way, this sets a pretty bad precedent. Can staff now be expected to be diverted to any station on the route of our taxis that might need the extra body? If staffing levels hadn't been cut to the bone, maybe these emergency panics wouldn't arise...

The planned strike on the Jubilee Line on 14 June was called off; Tubeworker understands that things went right to the wire, with the strike being suspended on Wednesday night at 7pm, less than five hours before the industrial action was due to begin. Staff at the conciliation service Acas had even told the assembled union reps and LU managers that the lights were about to be switched off as the room hire had come to an end!

This dispute was based around a new timetable on the line which has seen as increase in weekend working. This and other concerns were raised by reps, and ignored by management, before new schedules were even completed, and since the implementation of the timetable, further problems have become apparent.

The dispute had been stoked by local management falsely claiming that unions raised no concerns with sheets when in fact they were rejected. Later, a senior manager claiming no gains had been made by unions at Acas, at a time when negotiations were ongoing!

The proposed resolution will see an additional line of "pool cover" added to sheets at Jubilee Line depots, covered by the most senior pool driver, but with a guaranteed Saturday rest day.

This dispute has shown that solidarity between unions, and a militant approach to opposing a deterioration of working conditions, is a winning formula which can see detrimental changes rectified. What we need now is full solidarity between all Tube workers, with one workplace union to combine us all.

The 6 June strike on the Jubilee Line was suspended after bosses buckled and made concessions.

The victory highlights the importance of unions working together. Jubilee Line drivers were unhappy with a new timetable which saw weekend working increased and a deterioration in work life balance, and so decided to do something about.

Initially management ignored the issue, and then following a successful ballot for strike by both RMT and Aslef tried to trivialise it. They claimed that what the unions were concerned about amounted to one extra Saturday rest day in six years. However, on the eve of the strike they capitulated, offering extra weekends off, a thanks to unions for offering a solution, and an undertaking to look at what caused the issues in the first place. Undoubtedly the prospect of a joint union strike, that would've shut down service on the line, focused the bosses' minds.

Of course this dispute, like all others, is about more than the particular issues raised. It is a timely and necessary reminded to our bosses that it is us who does the job, and that we workers cannot be ignored when we stick together and take industrial action. We don’t need to accept a degrading of our conditions. This is a useful lesson as we approach the next LUL pay deal.

Tubeworker understands that both unions negotiated from a joint position, together in the same room. This is how it should be. The next logical step is to have one transport union representing all transport workers.

Jubilee Line drivers are fed up with the attitude of management on the line.

Local managers are pushing harder and harder as the service is ramped up and user numbers increase. Any perceived "staff error" and they are now coming down harder on drivers presumably thinking that ‘more stick and less carrot’ will make us more amenable to their whip cracking.

However, the breaking point has been the new timetable forced on drivers which increases the number of weekends worked, ups the pressure on us and sees work-life balance issues ignored.

This timetable was 18 months in the planning, yet when it came to negotiations with reps we understand that the line manager was on holiday; clearly not concerned to hear from her worker’s representatives what drivers felt of the new plans.

The timetable was rejected with clear reasons given, yet management forcibly implemented it anyway. A ballot was put on, won, and two strike dates subsequently called. Thereafter, even small requests, previously agreed by management have been left out of the new timetable and schedules. Whether this was a petty response to drivers concerns about work-life balance, incompetence or general lack of compassion is unclear; but regardless of the cause it has made anger on the line stronger.

Now drivers need to come out in force on 6 and 14 June. We have two choices, shut the line down and show bosses we care about our work-life balance, or come in to work and give bosses free range to worsen our conditions at will.

Despite previous commitments to improve work/life balance and reduce weekend working, a new timetable management is attempting to impose on the Jubilee Line in fact increases weekend working. Quite rightly, drivers aren't having it. Both Aslef and RMT members will strike on 6 and 14 June to resist the imposition of the new timetable.

Elsewhere, Aslef members at the Acton depot on the District Line are due to strike again on the same dates, after a previous strike in April, over disciplinary procedures. Tubeworker encourages all Acton drivers, whatever union you're in, to join the strike.

See you on the picket lines!