Jubilee line

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!

Jubilee Line drivers are unhappy with new duty schedules forced on them by management. Like much of the Tube, the Jubilee Line gets busier and busier each year, and working patterns deteriorate with the pressure ramped up too.

Drivers on the Jubilee have decided it is time to say enough is enough, with both unions likely headed to dispute.

The key issue is work/life balance, in particular weekend working. When reps negotiated with management on the draft schedules, the line manager was absent. We are now told these sheets are good for us as workers as they give a better service to passengers. Great for them, but that doesn’t help improve our work life balance.

It was agreed at the 2015 Pay Dispute that weekend working would go down. It hasn’t, it’s gone up. And not just on the Jubilee Line.

Tubeworker believes work life balance is a crucial concern for all Tube workers. Something we should all fight together to improve.

The Area Manager at North Greenwich, who shall for the purposes of this article remain nameless, has been trying their hardest recently to cut CSA jobs at the station and even reduce minimum numbers.

Quite why any manager, particularly one managing the station next to the O2 Arena, in a major tourist location, and attached to a train depot, would want fewer staff is beyond us, but that's the crazy world of LU for you. Perhaps this eager young boss is keen to make a name for themselves as someone who can ruthlessly hack down the size of a budget.

Anyway, after staunch resistance from local and full-time reps, the plans have been rebuffed and the numbers will be remaining as they are. Tubeworker salutes the work of the reps, which just goes to show that when a stand is made, we can push the bosses back.

Spare a thought for the staff and passengers of Highbury and Islington station, which is now served by the Night Overground service as well as Night Tube.
When this was first announced, staff and our unions had plenty of issues to raise with management, not least of all minimum numbers, staffing levels, cleaning and emergency procedures. Bear in mind that following a recent uprating, Highbury now has to carry out hourly security checks, and Night Overground has added three platforms to the scope of the checks.
Nevertheless, our intrepid management proceeded to ignore staff's concerns. Then, just when we thought the start date of Night Overground from Highbury would have to be put back, it was brought forward to the last weekend in February!
Not that management bothered to tell the staff. With all the issues still outstanding, it took some intense fuss-making over the week before to get any answers.
The first weekend went off without any major disasters, partly because management arranged for the gaps to be filled by police and Overground Travel Safe Officers. Since then, though, the station has had to contend with no such assistance, with promised extra staff not materialising, inadequate cleaning coverage, and a violent assault on staff.
This scenario will doubtless sound familiar to staff at Canada Water, the first station to be connected with the Night Overground, which also saw extra help for a short while, only to be left to their own devices within a few weeks.
What a way to run a railway.